Väike-rataskaevu​ — Restaurant in Tallinn

Wow! There's is honestly nothing bad I can say about this place! This has to be the best restaurant hubby and I visited the whole time we were in Estonia. From the moment we booked a table to the moment we left the restaurant after we ate we were super pleased! The young man in the front who we booked with was super welcoming and friendly. He totally made us feel comfortable from the moment we booked. We walked in after reserving and were directed to our table then handed our menus. We ordered and shortly after were given our drinks, followed by some house bread with butter, and two little pieces of hard bread that had some toppings and were compliments from the chef. My drink was a freshly squeezed juice and hubby's drink was a cola from the UK along with mineral water. The juice was so delicious, and the cola was tasty but not my thing. Hubby loved it tho! After a couple minutes our mains came out at the same time, and were not too small and not too big, they were perfect sizes and beautifully presented. After devouring these tasty meals our lovely waitress asked us if we were ready for our desserts. Shortly after she brought our desserts which were beautifully presented, and so so delicious. Every single time we got something our waitress, Daisy, explained what it was and what was in it. She informed us about the cola they have and told us they changed the cola to be suitable for kids also, so it would have less caffeine and sugar! She was so lovely and polite and super professional. The ambiance of this restaurant was so lovely, and it was no surprise the place was packed. If there's any restaurant you go to in Talinn go to this one!...

Great food, nice vibe and super friendly staff! I am not a person who would write unsolicited review (first review on Google indeed!), so you can imagine how happy I am about this place. We were planning to go to the "original" Rataskaevu 16, but it was full. The staff helped us to call and direct us to here immediately. The vibe is more trendy/hipster here. Food wise, we have 2 great entrees and lovely mains. The most memorable dish is the frozen blue cheese cake. The mix and balance of the taste is superb. The staff tell us that it's their chef's own recipe / invention :) Oh and the presentation is great + they write you cute little notes here and there.

The highlight of the night though, is the staff who helped us (a young, blond and rather thin lady :)). If you are visiting, you'll probably heard people talking about how "cold" Estonians are (they are just introverted and probably more reserved), but this lady is exactly opposite to a stereotypical Estonian. She's super helpful and willing to explain more on their dishes/ingredients and also chatted a bit with us. This experience definitely end our time here in Tallinn on...

My wife and I walked in on a Friday night without a booking and the lovely receptionist said "if you're not in a hurry, I can make space for you, but things are going a bit slow tonight as it's just me and the chef." As we had no other plans for the evening and were in no rush to walk around in the cold, this sounded fine with us. Long story short, the food and ambience were exceptional, and the service (even though short-staffed) was better than we've experienced at Michelin star restaurants. How could this be? I expressed to our waitress how appreciative we were that she made space for us and for her service and the quality of the food, and both she and the chef hand-wrote thank you notes to us with our bill.

Speaking of the bill, we each had a starter and a main and shared a dessert and a bottle of wine, and the total was only 96 EUR.

I highly recommend this restaurant to others.

TOP TIP: Make a booking as the restaurant is quite small and could be difficult to get a table...