I promise I didn’t just eat junk food during those crazy weeks full of visitors and parties. I ate some classier food too, most notably at Restoran Kadriorg, which is where we went as a family to celebrate my mother’s birthday. My father recommended it, as he had been there before and been very impressed by it.

We sat on the second floor of the restaurant, which is in the pretty Kadriorg section of town. After we had ordered and received our wine, the waiter brought out a complimentary amuse-bouche.

Initially I guessed it was a tiny little insalata Caprese, with the tomato, dark basil, and some kind of creamy mozzarella. Upon consumption we discovered that the cheese wasn’t mild and salty mozzarella, but something much more strongly flavored, like Gorgonzola,  incorporated into some kind of dense creaminess. The wine we chose was a white from Umbria, since I used to live there and they’re known for their white wines, but unfortunately I can’t remember too much about it.

I decided to be adventurous with my main course and order something I’d never ordered before– the grilled calamari. As it was primarily an Italian restaurant, the pastas were very tempting (and in retrospect, I wish I had ordered one of those dishes), but the calamari with fennel and gremolata was intriguing. Here it is.

I don’t think I’d ever had grilled calamari before, only fried. It was good! It tasted like grill and it was well-cooked, since it wasn’t tough-chewy, just chewy in the way that calamari should be– firm, yielding to your bite, but with none of the fibers of land-dweller meat. However, it got a little… repetitive. This was a LOT of calamari, and there were really no other texture on the plate to distract from it or complement it. The fennel pieces were shaved so thin and grilled to the point of being papery, with no distinctive fennel flavor left. My meal did come with a side order of rosemary potatoes (which I had chosen myself), but they weren’t really the best match with grilled squid. I don’t eat all that much meat, so even this lovely seafood was a bit too much for me. Note to self: don’t order from the “grill” section of the menu anymore. Here are shots of some other peoples’ plates.

J’s plum-stuffed chicken. It was sweet and the meat was quite tender. At the top of his plate you can see some rosemary potatoes.

My brother’s dish. It was… some kind of meat. He asked in exasperation, “Do I have to wait for everyone to take pictures before I can eat?”

The trout both my parents ordered. I got to try a bite, and it was very nice.

Up until now, our experience at the restaurant had been fine (oh, except for when I went to the ladies’ room and discovered there were no paper towels). Unfortunately towards the end the service got a bit… unsettling. After our second bottle of wine had been opened, our waiter topped up each of our glasses and whisked it away. A little while later my father asked whether we had any wine left, and he said “No, I poured it all.” Which, well, may have been true, but as we had all been busy eating and he had immediately taken the bottle out of sight, it may not have been true. I don’t know.

Then we perused the dessert menu and decided to order desserts and coffees. And then we waited. For abut 20 minutes. Our wine glasses were empty, our water glasses were empty, and we were getting kind of antsy. Finally, our desserts came, and they did seem freshly baked, so perhaps that is what took so long (however, our waiter hadn’t let us know this beforehand). But our coffees were nowhere to be seen. Finally, about 10 minutes after we had FINISHED dessert, the waiter brought out coffee. My dad was pissed and he let the waiter know (I mean, in a decent way; he didn’t yell or anything). The waiter said, “I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t get them any faster.” Huh? The dining room was maybe 60% full, though I’m not sure how many people were sitting on the terrace. It was a Monday night. Also, if there was some kind of crazy crisis that prevented him from making a few espressos, couldn’t he have maybe SAID something to us, instead of leaving us hanging? I mean, I don’t think that it’s unusual to expect coffee and dessert at the same time. He could have let us know there was just NO WAY he could make it happen. It’s sad how in an establishment like Restoran Kadriorg, which is otherwise a lovely, high-quality place, one can still get such disappointing service. He ended up bringing a round of complimentary limoncello shots, but the damage was done. I don’t know how exactly they sorted out the bill, but I don’t think he comped anything for us, which means that his tip probably suffered pretty severely (please keep in mind that tipping in Estonia is still not always customary/expected, and when I tip for a good experience I usually leave 10% or less, not 15% like in the States. My father had been prepared to leave the waiter a healthy tip for our lovely celebratory dinner, but after what happened… he no longer felt willing or obligated to do so).

I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable recommending the restaurant to others, which may be unfair. Maybe J and I will try it again on a special occasion and hope to get better service… or maybe we’ll just take our business elsewhere.

In order to still end this post opn a positive note, here’s pictures of the dessert I shared with my sister and J! Molten chocolate cake with cherry sauce and Mascarpone ice cream… OMG sooo good, and splitting it three ways gave us each the perfect number of bites.