Since I’ve arrived in Estonia, I’ve been visiting many restaurants or so called where they sell “Sushis”. As this kind of food seems to be very popular in here, I was expecting for quite some time to find also some “real” Japanese food. Because whatever people say, they don’t eat Sushi as they call it, but Maki most of the time. Of course, you can also find sushi, but that’s more or less about it. The choice is very often limited.
So one can imagine my surprise when I saw for the first time in Tatari street a Japanese restaurant called “Sakura”, where you would read the word “Ramen” on the front window. First time I could see one word related to Japanese food, which was not ‘Sushi’
Located in Sakala 20, corner with Tatari street, the place looks really modest from the outside, and the simple wooden tables do not look appealing at first glance. But hell to the appearance, a place who knows what a “Ramen” is might for sure have some interest and be worth trying.
When I went with my colleagues right after the opening, it was more than easy to get a table during lunch time. If you want to have your seat during the week, you better come not too late. The place is full really often, and as I will come to it, it deserves this success.
The food :
The menu offers a nice variety of food and some typical dishes like “Ramen”, Sashimis (on this one I have to insist as so few places know how to prepare them and even worse, usually they don’t even offer any), DonBuri, Tempura, etc..
The prices are reasonable and although they don’t offer any Päevapraad, people who want to discover a new kind of Japanese food are welcomed to give a try and give their feedback on the comments.
My personal favorites: The Ramen (with pork) and the Hot chocolate cake which is just amazingly good.
The Service :
This is actually a tricky part. I’ve been several times there, and unfortunately, fifty percent of the time we were not really delighted with the quality of the service. Not anything linked with the food, but mainly because of some waitresses. First one had some problems understanding that people usually are working during the week and that nearly two hours for a normal lunch is not the usual trend. Second one was a bit trickier. Not only she made some mistakes in the orders although we asked in Estonian, but after that, surely because of some very high mathematical problems, she refused to divide the bill so people could pay separately.
One thing to balance this, the owner, obviously the same one who is cooking nearly alone came to apologize once about the service.
Conclusion: for the people who want to enjoy a nice meal, a bit more exotic and Japanese than places like ShushiCat or Sushihouse, I strongly recommend Sakura as probably one of the best (not to say the only) Japanese restaurant in Tallinn.
2 Comments
We went today again with some colleagues, and I must admit that besides some waiting time due to lot of customers, the service was better and the food…still as good as before.
I strongly suggest the Ramen with marinated pork and Mushrooms.
During my stay in Tallinn I tried to find a genuine Japanese restaurant and finally I could find Sakura. This restaurant is maybe only one real Japanese restaurant. I would like Estonian people to taste a variety of Japanese food other than sushi. You can try it here.