Next Week Saaremaa Will Also Host a Restaurant Week
Text Timo Raussi Photo Visit Estonia / Margit Kõrvits
It is said that 13 is an unlucky number, but on Saaremaa they think differently. Local entrepreneurs point out that the number means a full dozen plus one extra as a pleasant bonus. The same number of restaurants have created special menus for Saaremaa Restaurant Week, taking place from 16–22 March. Each restaurant will offer three-course dinners priced at either €30 or €35, depending on the venue. Some restaurants have also created more affordable two-course versions of their campaign menus and/or lunch options.
Would you like to start with beetroot tartare served with horseradish mayonnaise, cashew “Parmesan” and a goat cheese waffle, followed by beef cheek in rum sauce with roasted parsnip and kale, and for dessert caramelised date pudding with vanilla sabayon? This flavour experience is offered during the campaign week by Hafen Resto, located at the Kuressaare marina. The restaurant has been included in the White Guide, which lists Estonia’s best dining spots according to critics, for five years in a row. Hafen has been praised for successfully serving dishes exotic enough for local residents while also offering flavours considered distinctly Estonian for international visitors.
Or perhaps a more archipelago-inspired meal would suit your taste better? The wine bar and restaurant Prelude on Lossi Street in Kuressaare offers herring tartare as a starter, served with fresh cucumber, chives, radish, dill, and sour cream, accompanied by delicately thin bread crisps. The main course on the special menu features perch fillets coated in crushed pumpkin seeds, served with leek and potatoes, perch roe, and a vichyssoise-style sauce made from fish stock and cream, finished with chives and roasted garlic. To crown the meal, dessert is a crème brûlée flavoured with juniper berry smoke aroma, and decorated with sea buckthorn berries and nut chocolate.
You can explore the participating restaurants and their special menus on the event’s website, although not all restaurants have yet published their information in languages other than Estonian, as well as on Instagram. Since it is worth staying on the island a little longer to enjoy good food, local hotels have also created accommodation packages for the campaign. However, you may need to switch on your browser’s translation function to review those offers as well.
Many travellers to Estonia still live under the misconception that reaching Kuressaare requires first driving to the western edge of the mainland and then travelling by car ferry through the small island of Muhu and across Saaremaa itself, a journey that could take almost half a day. In reality, you can board a NyxAir 42-seat ATR turboprop aircraft almost from the centre of Tallinn by purchasing a ticket costing just a few dozen euros, with a flight time to Kuressaare of only 40 minutes. There are two flights each way on weekdays and one on weekends.
Finally, a small clarification: the dessert shown in the opening photo of this article is not one of the examples mentioned above. Instead, it is a raspberry panna cotta available at Arensburg restaurant for six euros. Mmmmm….
To learn more about this and similar topicsevents Food Culture Kuressaare Restaurants Restaurant Week Saaremaa special menu
