14.2.2025 | Restaurants

Indulge in the delight of shrove buns

For the first time ever, Tallinn is hosting a vastlakukkel (shrove) bun festival!

Text Susanna Poikela
Photos Rea Kõiv, visittallinn.ee

In the past, Shrove Tuesday marked the beginning of Lent—a period of lighter and meat-free meals—followed by a grand Easter feast. Nowadays, in Estona, Shrove Tuesday is all about enjoying delicious vastlakukkel buns and perhaps a bit of sledging. Tallinn’s cafés have embraced the tradition in their own way by launching a brand-new festival.

The KukliFest bun festival, kicks off on Valentine’s Day, February 14, and runs until March 4. Throughout the festival, cafés across the city will be serving an array of mouth-watering shrove buns. Participating establishments include Crustum, the Estonian Open Air Museum, Café Faehlmann, Fotografiska Café, Gelato Ladies, Karjase Sai bakery café, Kohvik Lummus, Maiasmokk, La Boulangerie, Levier, Patarei Pagar and Pelgu Pagar bakeries, PROTO café, Puffid, Reval Café, and Teletorn café-restaurant.

The festival’s patron is tourism influencer Henna Mikkilä, well-known among Finnish visitors to Estonia. Now living in Tallinn, Mikkilä has compiled a comprehensive guide to the event, which can be found here. The website also features a handy café map to help visitors navigate from one location to another.

What tips does Henna Mikkilä have for travellers interested in the festival?

“In addition to the traditional strawberry jam, the festival offers a chance to taste the buns with cherry, lingonberry, blackberry or even mango. Just today I had a blueberry jam bun with white chocolate mousse! There are also almond buns, both traditional and made with croissant, and one café even has an ice cream version,” says Mikkilä.

More information about the event can be found on the Visit Tallinn website and on the festival’s own Facebook page, where information about the cafés’ offerings and programmes is regularly updated. You can also participate in the festival on Instagram and Facebook by tagging a picture of a bun you have bought or made #tallinnakuklifest or #tallinnbunfest. You can also tag the event organiser @visittallinn.

Tip! If you would like your buns delivered directly to your accommodation, you can order them using the Wolt app with the search term “vastlakukkel”.