Tasting menus and Michelin stars: Estonia is an emerging gourmet dining hotspot

26.10.2024 - 22:45 / euronews.com / Rebecca Ann Hughes

Massive medieval towers, dense forests and daily saunas were what I’d come to Estonia for. What I hadn’t expected was to find a trendy food scene, tasting menus and Michelin stars. 

The Baltic country has found new fame in 2024 with the awarding of the European capital of culture to Tartu, its second city located in the southeast. 

Along with the capital Tallinn, the cities have attracted increasing numbers of tourists thanks to their progressive fusion of medieval and ultra-modern culture - something that also flavours their haute cuisine. 

But despite the visitor uptick, you’ll still be able to pop into museums without waiting in a queue and book last-minute tables in restaurants that would have a months-long waiting list in other European cities. 

Tartu’s year as European Capital of Culture has placed the city firmly on the tourist map. The accolade has given Tartuians an international stage to exalt their richly historical city and modern achievements. 

The city is also easier to reach now after Finnair launched flights from Helsinki this year. The journey is a quick 50 minutes and bags arrive on the mini carousel of the tiny airport minutes after landing. 

Tartu centre is compact and walkable, so you can wander from the crumbling arches of the soaring medieval cathedral ruins to the brick church of St John with over 1,000 tiny terracotta figures to the ice-cream-hued main square in a morning. 

A walking tour with a certified guide like Merike Jürna will also open your eyes to Tartu’s quirkier attractions that might be overlooked alone. 

There’s the world’s highest ceilinged pub at 11 metres - named Gunpowder Cellar after its location inside the remains of the medieval castle. 

In the main square, there’s the statue of two students kissing which prompted a mass kiss as part of this year’s cultural events. While marked on the Dorpat Observatory there’s a meridian line which, in 1855, allowed Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve to calculate the size and shape of the earth. 

Each time you delve into the past in Tartu, you are just as quickly catapulted to the present. After exploring the City Museum, you can board a pint-sized self-driving shuttle bus to the Estonian National Museum. 

In this colossal building - constructed on an ex-Soviet airstrip in 2016 - historical exhibits of Uralic life, customs and dress are displayed in strikingly modern displays with animations and interactive elements. 

A 10-minute bus ride from the centre takes you to Aparaaditehas (translated as Widget Factory). Here, there was allegedly a clandestine Soviet production of military parts for rockets and submarines, my guide explains. 

The brick warehouses have been renovated into a mural-splashed hipster hangout of bars, restaurants,