Vesivärava Kohvik – Tallinn (Estonia) en

A perfect breakfast place, in front of Kadrioru Park, you’ll meet locals there mostly. It’s good, fresh, and there’s even a patio.

This place exists since 1999: a charming simple wooden house, in front of the park. The tables are spaced out, you can see the kitchen when the ladies go get the dishes. They grill meats at night as is explained on the site, but the person that brought me didn’t know about it, so it seems that this place has to two very different lives during the same day.

According to regulars, the ladies that work there are always friendly, dynamic; the last one I talked to was welcoming and animated, the one that served us was also friendly even if her face seemed to be very neutral at first. In Estonia, people can seem a bit distant at first, but it doesn’t mean they wont open up easily after a while.

We had the choice between a full breakfast ( home fries, egg, bacon) different omelettes ( mushrooms/cheese, chicken/pineapple, tomato/paprika), broth, herring sandwich, soup, oatmeal..

We took some oatmeal, with jam for me, with butter for the person with me. It was delicious, we’re not used to this kind of food in France, and it can quickly seem too bland, and yet..The person with me explained that by eating a good cup of oatmeal in the morning she didn’t have to eat anything else in the morning.

We shared some kind of raisin bread, delicious, hot. God knows I love French pastries, but I’ve often found that the pains aux raisins was often abused, 85% of the time they’re too sweet, it can also have a chemical taste; in this case it’s a simple warm bread and the raisins really taste like raisins.

2 oatmeals, 2 coffees, one croissant: 7 euros and a bit. Think about going there before exploring Kadrioru Park in the morning :), it could be the perfect combination; or come here on your way out the park for some grilled meat at closing time. I was there for a business meeting early morning, and that worked perfectly too.