Chedi

I walk by Restaurant Chedi almost every day since it's on my way home from the supermarket and I've been patiently waiting for it's opening. All right - the OPENING SOON sign disappeared from it's door and I had to go.

Chedi is all about fusion and I am not - at least not in the kitchen. I was little hesitant. They claim to be an Asian restaurant and that's not being very specific. Asia is absolutely huge. So they combined some Chinese, Thai and maybe some elements of Vietnamese and Korean cuisines. Maybe.

Same goes for the interior. Made it look Thai without actually being Thai. What's strange is the fact that it works. I can't stand pretentious design or cuisine for that matter, but they managed to make it look formal, casual and relaxed, all at the same time.

All right, here comes the low-point of the experience. The waitress, even though being kinda friendly, decided to try to educate me on food and wine. When I go to a restaurant I'm not looking for education and I should have typed the word try in bold. Let me think how I can put this as delicately as possible - oh yes ...she didn't know shit.

To our question " Excuse us but, what is a Pi Pa Duck?" she answered that it is a name of the dish. For few seconds I couldn't figure out if she was being snooty or slow. Then settled for slow. Perhaps an appropriate explanation that the dish is so called because the bird is flattened to resemble a pi pa - a Chinese stringed instrument would have been asking for too much, but C'mon...

Anyway, we started with Dim Sum and Fried Soft Shell Crab, and even though I prefer Dim Sum little slimier, it was real nice - most definitely best Dim Sum in Estonia. Soft shell Crab was also very enjoyable.

We continued with two types of duck, the now infamous- at least for me- PI PA DUCK and Shechwuan Duck. It was alright, not bad - not great. I understand that chefs need to adopt to local taste-buds, but still, don't we all need a little spice in our lives. What made everything good was a bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape that we used to wash down the duck. That was excellent.

Dessert - Passion fruit Parfait, maybe little on a sour side, but nicely presented and it went well with Calvados. I do like Chedi a lot, but I do suspect that company I kept that night had a huge influence on my verdict, I thank her for that. Isn't that the best part of a nice dinner? Somebody you care about, somebody who has the ability to make things taste better and increase your tolerance towards little mishaps in the kitchen and on the dining room floor.

Chedi is a great addition to Tallinn's restaurant scene.