Controvento

I think it's safe for me to say and most people will agree that Controvento is the most popular restaurant in the city of Tallinn. Why? I guess there are many reasons. The obvious one - the location, it does not get much better than that. St. Catherine's Passage smack in the middle of Old Town. Then again that pretty much only works with the tourists. For whatever reason most of the locals are not as fond of the picturesque medieval part of town.

Then again, locals have a even better reason to love this place. See, Controvento is one of the very few if not the only place that has managed to stay popular for the last decade and a half and because of that most people have their very own emotional attachment to it. Almost every one I know has some kind of tradition involving this homey restaurant located on the coziest street in town. For some it's a weekly Saturday afternoon thing, for others a New Year's Day tradition and guess what, no amount of clever advertising or marketing magic can top that. Something like that is embedded in the subconscious.

I have to say that I am an unfortunate one, for not having any deep emotional affection or feeling of loyalty towards this place and because of that I can remain absolutely objective. Here it goes - their pasta dishes stink and I don't mean that in a scent type of way. Their pizzas are just barely OK. See totally objective.

Don't worry it gets better from now on. First of all Controvento serves some of the best steaks in town and their fish is usually fresh and nicely prepared. Wine list adequate and not horribly over-priced. Unfortunately the vegetables that come as a side are just too plain and boring. All the plates are quite big and I guess because of that I've never had dessert here. Lets assume that their desserts are great.

All in all Controveto is a pleasant little restaurant with lovely atmosphere and a decent menu. I just personally love all the simple things of Italian cuisine. Food that doesn't cost much at the market, takes a long time to prepare and tastes wonderful because of that.

Controvento has been around for a while and will be around for a long time.