Three Sisters

Well, there's another hotel restaurant, by now you should know how I feel about the whole concept. When it comes to hotels in Tallinn, Three Sisters is considered to be one of the most exquisite and their restaurant wonderful by a lot of people.

Since the weather has been summer-like and they also have a courtyard, I managed to visit them twice in this past week. Once for lunch and then later in a week for dinner. I've always been little suspicious of their menu, mainly because of my dislike of pretentious cuisine and when you read their menu you could get a feeling that the chef insists on recherche ingredients not because of their qualities but their snob value.

First - lunch: I ordered a glass of Sangria Rose and a BLT and it was great. Sangria was nicely on the dry side and BLT almost the real thing. What got me thinking though was the simplicity of a sandwich offered in the hotel that likes to charge around $1000 for some of it's rooms. In any case I enjoyed the simple lunch with good company in a pleasant environment.

Now for the dinner visit - I have to admit that once again I kept good company, but the environment and some of the other components of having a great dinner out were lacking of ....something. They really try to be a first grade establishment, but even though the waiting staff was very quick and polite, almost ninja like, I found the way of sommelier's behavior to be too familiar for my taste. I need to point out that the head sommelier was not present that night and the guy helping us was all proud of becoming a certified sommelier just a week ago.

That doesn't change the fact that when looking for a perfect wine pairing he paid no attention to our personal preferences and then ended recommending a much more expensive choice than what I personally would have chosen.

Now the food - I started with a Waldorf Salad and it was just OK, everything was fresh and all the necessary ingredients were present on the plate, but for whatever reason they were really sliced and diced fine. Just too fine, almost shredded. Not the way it really should be.

I continued with PAN-FRIED DUCK FILLET WITH CARAMELIZED CHICORY with kumquat-ginger compote and green pepper-red wine sauce. I would call it endive instead of chicory, but I know that there's some serious confusion going on with naming this leafy vegetable that doesn't like daylight on some menus. Anyway it was good, I mean the caramelized endive. The duck was prepared to my liking when it comes to doneness, but it was little chewy. The sauce was a disappointment.

Then I got a bite from my companions plate, she had ordered SLOW ROASTED VEAL CHEEKS IN RED WINE SAUCE served with sweetbread, spinach and green beans. Man, that sweetbread just melted in my mouth. Not that many places serve heart thymus gland in these parts and this was a wonderful surprise. Definitely the high point of the experience.

All in all it was a pretty nice evening. Not great though, and considering what they think they are or try to be and what they cost I would expect little more.