Chinese Kitchen "Hanlong" in Kopli

Another legendary Chinese place located in Kopli is "Hanlong". It has existing there for years and years. I have visited them numerous times.

Located in Tallinn, Kopli street 78b. A small one floored house with red door and window frames.

The prices are very affordable and food is honest. The place is simple but it has this indescribable authenticity so that you visit it again and again. The interior has stayed the same for years even their website hasn't been changed. It has still prices in Estonian kroon (EEK).

Simple interior. Always paying a traditional style music. They probable have only few CDs because the same songs have played there for years. I already know few of the by heart.

Usually I like to go there for Saturday or Sunday lunch with friends. It is located from a perfect walking distance form the old down and I especially think about its menu on warm spring days. When a small walk combined with "Hanlong" carrot salad and spring rolls seems like a heavenly combination.
On working days they offer great lunch offers (12.00-16.00) that has also stayed unchanged for years. The combination of soup, salad and rice with meat dish cost only 4 EUR.

Spicy beef with onions from their lunch menu, 4 EUR.

This post is about their lunch offer but I totally suggest to try out their traditional menu aswell. I especially recommend their salads, noodle soups and spring rolls. They are delicious.
But this time I ordered from lunch menu a (spicy)beef with onions 4 EUR and chicken spring roll 3.25 EUR. The lunch menu comes together with additional soup. After eating a spring roll and soup I felt quite full already. More than half of the beef dish I took as a take-away with me. So the portions are quite big.

Over the time the quality of the food has waved a bit. It has always been simple and honest but sometimes you feel it is extra delicious and fresh.

Chicken spring roll with sweet and sour sauce 3.25 EUR.
For that price you'll get four big slices of spring roll.

This time I really felt it. The wok vegetables where perfectly crispy. Sauce was nicely sticky with a bit of sweetness and spice.

Their spring rolls have always been in my thoughts. They have lot of vegetables going on in it and always covered with crispy fried dough skin.

RATING
Chinese Kitchen "Hanlong" in Kopli
Whould i recommand "Hanlong"? "Yes."
It has a very affordable pricing list. The food portions are quite big, simple and authentic.
Would I revisit them? "Yes"
Food: 8/10 (you have to know what to order. The menu is quite long. Especially recommend the lunch offer, spring rolls, salads, noodle soups, dumplings)
Interior: 5/10
Service: 8/10

Nõmme Kebab

Nõmme Kebab is a classic fast food place in Tallinn. It has been open for a decade or even more, in Estonia it is definitely a long period of time. It has extremely simple menu. You can order pita kebab or kebab with french fries (together with marinated onions and lots of sauce.)

Red house at Jaama street 3 in Nõmme (Tallinn)

The interior is very simple, looks like a small german style bar with few wooden tables and chairs. Nothing fancy or complicated, just simple, pure and comfortable fast food.
We ordered Kebab with french fries. You can choose between small or large plate (5.5 EUR or 8 EUR). It is not the cheapest but as it has proven it's quality with tasty meat and crunchy fries I am willing to pay it for a nice plate of comfort food.
The meat was soft inside and crispy outside. Tomato - chili sauce was perfect with the french fries and marinated onion a fresh sidekick.
Only thing I didn't like was how everything was piled up on the place (I understand that it is their trademark but it messes everything up in to annoying mash). On the bottom there are french fries, then the meat and then onion with lots of sauce. If you don't eat quickly enough the potatoes melt together with the sauce and onions. I prefer to tip the crispy fries into the sauce not to dig them out of it. But you can always ask to put the fries to a different plate and not to worry about it. The main thing is that the food is honest and up to good fast food standards.

A large plate with fries, kebab meat, sauce (and onion on the separate plate). This plate of pure joy costs 8 EUR.

RATING
Would I recommend Nõmme Kebab? "Yes, yes, yes!" A perfect comfort or hangover food. You won't be disappointed in its simple essence.
Would I revisit them? "Yes!"
Food 8/10
Interior 5/10
Service 6/10

Salmiakki ice-cream (Fazer)

To spice up the blog, I decided to add another topic: "cool goodies". These are interesting and new (at least for me) products that I have found in Estonian groceries. If something interesting, weird, tasty or addictive comes around I would definitely add the product under this topic to recommend it.

The first entry would be about SALMIAKKI ice-cream (Fazer). Weirdly addictive sweet (or should I say salty) ice-cream. Imported of course from Finland, the country of Salmiakki lovers. As I have adored salmiakki / lakrits since I was a child I really needed to try it out. In Estonia the Salmiakki ice- cream is sold only in Prisma supermarket it cost around 1.50 EUR. And it is worth every penny!

Sold only in Prisma supermarkets. Costs 1.50 EUR

The first impression was absolutely bizarre. It had a cold, sweet and salty salmiakki taste, very different from regular ice-cream. It has a black and crunchy intensive salmiakki glaze and inside a gray salmiakki ice-cream (extremely unusual color for a food). While eating it I had a bit uncanny feeling about the taste. I loved it but at the same time the experience was extremely weird. Later, I just couldn't stop thinking about it. I had to try it one more time (starting to sound like an addict)...

God bless Finnland for making such a uncannily nice product!

Now I can say that it is one of my new favorites. It has quite strong taste so one quantity is more than enough. Highly recommended to salmiakki lover! You won't be disappointed.

Cha Dao: Chinese Teahouse & Restaurant

Valentines day. Our friends invited to join them to dinner in Chinese Teahouse & Restaurant Cha Dao.
We happily joined because we never visited the place before and you never say no to a good company.

Cha Dao in Suur - Paterei 2, Tallinn

Cha Dao has restaurant prices, food and interior. It isn't definitely a low-budged Chinese place. The interior was cozy but sophisticated. The restaurant was quite full. We had a table in the middle of the room but as the tables where surrounded by oriental-style walls it felt quite private.

The service was overall nice. We had to wait for our meals for quite a long time, so the waitress offered us some free drinks which I think was a nice gesture. There was also an incident when my friend ordered a beer (at least few times), the waitress nodded and said "yes" but the beer never arrived. Probably the misunderstanding came because she didn't understand estonian that well...

FOOD. I liked dim sum's (entree's) more than my main courses. So I defiantly recommend to order different dim sum's and salads.

Differend dim sum's. Dumplings, spring roll and fresh cucumber salad.

We ordered Steamed shrimp dumpling 4,5 EUR.
Crab and pork buns 6 EUR (Those I really, really recommend, they had very interesting and good cinnamon side taste. Very delicious! One of the best I ever had!)
Smacked cucumber salad 4,5 EUR (very refreshing salad as a side dish to main courses or fried dim sum's.) Some of the incarnadines: sesame oil, garlic, vinegar and soy sauce.
Deep-fry chicken spring roll 5.5 EUR (I am a fan of spring rolls but those where unfortunately nothing special. The pastry wasn't crispy.)

Crab and pork buns with a little cinnamon side taste. Love them! Recommended!

Fried squids 6,5 EUR. (Pricy but delicious. The pasty was thin and crispy and i was covered with a little cinnamon which made it stand out with a little twist. Recommended for the squid lovers.)

Fried squids.

For the main courses we ordered Szechuan style chicken 8 EUR. The dish arrive to the table nice and hot. The spiciness was also nice but overall it wasn't nothing special. Wouldn't order it again.
Fried beef with onions 16 EUR The dish was nice, but unfortunately not very hot when arrived to the table. Especially liked the crispy vegetables (among others, sweet pea shells) inside. Would love to have it with more spice.

Szechuan style chicken (8 EUR)

Fried beef with onions (16 EUR)

RATING
Chinese Teahouse & Restaurant Cha Dao
Would I recommend Cha Dao? "Yes". It is a nice Chinese restaurant with great dim sum's. Not cheap but worth its money to celebrate some special occasion with friends and family.
Would I revisit them? "Yes"Food: 7/10
Interior: 8/10
Service 7,5 /10

Fortune cookie "you will be soon in the center of attention" (hopefully in a good way)

Sushi Japosha

Sushi Japosha offers only take-away sushi. I think they have got the the real essence of it: simple sushi with solid quality. I think they have a sushi delivery system but I have usually picked the delivery up for myself.
A good idea is to call and order in advance at least half an hour. On weekends it is better to call in advance even few hours before because they seem to be full of work...
At first I was a bit terrified by the exterior of the place. The entry was a weird green door going to a obscure cellar. A typical horror movie scenario: " A girl ordered a take-away sushi. She went to pick it up but never came back..." Hehe. But, never judge a book by its cover...

Sushi Japosha at Jakobi 22 in Tallinn. The obscure green door to sushi paradise. 

The place itself is very small with no opportunity to eat on the spot. Interior kind of sweet: mixture of different asian and russian style decorative elements. The workers are friendly russian guys with sweet accent.

Small place filled with typical asian style interior elements. Cliché look-a like but sweet.  

Ordered sushi:
Alaska maki (salmon, avocado, cucumber, masago) 5.80 EUR, eel nigiri 1.80 EUR, butterfish nigiri 1 EUR, salmon nigiri 1.30 EUR.

This is a nice and fresh looking sushi. I should also mention a perfect size soy sauce cup.

Maki was fresh with very nice texture and with the right balance of products. (quite large in size.) I specially liked the masago it was rolled in. Nigiri ingredients where also nice and fresh. The size of rice the ball and fish was in balance. The quality of the sushi was better than I expected. Nothing over fancy but something you expect of regular take-away sushi.
The ginger was also very nice and fresh (a standard "a bit sweet and pink"). Wasabi was a regular powder-made (not my special favorite).
Always crucial in sushi is a soy sauce. I love Kikkoman's. Unfortunately Japosha's soy sauce tasted like diluted Kikkoman. It had it's taste but looked it was mixed with water (much lighter and less taste).  A big no-no for me...

RATING:
Sushi Japosha
Would I recommend Sushi Japosha "Yes" (but be sure eat it with the soy sauce you love)
Would I revisit them? "Yes. I have ordered for them many times. Good price and quality balance."
Food: 8/10
Interior: 6/10
Service. 9/10



  

Sushi Panda

With a last few years many small sushi places have invaded Tallinn. It is a very welcomed phenomena but at the same time the quality of a nice sushi (I mean a good fast-food/ take-away style) is very unstable. It seems that many owners/ chefs haven't understood the essence of sushi: quality and simplicity. You don't have to invent a weird and unused combinations. Better stick to the basics and hold a stable quality.

Sushi panda has been for two years (according to their Facebook page). For now they have opened two sushi places in Tallinn (one in Pirita and the other in the city-center). I visited the city-center takeaway in Tartu mnt. 10.

Sushi Panda in Tallinn city- center with modern city panorama look interior.

The place itself has a modern lounge-a-like interior with few tables and open counter. So you can perfectly see how happy or worn-out are the chefs faces who are rolling your sushis.

Anyway, the first impression was quite nice. I ordered a Hiroshima Tempura maki 7.70 EUR, salmon nigiri 1.20 EUR and Tuna nigiri 1.90 EUR to go.

The service was quite fast, I waited for 5-7 minutes. The order was given in a cute paper bag with a Sushi Panda logo and was packed prettily in a heart shaped transparent boxes. But sadly that was the end of the positive impression... 

New entertainment: my cat found a new bag where to hide and play in for a while.

Sweet package!

At home I found out that that there was no chopsticks included. Probable it was just a mistake of the waiter and maybe I should have checked it on my way out but it is not a best surprise to find out later.

Hiroshima Tempura maki was for my taste to vapid and over processed. One or two peaces would have been interesting to try but after that I tasted more like a sweet doughnut (tempura dough mixed with sweet unagy and teriyaki sauce.) It would be interesting to mix it with other maki sets.

Nigiri sushis. In the first row a gary-brow (!?) tuna that tasted unfortunately bad.

Nigiri pieces had enormously much rice, so that the taste balance between fish and rice ball was missing. Unfortunately the worst thing was the quality of tuna itself. It had gone bad, with a rotten taste. So sadly it went straight to the recycle bin. 

RATING:
Sushi Panda

So would I recommend Sushi Panda? "Bases on that visit, no". 

Would I go back to give them another try? "Probable not. Unfortunately the first impression can be crucial. High risk to go back and be disappointed again".

Food: 2/10

Interior: 5/10

Service: 7/10