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