Vana Toomas Restaurant in Tallinn – Live Music in the Old Town

Vana Toomas Restaurant in Tallinn is located right in the heart of Tallinn Old Town at Raekoja plats 8. The restaurant had recently undergone a renovation, and here you can enjoy good food, wine, delicious cocktails and, of course, a wonderful view directly over Town Hall Square 🙂.

One thing that makes Vana Toomas especially enjoyable is the live music. From Wednesday to Sunday, live music evenings start at 7 PM, adding even more atmosphere to dinner. For me, good food and live music are always a lovely combination.

FoodLover Restaurants Week Special Menus

From February 17–26, Vana Toomas offered two special menus during FoodLover Restaurants Week: a lunch menu for €16 and a dinner menu for €34. Both menus had a good selection, with something for meat lovers, fish lovers and those who preferred a vegetarian option.

🍴 Lunch Menu – €16

Main course, choose one:

Beef cheek – kohlrabi cream, onion jam and chanterelles
Wild mushroom risotto with truffle oil
Lightly smoked Pähkla trout – kale, Jerusalem artichoke chips and wok-fried vegetables

Dessert:

Apple cake with cardamom-almond milk sauce, physalis and seasonal berries

🍴 Dinner Menu – €34

The dinner starts with a glass of sparkling wine.

Starters to share:

Beef tartare with crispbread and chilli aioli
Trout ceviche marinated in lime-mango sauce
Celeriac hummus with marinated vegetables and roasted carrots

Main course, choose one:

Duck fillet – carrot purée, charred tomato and red cabbage-onion jam
Octopus – potato, fried shallots and mango-chilli aioli
Wild mushroom risotto with truffle oil

Dessert:

Panna cotta with sea buckthorn jelly and seasonal berries

Starters – the celeriac hummus was my favorite

We tried all three starters from the dinner menu. At the time they were served on separate plates, although during FoodLover Restaurants Week they were going to be served together as one lovely selection.

My favorite was definitely the celeriac hummus. It was wonderfully creamy and a little different from the classic hummus you usually come across. My second favorite was the trout ceviche, which tasted fresh and somehow wonderfully summery. Raw meat has never really been among my first choices, so the beef tartare was the weakest of the three for me. But that is, of course, purely down to my personal taste 🙂

🐙 Octopus – perfectly cooked with a spicy sauce

For the main courses, we tried both the octopus and the lightly smoked Pähkla trout, and mmm, both were fantastic choices!

The octopus was cooked perfectly. With octopus, this is especially important for me because if the cooking time is even slightly off, the texture can quickly become rubbery. There was absolutely no problem with that here. The octopus had a lovely texture, and together with the mango-chilli aioli the whole dish worked really well.

If I had to choose between these two main courses, it would actually be pretty difficult 😋

🐟 Lightly smoked Pähkla trout

The trout was exactly what I had hoped for. It had a lovely smoky flavor, but not so much that it overpowered the taste of the fish itself.

The vegetables and Jerusalem artichoke chips on the side added different textures and made the whole plate more interesting. A very good choice if you want something a little lighter but still full of flavor.

🍎 Warm apple cake was our favorite

And then, of course, it was time for dessert 😋

We tried both the apple cake and the panna cotta, and the warm apple cake was without a doubt the favorite for both of us 👌. The cardamom and almond milk sauce worked beautifully with the apple, and the whole dessert felt warm, comforting and wonderfully familiar.

The panna cotta offered a completely different experience. The presentation was very impressive, with dry ice creating a dramatic mist, and the texture itself was beautifully silky and creamy. If the apple cake won us over with flavor, the panna cotta definitely earned extra points for presentation and a little bit of show.

🍸 Cocktails at Vana Toomas

And the cocktails the bartenders make here are something else 🤩

I asked the bartender to make me something delicious and a little special without giving too many instructions, and that is exactly what I got. I really enjoy moments like this when you can give the bartender a bit of freedom and simply see what arrives in your glass.

Thank you, I really enjoyed it 😇

Vana Toomas Restaurant in Tallinn – food, views and live music

One of the biggest advantages of Vana Toomas for me is that the evening is about more than just the food. You are right on Tallinn Town Hall Square with beautiful Old Town views, and on several evenings each week you can enjoy live music alongside your dinner.

The dishes that stayed with me the most were the creamy celeriac hummus, perfectly cooked octopus, smoky Pähkla trout and warm apple cake. And, of course, we cannot forget the cocktails 🙂

I would happily recommend Vana Toomas with both hands, especially if you are looking for a restaurant with live music in Tallinn Old Town, where good food and the atmosphere of Town Hall Square come together in one place.