Restaurant Moon Tallinn Review – Outstanding Eastern European Food in Telliskivi

Restaurant Moon Tallinn review: this Telliskivi restaurant combines Eastern European classics with a contemporary dining room, excellent service and one of the better alcohol-free drinks selections we found during our time in Estonia.

Restaurant Moon Tallinn – Eastern European Classics, Modern Telliskivi Style & Excellent Zero-Proof Drinks

Restaurant Moon immediately feels different from the Tallinn Old Town restaurants we had been visiting.

The building itself has history, with substantial limestone walls and an industrial exterior, but inside the restaurant moves firmly into the present day.

It is a good combination. Moon does not try to recreate some theatrical version of an old Eastern European dining room just because the menu includes dishes such as salo, buckwheat blinis and Siberian dumplings.

The food keeps those roots. The room does not have to pretend it is 1926.

Inside Restaurant Moon in Telliskivi

The interior is one of Moon's biggest strengths.

You have high industrial ceilings, exposed metal ducting, substantial old limestone walls, huge windows and a mezzanine level running above part of the dining room.

Long hanging light installations draw your eye upwards while the tables themselves remain comparatively simple. There is a large open bar across one side of the restaurant, with the kitchen activity visible behind it.

It feels modern without having stripped away the character of the original building.

Restaurant Moon Menu – Eastern European Food Without the Costume

The menu immediately tells you what kind of restaurant this is.

There is Borodino rye bread, warm buckwheat blinis with caviar, salo, pickled cucumber, marinated tomatoes, okroshka, fish soup and handmade Siberian dumplings sitting alongside dishes such as burrata, beef tartare, pike fishcake and king prawns.

It is rooted in Eastern European cooking but presented as a contemporary restaurant menu rather than a history lesson.

Sweet & Sour Marinated Plum Tomatoes – €5

We started simply with the sweet and sour marinated plum tomatoes at €5.

Presentation could hardly be more straightforward: whole tomatoes still on the vine, sitting in their marinade inside a patterned bowl.

That simplicity works because the marinade is the point of the dish rather than elaborate presentation.

They made an easy sharing snack while we worked through the rest of the order.

Restaurant Moon Salo – €7

Then came one of the dishes I was particularly interested in trying: salo at €7.

If you have never eaten it before, salo is essentially salted or cured pork fat and is strongly associated with Eastern European cooking.

Moon serves it with dark rye bread, red onion and strong mustard.

This is not a dish pretending to be universally approachable. It is pork fat on rye bread, and that's precisely why I wanted to try it.

The richness of the salo needs the rye and sharpness from the onion and mustard. Taken together, it works.

Warm Buckwheat Blinis with Whitefish Roe – €17

The warm buckwheat blinis with whitefish roe were €17 and came with red onion, sour cream and lemon.

These are nothing like thin French crêpes. The blinis are substantial, browned savoury pancakes that provide enough structure to handle the sour cream, onion and salty roe.

Everything is served separately enough that you can build each mouthful rather than having the kitchen bury the blini under toppings.

This was one of the dishes that best represented what Moon is doing: familiar Eastern European food presented cleanly without trying to reinvent it beyond recognition.

Handmade Siberian Pelmeni Dumplings – €16

The handmade Siberian dumplings cost €16 and are listed amongst the Restaurant Moon classics.

They are served with wild mushroom sauce, spring onion, sour cream and adjika.

If you want one dish that tells you fairly quickly what Moon is about, these dumplings probably do the job.

The dumplings themselves are substantial without becoming heavy, while the mushroom sauce adds richness. Sour cream and adjika give you two very different directions to take each mouthful.

Restaurant Moon Alcohol-Free Drinks – One of Tallinn's Better Lists

The alcohol-free drinks selection deserves considerably more than the usual one-line mention.

Too many restaurants put enormous thought into the wine and cocktail lists and then offer non-drinkers a cola, juice or a generic alcohol-free beer.

Moon has clearly thought about this category properly.

Jaanihanso Quince Naturel Alcohol-Free Cider – €6

The Jaanihanso Quince Naturel alcohol-free cider was genuinely excellent.

It was light and fruity with plenty of flavour, but crucially it did not overpower the food.

That is an important distinction with drinks designed to accompany a meal. You want enough flavour to make the drink interesting without it fighting every dish arriving at the table.

This did exactly that.

At €6 for a 33cl can, it was also sensibly priced for a proper restaurant beverage rather than being treated as an overpriced soft drink.

Divin Sauvignon Blanc Sparkling Blush 0.0 – €7 a Glass

The table next to us ordered a whole bottle of Divin Sauvignon Blanc Sparkling Blush 0.0, which immediately caught our attention.

So we followed their lead — although I ordered one glass at €7, not the full bottle. The bottle in the photograph was presented at the table as part of the service.

This is another detail Moon gets right. Alcohol-free sparkling wine is being served in proper glassware and treated exactly as a wine should be, rather than poured somewhere out of sight and delivered as an anonymous pale drink.

The full bottle was available for €32, which explains why the neighbouring table simply ordered one to share.

Restaurant Moon Veal Liver – €19

For the main course we had the veal liver, or vasikamaks, at €19.

This arrived as a substantial thick-cut piece of liver with a strong sear across the outside and plenty of sauce around the plate.

Liver is one of those dishes that depends almost entirely on cooking. Take it too far and it becomes dry and unpleasant very quickly.

Moon handled it properly.

We also ordered an additional potato purée for €5, bringing the combined main and side to €24.

Restaurant Moon Pavlova – €8

We finished with the Pavlova at €8.

The dessert arrives in a deep blue bowl with large pieces of crisp meringue surrounding the softer centre, finished with fruit and small colourful garnishes.

After salo, dumplings and veal liver, something lighter at the end of the meal made sense.

Restaurant Moon Prices – Our €104 Bill

Our total bill came to €104.

That total needs some context because this was not a starter-main-and-water dinner.

We worked through several sharing dishes, dumplings, blinis, a main course, dessert and multiple beverages.

For that amount of food and drink in a restaurant of this standard, €104 for two felt reasonable.

Restaurant Moon Opening Hours

Restaurant Moon vs Other Tallinn Restaurants

Moon offers quite a different experience from the other restaurants we visited during our time in Tallinn.

If you are planning several meals in the city, have a look at our Rataskaevu 16 Tallinn Review . Rataskaevu 16 takes a more refined Old Town approach to Estonian ingredients, with dishes including braised elk, beef tenderloin and fish soup, while Moon leans more heavily into Eastern European classics from its contemporary Telliskivi setting.

For something much more traditional, our Munga Kelder Tallinn Review covers a completely different style of Tallinn dining. Munga Kelder has an old-school cellar atmosphere with Estonian black bread, herring and mussels, and our meal there came to just €36.50.

All three restaurants offer something different. Rataskaevu 16 gives you a more polished Old Town experience, Munga Kelder is traditional and excellent value, while Restaurant Moon combines Eastern European cooking with a much more contemporary Telliskivi setting and the strongest alcohol-free drinks selection of the three.

If you have several days in Tallinn, I would not treat them as alternatives. Eat at all three and you get three very different views of the city's restaurant scene.

Is Restaurant Moon Tallinn Worth Visiting?

Yes.

What I liked most was that the restaurant has a clear identity.

The building is distinctive. The interior works. The menu knows where it comes from. And dishes such as salo, buckwheat blinis and handmade Siberian dumplings give you something that actually feels connected to the restaurant rather than a generic international menu that could be served anywhere.

The alcohol-free drinks selection was another major positive.

The Jaanihanso cider was excellent, and the fact that Moon offers proper sparkling alcohol-free wine by the glass tells you that somebody has thought about guests who want alternatives to alcohol.

Our Restaurant Moon Tallinn Verdict

Book Restaurant Moon Tallinn

If you know when you want to visit, I would book ahead rather than relying on a walk-in, particularly for Friday or Saturday dinner.

You can make a reservation through the Restaurant Moon booking page .