Welcome back to my project of slowly reviewing all the coffee and cakes in Tallinn with my friend Kid, this week: a jam packed bakery / pastry shop in Old Town.
Loiri Nunne Bakery
Address: Nunne 9, Tallinn 10130
Date of visit: April 11, 2019
Drinks: Coffee (Kid), Mocha (Mab), Green Tea (Zanna)
Cakes: Too many to actually list…we ended up eating 8 pastries/cakes and also I bought pretzels to take home…
Review: One day I will write a review of a cafe within a reasonable time frame but oh boy, today is just not that day. I actually haven’t been to a cafe since due to vacation and Eurovision but hopefully next week we’ll go and then I can put that off for another month as well! Hurray!
Putting that aside, let’s actually review this place! Loiri Nunne Bakery Pastry Shop is located in Old Town, on Nunne facing towards Balti Jaam so it’s kind of both very easy and very difficult to get to. I think the easiest way to reach it would be to take the tram to Viru (3,4) and then walk in unless you’re facing the other side, in which case getting off at Balti Jaam (1,2) is probably slightly closer and then any configuration of buses that stops there, you can even take the train…either way it’s in between the Patkuli stairs and the puppet museum if you need something to navigate around.
Once you locate the cafe you’ll notice it leans more towards a bakery than a proper cafe. There’s a handful of tables but they are more utility than decorum. This isn’t necessarily a problem but it’s worth noting that the charm of this place is that it is a very homey bakery and not a cool place to get a lot of work done. It’s also not going to win any interior design awards.
The upside of this is that they have a HUGE case of pastries and goods and many, many more types of breads than are usually available in bakeries. This type of bakery wouldn’t have been out of place in most cities in Germany or France though they seem to be quite rare in Estonia. There are easily over 30 types of pastries including cakes, doughnuts, rolled treats, bar cookies, regular cookies, and dough based pastry in addition to that there are breads and savory items including small pizzas and pies and everything is exceptionally reasonably priced. Most of these items are German or German inspired which also makes for a nice change. On top of food they offer your standard coffee drinks made from a machine, some sodas, and a variety of teas.
We ordered way too many cakes (enough that I didn’t eat dinner that night because I had no space left) so I’m going to try and talk about them as collectively and coherently as possible. First up we had this apricot pastry. The pastry was really good and flaky and while everyone else liked this, I wasn’t a big fan of the apricot itself because it was slightly sour which is a nice contrast to the sweet frosting but wasn’t to my personal taste. There’s a ton of other fruits to choose from if you’re a little tepid on apricot though.
We got several things that were bars of cake / cookies. These were all surprisingly delicious, especially the napoleon which had just the perfect amount of crunch that made it really satisfying to eat. The fruit cakes were well balanced between sweet and tart and the coffee cake with fruit inside it had a soft texture and good chew that almost made me want to take a piece home. I think the clear loser of these cakes was the cheesecake-alike because it just wasn’t very special, it seemed like a cake you could get at several other shops around town (even though it was still very tasty).
We also got the Sachertort which had a sort of crumbling dry cake that reminded me of a loose brownie but the ganache layers were really absolutely delicious. I wonder if this particular piece of cake was just slightly overcooked. I need to conduct more tests by eating about three of these.
The star for me was the weird thing that looks quite like a whoopie pie. It’s a moorepea which is basically the exact halfway point between a cookie and a cake. It’s a thick but very airy biscuit on the bottom with a healthy amount of cream topped with another biscuit that is covered in chocolate. Absolutely fantastic. You could probably easily eat 6 of these without trying. This one had really strong vanilla notes to it and was not dry or crumbly, slightly melt in the mouth and perfectly sweet. It reminded me of childhood and ice cream trucks. A clear winner for me.
The service in this cafe is very lovely. It’s operated by a sweet woman who was very patient even though we ordered half the case of treats. The service is of course quick because she simply gives you each item on a plate but it’s nice in an uncomplicated way. There’s the option to order things to take away as well since most of the things in the case are easily eaten in hand this would be a great spot to pick up some sweet treats before laying in the sun in the park nearby or taking a walk around Old Town.
Overall, I love this bakery and I’ve been back twice to buy bread and pretzels because it’s just so cheap and fresh. I would definitely recommend coming in the morning though as everything seems to be baked early in the day and some things suffer from sitting out too long or worse, sometimes the item you want runs out for the day! Either way it’s worth a stop if you’re looking for something homey and uncomplicated.
Ratings:
Coffee: out of 5
Cake: out of 5
This weeks pictures are a mix of Kid‘s and mine 😀