dog-friendly Italian restaurant in Tallinn

Delicia is a lovely dog-friendly Italian restaurant in Tallinn old town and only a minute or two walk from Hell Hunt and other bars. Like Pompei in Tartu, and Casa Nostra in Riga, Delicia has an extensive and interesting menu, so there will be something for everyone, and offers a varied and very good drinks list. While it cannot be described as cheap, given the quality of food and drinks, lovely atmosphere, and good service, we think it is excellent value for money.

We have only visited Delicia in Tallinn twice, so again, our experience is quite limited. Nevertheless, we had a great experience both times and were very happy to have found such comfortable dog-friendly Italian restaurant in Tallinn with delicious food and drinks. As you will see below, not only have we enjoyed our visits here, it has inspired us to create our own recipes based on their great food. Thus, we highly recommend Delicia to anyone in Tallinn looking for high quality and authentic Italian food, especially those with furry friends.

Now to a description of our first experience (in June 2023). First, the staff were friendly and efficient, and the level of service was very good. We were not hurried, were served quickly, were able to order what we wanted when we wanted instead of all at once and were given a suitable amount of time between courses. Second, we enjoyed excellent and authentic food, and as you will see below, because we enjoyed each dish so much, we just kept ordering and overindulged a bit!

To start, like at Casa Nostra in Riga, we started with the Vitello Tonnato (Veal with Tuna & Anchovy Sauce), which is one of our favourite Italian starters. The version served at Delicia (€16) was a little more saucy than some we have had, but was excellent nevertheless and just as good as those we have had in other places. In fact, we enjoy the fact that this dish is always slightly different in each restaurant. The veal was very soft and tender with enough flavour to come through the tuna, mayonnaise, caper and anchovy sauce. The sauce was quite creamy in comparison to some we have had, but still tart and full of flavor, and the added large capers topped it off a treat.

Next, we shared two very good pasta dishes; Spaghetti alla Grigia (€13) and Tagliatelle de Agnello (€15). The Spaghetti alla Grigia consisted of perfectly al dente spaghetti with a delicious pecorino Romano sauce with black pepper and fried pork cheek (guanciale). We thoroughly enjoyed this dish and were very happy that they follow the true Roman style with no cream or eggs; just the main ingredients with some pasta water to create the sauce. If you would like to make this at home, try our version listed on noonoosnibbles; simple but delicious!

We also very much enjoyed the Tagliatelle de Agnello (lamb ragout, semi-dried tomatoes, olives and basil), but it possibly could have benefitted from slightly more broken down lamb and a few more olives, but that is very subjective. Either way, we enjoyed the dish (and the idea) so much, we decided to create our own Lamb and Olive Pasta recipe that can be easily made at home, and if honest, we enjoy it more than the Delicia version.

We ended our meal by sharing a rustic but amazing fish dish; Baccala alla Sicilianna (€24) which included baked cod with roasted peppers and tomatoes, capers, olives and parmesan. To say this dish was delicious is an understatement!! The fish was fresh, tasty and perfectly cooked, the sauce was full of wonderful flavours, and the vegetables, olives and cheese completed it perfectly. We are usually not fans of fish with tomato-based sauces, nor cheese, but this dish has made us think twice!

On our second visit in August 2023 we also had a great evening and sample more of their delicious offerings. This time we started with the “Ravioli ai funghi Oorcini con salsa al Tartufo” (€18) which was amazing!! The ravioli were cooked to perfection, the porcini filling was delicious, and the truffle sauce were divine. This was followed by the “Mezze Maniche al Tonno” (€18) which was delicious pasta dish consisting of rigatoni in a fresh tomato, tuna, olive, and caper sauce. This dish was so good, we immediately tried to recreate it when we got home, and we think our “Pasta with Tuna, Olives and Cherry Tomatoes” is a great version that stands up to the delicious one offered at Delicia. Next we had the excellent duck with orange sauce (Antra all arancia – €18) and and a wonderful whole grilled sea bream with olives (Orata all griglia – €25). I will not go into detail as this review is already too long, but both dishes were fabulous.

Finally, a little information about the drinks that we enjoyed on both visits All drinks were good quality, well kept, and reasonably priced. We started with a couple glasses of Campari on ice (€5 a glass), then enjoyed a couple local draft beers (Saku – €7). After that, we have had a couple very good glasses of the house red wine (€8 for 25cl) before finishing our meal with a glass of Fernet Branca each (€6). We also had a couple bottles of San Pelegrino mineral water thought the evening (€5 per 750 ml bottle).

In summary, given the high-quality and authentic food, great drinks, lovely atmosphere, and great staff who welcomed our dog, we will definitely be going back to Delicia on one of our future visits to Tallinn. The above prices come from our bills (and the current website), but our total bill was €122 the first time and €143 the second, which we think is good value given that we had four dishes each time and more drinks than we should of. All in all, this dog-friendly Italian restaurant in Tallinn is highly recommended for those with or without furry friends.