If you’re finding an authentic Asian restaurant to try out you might have some difficulties finding one in Estonia. Challenging in the sense that there aren’t many, but let us review CHI Restoran for you to see if it’s authentic and worth your time!
This chain Asian restaurant has multiple outlets in malls in both Tallinn and Tartu. We have been to two different CHI Restoran in Tallinn and bought similar dishes from both restaurants. Let us give you our opinion of the first outlet we went to at Ülemiste!
First Impression of Ülemiste Restaurant
The restaurant is well-decorated and usually has ample seats. Something different I experience in Estonia is that there usually isn’t a server to bring you to your seats or find you a seat. You just have to walk into the restaurant and find a seat yourself.
After some time, the waitress came with the menu and we looked through it. The menu is actually quite big, it is an Asian fusion eatery with many different cuisines to choose from, they have a range from Indian, Chinese or, Thai cuisine.
I like how they categorise their menu into the type of dish, for example, all the pork dishes will be placed together and all the noodle dishes will be placed together.
We are spoilt for choice; there are so many different types of dishes to choose from and we wanted to try most of them. In the end, we chose a beef dish, a soup and a fried noodle. Little did we know about the portion served.
Beef in Pepper Garlic Sauce
The dish came with a pile of beef. The portion is big and really good for sharing. I feel that it can be shared with 2-3 pax.
The beef was actually quite tough but I personally like this kind of texture where I can bite, something like a “jerky”. The taste was good but the dish is quite salty. It would be good if they can lower the saltiness. I might assume that they would expect you to pair it with rice.
“CHI” Noodle Soup
The soup is something special. My idea of soup really change after I came to Estonia. Look at the picture of the soup and the ingredients it has. Soup is not drunk here but eaten!
This soup is jammed packed with ingredients, every scoop I take is full of meat, vegetables, prawns and noodles. I was really impressed with it, even though it was not what I was used to. This is the ingredients in the soup from the Menu. Thick spicy soup with shrimp, chicken, lamb, noodles, mushrooms and vegetables
The soup I was used to was 90% soup and 10% ingredients. The aim of the soup was to drink the broth. Some people only drink the broth and not eat the ingredients. So this experience really surprised me.
It also changed my opinion of drinking soup, I would like to drink soup jammed packed with ingredients from now on.
I believe that some locals here even drink soup as a meal itself as the portion is enough to make you satisfied.
One issue I have with the soup is again its saltiness. It needs to be less salty. Other than that I really liked it which was why we went to try it again at their other outlet at Nautica Mall, which I will share with you later.
I think the soup is quite worth it at €6.30 with the generous portion and wide variety of ingredients provided. I would recommend giving it a try.
Spicy Rice Noodles With Chicken and Shrimp
The noodles portion was good too and can be shared with 2 pax if you order other dishes. The taste and texture were average but what can you expect for this price? I feel that it was good enough and that it has done its job as a staple to be paired with their other dishes. I would still try their other noodle dishes.
We couldn’t finish the whole meal and opted to take away the beef as there was around 1/3 left over. But we loved the portion sizing as it is worth the price!
CHI Nautica Outlet Review
I will be direct here, I feel that the Nautica Outlet is not as good as the Outlet at Ülemiste. The portion is not comparable. I will show you some pictures as evidence.
Cha-Choy Beef
Compared with the other outlet reviewed above, this outlet has disappointed my high expectations for the restaurant. The beef is filled with hard tendons and it was really salty. I had to order rice as it was too salty to even finish. Rice is quite expensive at €3.
“CHI” Noodle Soup at Nautica
Try comparing this image with the one I showed you above, we ordered the same soup item on the menu. The bowl is smaller and the ingredients are not as many as in the previous one.
Which Outlet to Go to?
I would definitely recommend you to head over to the Ülemiste outlet as the quality is much better there. The portion is also more generous there. I am not sure if this will change if the chef is changed so you can still try their other outlets.
On a whole, if you’re craving for Asian food, I would recommend you to try them out as they are authentic and have a big menu for you to choose from.
If you want to check their menu, head over here. Use Google to translate to English. They do have an English menu at the restaurants.
Restaurant Information
Opening Hours
Mon-Sat: 10am – 9pm
Sun: 10am – 7pm
Address
Ülemiste center, 2nd floor, new block, next to Apollo cinema
Suur-Sõjamäe 4, 11415 Tallinn
Website: https://www.chirestoran.ee/
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