Balti Jaam and the market hall as a place to eat

The market hall has become the most useful building in Tallinn for anyone eating on a budget, and Balti Jaam Market is the one to know.

It sits between the railway station and Telliskivi, which is a geographically perfect position, and works on several levels at once: produce and butchers below, a street food floor with a dozen small kitchens, and a mix of second-hand and craft stalls around them. The food floor is where to eat — a dozen operators, each doing one cuisine properly, at a fraction of restaurant prices.

Lunch is the hour. Between twelve and two the floor fills with people from the offices in Telliskivi and the turnover means everything is fresh. By late afternoon several stalls have sold through.

For produce, the market is genuinely used by locals rather than staged for visitors, and in autumn the mushroom and berry stalls are worth going out of your way for — this is where the forest picking ends up.

The practical advantages are boring and real: it is indoors, which matters for eight months of the year here; it is a two-minute walk from Telliskivi's bars; and it is one of the few places in central Tallinn where a full meal costs less than a cocktail in the Old Town.

Card payment is universal in Estonia, including here. You will not need cash anywhere in this city, which is worth knowing before you queue at an ATM.