GOSPA Restaurant

The glass walls of the large spa hotel’s restaurant offer diners panoramic vistas of the city’s medieval castle and the open sea. That’s nice enough, but what’s more important is the view of the small smoker right outside the window. That’s where flavor is born. For Estonians, Saaremaa tastes like smoked fish, and that taste is never absent from GoSpa’s menu.

While the islanders like their fresh smoked Baltic herring without any side dishes, the restaurant’s chef, Alari Aksalu, prefers to dress it in a sea of delightfully fresh salad. The smoky pork tenderloin ‘disappears’ among the vegetables from Rautsi Farm. This is Kuressaare’s most inventive cuisine, the food is art, creatively perfected through the judicious use of various cooking techniques, and authentic local flavors are always at its fore.