Fotografiska restaurant

At Fotografiska, art and food go hand in hand – the entire house unfolds like a journey of experiences, feeding every corner of the soul. This is where creativity, people, flavours and passion come together, guided by our worldview: sustainable, honest and just rebellious enough.

For nearly seven years, Fotografiska Restaurant has been paving the way for sustainable food culture and local ingredients, making vegetables cool to inspire more conscious choices. We follow a mindset of fewer rules, more intuition: more greens, more flavour, more curiosity.

Our menu moves with the seasons, fresh produce and the chefs’ desire to push the boundaries of flavour. No evening here should feel exactly the same. And it doesn’t – sometimes inspiration comes straight from the pantry, sometimes from a glass, and sometimes simply from instinct.

But great food is only the beginning. We believe in warm atmospheres, lively conversations and a freer version of Nordic hospitality – a place that doesn’t take itself too seriously, yet cares deeply about how people feel.

Head Chef Manifesto

Gerli Travkin, Head Chef at Fotografiska restaurant

Creative Nordic kitchen with a zero waste mindset and global curiosity.

I’m drawn to the purity and seasonality of Nordic ingredients, but also to the freedom of approaching food creatively and without too many rules. Our cuisine is colourful, playful and alive, inspired by local forests and flavours, sourced from nearby farms and markets, while remaining open to influences from around the world. Middle Eastern spices, different peppers, fermentation, fire, acidity, textures and unexpected combinations are all part of our everyday kitchen language.

For us, sustainability is not a limitation, but a creative starting point.

We work with a whole ingredient philosophy, where one ingredient can live many lives throughout the menu. Rhubarb might become a savoury starter, a dessert and a drink. Asparagus can appear as crudo, grilled or fermented. It pushes us to think creatively and cook more consciously, making use of every ingredient as fully as possible.

What inspires me most is the moment when local produce reaches its absolute peak – the first asparagus of the season, fresh nettles or sun-soaked tomatoes at the end of summer. It’s in these seasonal highlights that our menu finds its most honest and vibrant flavours.

Menu

An evening at Fotografiska is designed for sharing – shared dishes, shared flavours and long conversations around the table. We believe that’s how the best dining experiences are created.

Our menu is seasonal and constantly evolving, with every week carrying its own character. Expect seasonal produce, bold flavours and unexpected combinations that reflect the finest ingredients of the moment and our chefs’ endless curiosity.

Chef’s Pick is a curated selection of our current favourites – dishes chosen by the head chef and the team based on the season, the week, fresh harvests and whatever excites us most right now.

Summer 2026: From Lunch to Late Evening

Summer at Fotografiska means long terrace evenings that can easily begin at lunch. This season’s hit warning: terrace, rosé and tartare. A golden flavour combination, a holy trinity, an irresistible trio.

This summer’s menu also features kosho – a fermented strawberry sauce –, exceptionally sweet and meaty scallops hand-harvested from the Arctic Ocean, and cuts from Saara organic pork, thoughtfully transformed in our kitchen and appearing throughout the season in different forms. Our vegetable pasta brings together a sauce made from Lähe Farm spinach, Viinamärdi stracciatella, wild garlic and wild garlic capers, finished with smoked butter potato filling. The final touches come from our rooftop garden herbs and spices, honey from Fotografiska’s own bees and cheeses from Kolotsi Farm.

The summer lunch menu is a constantly changing and even more relaxed version of the evening experience. Market finds play their part too – sometimes something completely unexpected appears on the menu simply because it was too good not to bring back from the morning market.

A well-kept secret in the heart of the city

Our rooftop terrace grows herbs and spices, and during summer it becomes home to two busy bee colonies collecting the season’s sweetest freshness – adding the brightest summer flavours to our plates and cocktails.

But the experience here stretches far beyond the plate. The rooftop terrace moves to the rhythm of the sun, and during summer, life happens largely up there. It’s a place to enjoy views across Tallinn and its green horizon with a good glass of wine or a mellow cocktail in hand. Time tends to slow down on the terrace – lunch turns into dinner, midday into golden hour and evening into something you don’t want to leave too quickly.

Joyful seasonality

Summer on Fotografiska’s 6th floor feels like a true festival – ingredients everywhere, nature in celebration and fresh produce arriving from every garden bed and field.

“One of my favourite ingredients is nettle. As a child, it mostly meant stinging legs and fingers, but later in the kitchen I discovered how beautifully it works. I often use nettle like spinach – in pasta fillings, pies, omelettes or soups. I love its vivid green flavour and the feeling that spring has finally arrived. Nettle is one of those ingredients that reminds you that the best food always begins with the season.” – says Gerli.

When the summer harvest reaches its peak and fresh produce arrives from every direction, one of the most important skills becomes preserving and pickling it all. These are the techniques that carry us through the colder months and allow summer’s brightest flavours to live on long after the last touch of sun has faded.

Proudly sourcing from

Most of our ingredients come from local and regional farmers. We are hands-on in sourcing and harvesting, using ingredients from flower to root. Alongside familiar vegetables and greens, we also give space to exciting experiments from our growers – whether that’s wasabina, tomatillo or Estonian-grown artichokes – encouraging flavours and varieties still too rarely seen here.

We know how much care, time and dedication organic farming requires. Our organic growers are driven by passion and purpose, and for us it’s important to honour that commitment properly on the plate.

Wine at Fotografiska

Our wine list is curated by Marika Tikas, for whom wine never begins with a label or a region, but with the people behind it. With a background as a winemaker, Marika approaches wine both as a storyteller and a creator – valuing character, craftsmanship and honest flavour above all else.

Our wine list is built on personal relationships, years-long collaborations and winemakers we know by name. Many of the small producers we work with have been part of our journey since 2019, becoming woven into the longer story of Fotografiska.

Just as our kitchen is rooted in farmers and seasonal produce, our wine programme is shaped by winemakers whose work reflects the same values – awareness, individuality, progressiveness and respect for the land. Marika’s own background in wine and her close relationships with producers bring a sense of life to the wine list that reaches far beyond a carefully chosen pairing.

Fotografiska Tallinn’s own wine

When the spring of 2025 first stretched its toes from beneath winter’s snowy blanket, a seed of an idea began to sprout in the warm caress of the sun’s rays – the thought of creating Fotografiska’s very own wines. We’ve always loved wine in this house, and since the earliest days of Fotografiska Tallinn, we’ve been seeking out the most exceptional, sustainable, and vibrant wines – and the winemakers behind them – from all around the world.

As summer approached, we set the plan in motion and headed to Rheinhessen, Germany, where we teamed up with Fotografiska’s longtime friend: the Dexheimer family winery, now in its fifth generation, crafting wine with heart and soul. Together, we created four distinctive wines in 2025 – Fotografiska Tallinn’s own wines, infused with our favourite flavours, intuition, and signature touch. The result is a sustainable and slightly rebellious quartet: two whites and two reds. Enjoy them at Fotografiska, or purchase a bottle to go – the story is yours to continue.

Recognition

MICHELIN Green Star 2022; 2023; 2024; 2025; 2026
MICHELIN Bib Gourmand 2026
MICHELIN Special Award 2026: Young Chef Award – Gerli Travkin (Head Chef, Fotografiska Tallinn)
Falstaff Nordic
360°Eat Guide
Green Key