Balti Jaam Market

Balti Jaam Market sits behind the railway station on the edge of Kalamaja, and it is the place to go when you want to see what people here eat rather than what is served to visitors. Rebuilt in 2017, it kept its market character instead of turning into a food court with a market theme.

What you actually see

• The ground floor - fruit and vegetables, dairy, dark rye bread, and the smoked fish counters that are the real draw.
• The smoked fish - sprats, flounder and eel by weight, which taste nothing like the tinned version.
• The upper floor - small kitchens and street-food counters covering what the city eats now, from Georgian and Korean to Estonian home cooking.
• The basement and side halls - a genuinely large second-hand and vintage section, plus butchers and pickle stalls.

When to go

Mornings for produce, when the fish is fresh and the aisles are quiet. Lunchtime upstairs is busy and lively. Sundays are quieter and some stalls close early, so Saturday is the fullest day. In autumn the seasonal tables take over with forest mushrooms, lingonberries, cloudberries and sea buckthorn.

Honest expectations

This is a working market, not a curated food hall: the lighting is fluorescent, the aisles get tight, and the quality varies stall to stall. Prices are ordinary Tallinn prices rather than tourist prices, and most stallholders speak enough English to manage. Cash is still handy at the smaller counters even though cards are widely accepted.

The things worth eating here are black bread with sprats, smoked fish by weight eaten on a bench, blood sausage in season around Christmas, kama as a dessert, and the sour-cream-heavy salads that turn up at every family table.

Nearby

Kalamaja and Telliskivi are on the other side of the tracks, and the walk from the market to the Seaplane Harbour takes about fifteen minutes through the wooden-house streets.