The Olde Hansa

Our very first stop in Tallinn was exciting from the very beginning. With no to spare, we immediately started our cultural adventures to experience as much of Estonia and Tallinn as we could in two days. Hungry after the busy morning of traveling, we were all looking forward to our trip to the restaurant on our plans, The Olde Hansa, almost centralized in the old town of Tallinn itself! This restaurant was very unique and, from all the info that many of us had looked up on about Tallinn, one of the "Must do's" in the city.

As mentioned, Tallinn is one of the most complete and well preserved medieval cities in modern Europe and to go along with this proud treasure of the nation, the Olde Hansa takes pride in preserving the medieval era by presenting appropriate dress, traditions, cuisine and style.

Even before entering, we were able to enjoy the imagination of going back in time as workers dressed in medieval garb were outside serving to the guests on the patio as well as other's dressed as maids selling old style candied almonds ( this corner of the old town smelled excellent).

Taking all of this in amongst the buildings hundreds of years old in narrow streets lined around you was incredible!

The surprises and feelings of awe continued as we entered into the restaurant. It was extremely dark as it was only lit by candle light!

As our eyes adjusted, we walked past wooden furniture and tables to the staircase where we were led to our grand sized table upstairs as if this were a medieval feast ( which, in a sense, it was!). We weren't able to sit down just yet however. Estonian customs and beliefs of the period were that all guests must cleanse and wash their hands at a designated pitcher and basin before sitting down to dine.

This was very neat since each one of us individually walked up and had water poured onto our hands for us by a worker and then also dried them at the basin below before continuing. While waiting in line up the stairs many of us found fascination from the wall of candle wax from years of candles dripping down the walls. It was art created by the passing of history and time; A reminder to many of us how unique and special this experience was for all of us.

In our seats at dense, hard wooden tables along with large goblets and earthen ware pottery, we were ready to begin our meal which continued with the exquisitely traditional details of the restaurant.

Our group was large, and along the center of the table were large loaves of bread with many old style toppings to go on ( berry preserves, olives, pickled fishes and vegetables, herb and garlic butters) - The appetizers alone impressed us with its presentation.

As a custom, to start the meal, each person passed the loaves of bread around, ripping their share off. For being so traditional, however, the meal was very "hands on" and involved a lot of grabbing, ripping and passing - It was all really fun for feeling so casual at a meal with many little medieval customs. As a matter of fact, our table even picked a 'king' of the table who's role was to communicate for the table to the servers. It was a neat concept, but even at our table, it wasn't something that we were used to ( or even the modern waiters who put in so much effort to be of their medieval era!).

dishes came out numerously and the entire meal consisted of passing them around and grabbing bite sized portions of everything. Breads, herb and wine baked cheeses, sausages, kraut, stuffings and more - It was truly a feast. Many of us were literally shocked when potatoes failed to come out as part of the course - we all had eaten SO much of them this past summer that it just became standard and expected! We came to find out that for the era in which we were eating for this particular meal, potatoes were still a few hundred years away from being introduced to the Baltic area! We were very impressed with how detailed this restaurant was with not only the traditional building, furniture, murals and artwork, candle light, plate ware, silverware ( and sometime lack-thereof!), and costume of the servers, but also a historically accurate menu!

It was definitely not an attempt at medieval dining - it was a true revival of the heritage and customs of this city's incredible history! Finishing our meal was an excellent baked apple type pastry along with an almond sauce - possible the most historical version of apple pie any of us had ever had. The meal was truly enjoyable, and really got all of us in the mindset for touring, discovering, and experiencing the old town of Tallinn as well as the medieval life that shines from every corner of the city.