Olde Hansa is the most visible tourist business in the Old Town and it is also, on the evidence of its own kitchen, the most serious piece of food history in it. Both things are true at once and you should walk in knowing it.
The premise is a rich merchant’s household in 1492. The rooms are lit by candle and lamp, the staff are in period dress, and the kitchen’s stated method is worth quoting: “My team of Chefs and I carefully research our recipes from documented medieval texts.” The house rules follow from that. Potato, tomato, pumpkin and cocoa are off the menu because they had not crossed the Atlantic yet. What carries the flavour instead is the spice trade the Hansa actually ran — cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, black pepper, saffron and cloves — and the cooking is deliberately long and low, which is how a medieval kitchen with a fire and a pot did it. Meat and game come from named local farmers and hunters; bear stewed in wild berry sauce and elk tenderloin are the two dishes the house leads with, out of seven game options.
Music is not piped. Olde Hansa Musicus play four nights a week, Wednesday to Saturday, 18:00–21:00, on hurdy-gurdy, fiddle, bagpipes and flutes, working through composers of the 15th century.
The honest part: this is a large, busy, costumed restaurant on the most trafficked corner of the Old Town, and the theatre is laid on thick. The prices are not published on the website. There is no cover charge and no ticket — it is à la carte — but ask for the current card when you reserve rather than after you sit down.
Open every day, 11:00 to midnight, kitchen until 23:00. Reserve: in summer it fills weeks out, and the good tables are the small upstairs rooms rather than the ground floor.
