Haapala Panimoravintola — Hotel in Kajaani sub-region

I rarely get excited from visiting a restaurant, but this time it is different. I really feel for Haapala, they evidently make beer and food with great pride. I spoke with master of the brewery, Craig, who has moved to Sotkamo from London following his loved one, the daughter of the estate and they now care for it in the fourth generation.|The first two years they renovated the old dairy farm and while everyone claimed they are crazy and the effort is doomed to fail.|We visited them today, having a christmas buffet for 49 €. As I was driving, I could not taste the beer, but my mexican friend rated the beer tray as an eight. I had the blueberry-cardamom lemonade, a funny product of the same brewery. |A few picks from the buffet: The rye bread was super good. I also liked the casseroles, traditional christmas ham and especially the juicy grilled salmon. The desert cake was delicious. |The place offers items for sale so you may buy beer, lemonade and other artisanial products.|To sum my experience up, Haapala is the "Farmor's Cafe" of Kainuu province, a family-run artisanial, crafty, beautifully renovated place run with quality awareness and pride. With a Michelin classification, I think this place is worth a detour and I for sure will try...

We came to eat quite late, it was almost 9pm. It was obvious that the day had been busy and it was about +27 C outside. We came in and we were greeted by easy-going and polite waitress.

There were still some groups in and some tables left uncleaned. The space was renovated barn with old logs but modern design furniture.

We sat down and ordered burger dishes, one beef and one vegetarian. Not sure of there is much if you’re vegan. The burger bun was perfect. Actually we both got two small buns since the big ones were sold out.

Some minor shortages that are probably due to the newness of the place. Other than that - it was lovely.

Fillings of the veggie burger were not as epic as the bun but fries were awesome. So was my pavlova with rhubarb and cream. So good.

The premise was beautiful and renewed with a good taste. Would definitely take eg. my foreign guests there.

Tip: the place has it’s...

We went without table reserction to an empty restaurant, only 1 table was booked at the time. First question was, if we had a reservation which we didnˋt and waitress said ”I’ll find you a table” RESTAURANT WAS EMPTY! |They sat us to a table which was next to only booked table, Idon’t understand why we didn’t get any privacy.|Waitress did not remember what dishes were on a menu, we had two persons with poor eye-sight with us. We read the menu to them since this waitress didn’t bother.|Food was good, but little bit overpriced. I find it strange that restaurant does not offer ketchup with fries, you have to pay 2,60 euros for it.|Other waitress brought our check and she did not ask if everything comes separately or not, just brought the check to oldest lady of the group.|Restaurant was flaming hot because of the heatwave, but only fan was behind the counter towards personell. |Very poor...