Restoran Oberpahlen - Vein & Roog — Restaurant in Põltsamaa vald

"Not everything green is tea, not everything brown is chocolate."

During my trip around native Estonia, I stopped in Põltsamaa. Having visited some of the sights, I started looking for a place to have a quality dinner in this nice and beautiful town. People on the Internet recommended the restaurant "Oberpahlen - Vein & Roog". It had a good rating and I decided to go there. The atmospheric restaurant, located in one of the buildings of the castle courtyard, turned out to be not very easy to understand the menu. "Fresh fish". I was born and live in Tallinn, where new places to eat open every year. Somehow it is accepted here that people are interested in the origin, details of storage and preparation of the food that they are served in restaurants and cafes, and the questions of customers never cause bewilderment among the employees of the places to eat. Anyways, I enter the restaurant, greet and start looking for the menu. All the menus are on the counter by the cash register, scattered and mixed up. I rummage through them, the waiters pay no attention. I ask for help in finding the menu with dishes. The young waitress also starts rummaging through them and after a while we find what we were looking for so diligently. I look. Fish is a very healthy product, but not always easy to prepare and you need to know how to cook it. That is why I often like to order fish and seafood in restaurants, collecting good ideas, so that, perhaps, I can cook something similar at home later. I see - fish and ask: "Tell me, please, do you cook from fresh fish or from deep-frozen (subsequently defrosted). "I don't know. We have a very fast and large turnover of products, so most likely it is deep-frozen, not fresh," the girl answers. "But it is the other way around: if the turnover of products in a restaurant is fast, then all of them are fresh, since there is no time to lie around and spoil." She stands silently. "Who cooks fish?" "The cook." "Is he there now? Can you please find out where the fish is from and whether it was frozen?" With a dissatisfied face, reluctantly, she went to the kitchen. A couple of minutes later she comes. "The answer is: the fish is fresh." "Where is it from?" The answer to all the questions was "fresh." Okay. "Estonian green tea." "And tell me, please, you have green tea on the menu. Where is it from?" "This is Estonian green tea." "Estonian?! Can you please name the plantation where green tea grows in Estonia? All my life I thought that it grows exclusively in Asia due to the climate." She puts a jar in front of me. "Here: mint tea." "Well, mint tea is not green tea, it's usually called herbal tea. Not everything green is tea and not everything brown is chocolate. Do you have any green, the one with caffeine?" "There's also this Estonian green tea - made from cactus." "Can you please tell me where cactus grow in Estonia?" "I don't know." Do you have Chinese green tea, the one with caffeine?" She reached for another (empty this time) can at the top, shook it - there was only dust at the bottom. "No. It's gone." "Okay, have a nice day, bye." The place itself looks nice, but this confusion with the menu somehow scared me off, I didn't want to stay there and left. Maybe waiters could be given some courses...

Lovely place to try Põltsamaa wines. You can also buy the wines for a lower price than in a grocery store. Friendly service. No food, only wines but there's also a little food museum. Guided tours must be arranged in...

Tere! Soovisime neli pensionäri tulla Kesk-Eestisse ilusasse kohta kokku, et tähistada jõule ja aasta lõppu kenasse Oberpahleni restosse, aga saime kõik pettumuse osaliseks. Põltsamaa Tõmmu veini pakuti konjaki klaasiga?!, supi juurde leiba ei toodud, lõpuks küsimise peale saime?!, pardifilee oli verine ja sitke (ilmselt nuga nüri)?!, hirve kotlett maitsetu ja roosa?!, kreem-brülee serveeriti klaasist purgis?!, iiri kohvi oli klaasist veinipokaalis?!. Igatahes "üllatati" meid väga ebameeldivalt ja arvame, et enam ei tule...