Oulu Restaurants

This was an inexpensive, clean, and good restaurant. The picture is of my brother and I celebrating his arrival in Oulu (he also works at Nokia). I did not really care for the Finnish beer however a good substitute was the Apple Cidre.

Favorite Dish: Local Apple Cidre! There are two or three types of apple cidre based upon the alchohol content. I drank the strongest brew because it was "sec" and not as sweet as the others. The pizza was good too!

Restaurant Istanbul was referred to us by locals as a great place to eat Turkish food in Oulu. The town, as most Finnish cities, has several kebab joints that serve washed out junk food version of Turkish cousine.

This place, however, is completely different. We enjoyed an extremely well done set of meals on their sunny patio, watching people walking busily in between Oulu's shops. The service was courtesy and fast, also check out worked flawlessly timewise. Restaurant's location could not be better, it's in the intersection of two pedestrian streets, facing Stockmann.

The only but is the price. Main courses are hovering around 20€ each and there is no lunch menu.

Uusi Seurahuone is the poshiest restaurant cluster in Oulu, renovated with big money in an old building next to the market square and harbour. There are several restaurants and a couple bars in the complex.

The main restaurant, Uusi Seurahuone, is located on the former inner yard that has been covered with a glass ceiling. Old red bricks are still visible on the walls and the whole redevelopment combines new and old in a stylish manner.

The food is good, but not maybe excellent. The service is not always on par with the rest of the experience. It is courteous and swift, but human touch is missing and waiters don't look like that they would do anything (and I mean anything :) for the customer.

Overall, if you are having business lunches or dinners in Oulu, this restaurant is a good and safe choice. For more intimate occasions, consider smaller scale with better service.

Tomo Sushibar is a small scale sushi restaurant in Oulu, nearby Rotuaari. The place was deserted on Wednesday evening, so we were a bit hesitant to order anything. Fortunately we did, as the sushi was an extremely pleasant surprise -- it was tasty, imaginative and inexpensive.

The restaurant itself is a mix of Japanese sushibars and western modernism. Overall quite nice place and I could envision myself spending some time with good friends and good sushi. The service was swift and as already mentioned, the price was decent.

Hopefully the restaurant can survive, as there is not enough good sushi restaurants in Finland -- especially outside Helsinki.

During summertime, the best place to enjoy the busy shoppers of Oulu market square is Kauppatorin Kahvila Makasiini -- a café carefully built inside an old wooden harbour warehoure.

The patio is the best place to be on sunny days, and the interiors have cozy charms while its raining. The café serves various coffees, cold drinks, home made pastries and small snacks. The price and quality ratio is excellent; our sweet rolls with soft drinks for three were a little bit more than 10€.

Plenty of restaurants found here. We chose the italian Rosso Restaurant found at the city centre. It was great and quite good value.

Favorite Dish: Fantasy RUIS-pizza is great, try it. 4 toppings of your choice, less than 10 euros. And it's some sort of an finnish mix of an italian classic dish.. :) oh well.

Amarillo is a centrally located fusio-Mexican restaurant and night club on Rotuaari in Oulu. Amarillo is a chain of restaurants around Finland, operated by the co-operative S-Group. Usually (and as in Oulu), they can be found at Sokos Hotels.

Amarillo has a wide variety of menu items from the both sides of the Tex-Mex border. Some portions have got influences from Lousiana and Missisippi cooking.

The food is okay, not superb but really worth the cost. They do not offer any specific lunch list, but you can order anything from the menu. Service is good and personal, sometimes a bit slow.

Oh get it mild in here, if you are not willing to sweat! Pikku Thai (Little Thai in English) is definitely pro what comes to using their spices. I do like food hot and spiced and usually choose the level two what comes to hot, but here even the number one is well... very spicy. Poor Honey of mine chose the level three, because usually he is able to digest that easily.
So, I watched him sweating and tearing that octopus dinner... But the food is great. Very yummy actually. And the lunch time special is only 6,50 €....

Favorite Dish: Vegetarian ones with coconut.