Welcome to this list of the best restaurants in Tromsø. The list also include tourist traps and bad restaurants. You can find the list of the best restaurants in Tromsø here. You can read about me and the motivation for the list here. The definition of the categories can be found here.
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This spring, two new restaurants opened in Tromsø. Helmersens Delikatesser and Nitty Gritty. Both going straight to the top of the restaurant list
I’ve only dined once at Nitty Gritty, but what a great meal it was compared to a lot of other restaurants in Tromsø. They have a small menu, with just 3-4 entrées, 3 main courses, and 2 desserts. Some of their dishes are grilled on the barbecue, which is really reflected in the flavor of the food. I will definitely recommend this to anyone visiting Tromsø looking for a good meal.
As for Helmersens Delikatesser, this has become my new go-to-place for almost everything. I’ll go here for a coffee before work every once in a while (Risø still has the best coffee in town, though, but Helmersens is closer to where I live and work and they have decent coffee), I’ll eat breakfast and lunch here, and I’ll go here for after work drinks and snacks, or for dinner. They even have a burrata dish here (not always available), which is something my girlfriend and I almost always have if we can find it. They also have by far the best selection of natural wines in Tromsø.
Website: http://www.bjornvag.no
I recently dined at the relatively new restaurant M/S Bjørnvåg in Tromsø, and what a meal it was! In this post, I will not go through the meal in detail as this should be experienced yourself – I don’t want to give any spoilers, but a quick summary is in order to share what a unique experience this was.
MS Bjørnvåg has been surrounded by quite the hype since it arrived in Tromsø (originally located in Trondheim) half a year ago. The restaurant is not only located at a small, retired passenger boat built in 1954 – they are one and the same. As one can imagine, the ambience and feel of this place is quite unique. You can feel the sea and the waves making the boat move, while the limited city view from the small windows makes it feel like you’re far away from the people and buildings just a couple of meters away. You almost immediately immerse yourself in the feeling of being out at sea.
Both the food and the entire experience, from being welcomed by the head chef and his assistant (the only two persons preparing the food and serving it), through the 10 course meal with some incredible wines, and ending it with a spectacular coffee and a selection of whiskies. As mentioned above, I will not describe the meal in detail, it should be experienced without too much prior knowledge as this is not just a meal, but an experience. You are not there just as an individual diner, which is the default way of experiencing a meal at a restaurant, but instead you’re part of a group with the rest of the diners invited home to two friends preparing and serving the food.
I wanted to highlight a couple of the dishes served. The first one is something I’ve never eaten or even heard of before in a food context: reindeer tail. The tail was prepared in an oven on high heat, leaving it with a thin and crispy exterior while the inside was soft, juicy and tender. The interior was quite fatty, but it melted in your mouth, and the wine paired with compensated excellent for this (the wine for this dish was actually a wine they have created together with a wine producer – M/S Bjørnvåg No 5 Barbera d’Asti, and while this was the wine I perhaps enjoyed least as a stand alone wine throughout the meal, it worked perfectly with this dish. Don’t misunderstand me, this was not a bad wine, it was in fact quite decent. But the bar they set with the other 8 or so wines were extremely high, I would say on par and perhaps even above your typical michelin stared restaurant. Their own wine fell a bit short of the rest, but the great pairing of it with this dish made up for it big time.)
The second and final dish i want to highlight is the grilled/charred cod. The way of preparing this I imagine is quite unique in Norway, and gave the cod a perfect charred exterior and a juicy, soft and flaky interior. As with the reindeer tail, the cod was only served with one vegetable – a small amount quickly fried spinach. Excellent use of raw materials really making the cod stand out as the hero of the dish. I can’t remember the name of the wine being served with this dish, but it was amazing.
To sum up: Eat at MS Bjørnvåg, and go for the full wine pairing. The only restaurant in Tromsø to be on the same level in terms of deliciousness and experience is Smak, but the uniqueness of MS Bjørnvåg makes the two compete in completely different leagues in my opinion. I’m not sure if it makes much sense to say one is better than the other. Is the food you get served at MS Bjørnvåg the best you can get in Tromsø? Perhaps, perhaps not, but it’s no doubt at the very top together with Smak and Mathallen making it one of the city’s best restaurants. Is it the greatest food experience in Tromsø? In my opinion, yes!
New year, new possibilities for great meals and amazing food experiences in the city of Tromsø. The restaurant scene here is still alive and kicking. The first 23 days of 2019 has continued the trend of the end of 2018: delays-delays-delays, another tourist trap opened, and tourist traps going out of business (good news). Let’s start of with the positive events. (Check out my updated best restaurant in Tromsø list here)
Both the restaurants Arctic Asian Restaurant and Barents Sea Restaurant seems to have been shut down. This is excellent news. Both are owned and operated by the same company – a shady tourist/souvenir shop company (their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/touristshoptromsoe2015/ – stay away) wanting to expand into the restaurant business. They did this by opening the above-mentioned restaurants almost simultaneously. It’s apparent that they had no experience in this field. Their Asian restaurant basically saw little to no customers, and now a local fast food place has moved in. The Barents Sea Restaurant however, is a completely different story. Accusations of withholding salary from their employees, faking social media reviews (I actually investigated this myself, and out of the about 35 facebook reviews they got right after they opened, about 85-90% of those were friends of the general manager most of them living in Sweden. The same pattern can be observed on tripadvisor – most of the reviews are persons with just the one review), and hostile takeover of the restaurants facebook page by disgruntled employees. My take on the situation: Good riddance.
As for the delays – both Nitty Gritty and Helmersen Delikatesser has still not opened. Nitty Gritty is closed due to not being able to get a liquor license. This has been covered in the media, and it seems to be a combination of slow and incompetent bureaucracy by the municipality (they are the ones handing out the licenses), and lazy work by the restaurant handing in the necessary documentation. Hopefully we’ll see an opening soon. As for Helmersen Delikatesser, construction work is still going strong. They were supposed to open in November, but the opening have been set to a tentative early February. I believe that the opening of the new and expanded Helmersen Delikatesser will be an amazing addition to the Tromsø food scene.
New year, new tourist trap: Du Verden. Opened late 2018. My guess is that they will survive for some time. Their restaurant in Lofoten, after what I can tell, seem to do quite well. While their menu is all over the place, serving everything from sushi, steaks and pasta to 5 course meals, they seem to be a relatively serious business. However, the competition in this city is quite fierce, so this will most likely bring them down in the end – they don’t bring anything new to the Tromsø food scene. My prediction: shut down in a couple of years (i.e. after two tourist seasons.)
As for great and exciting restaurants in Tromsø, nothing new is on the horizon. MS Bjørnvåg opened in September receiving great feedback from their diners. I recently visited this restaurant. Stay tuned for my review.
(Find the Tromsø restaurant list by clicking here)
In a market such as in Tromsø, there will regularly be new restaurants opening, and old restaurants closing. I will semi regularly post about both upcoming and closing ones. For the upcoming, I will try kind of to predict which category they’ll end up in and my expectations for them. For the closing one, I’ll give my opinion on why they weren’t able to survive among all the other restaurants.
This first post will focus on the known upcoming restaurants and if I expect them to survive or not, and if they will be part of the best or the worst restaurants in Tromsø. You might say I’m making myself biased when trying to predict their place on the list before I’ve eaten there, and I agree. But aren’t we all somewhat biased? If you know of other upcoming restaurants (or closing one), please contact me by clicking here
MS «Bjørnvåg» (opening September 2018.) This one I’m really looking forward to. This restaurant is located on a boat (well, I guess the restaurant is a boat…) which originally was harbored in Trondheim, but apparently took the long journey up north due to two of the owners being from Tromsø with a child starting school here. It’s not quite clear what type of food they will be serving, but it seems as though there will be no menu, and the food served will all depend on what produce and ingredients is available that day. Seems to be only tasting menus, one «short», and one «full». One of the chefs have previously worked in Japan, and some of the pictures of dishes on their website seems Yakitori/Kushiyaki inspired. I have really high hopes for this one, and hopefully they’ll survive. In 2016, the best (by far) fine dining tasting menu restaurant in town went bankrupt. Since then, Smak has opened, and together with Emmas Drømmekjøkken and Mathallen, the competition for the high end diner will be fiercer than ever with the opening of MS Bjørnvåg.
Helmersen Delikatesser (Reopens November 2018 ). Helmersen Delikatesser is closed due to renovations and expansion. Really looking forward to this one! My favorite spot for pre made sandwiches in Tromsø before they closed. Originally a shop selling high end (well, high end for us here in Tromsø.) produce from Italy like cheeses and hams (only place in Tromsø you can find mortadella!). Expanding now to be able to serve wine and a menu with focus on Mediterranean food. If they play their cards right, they will fill an empty space in Tromsø’s food scene.
Graffi Grill (opening September 2018.) Chain restaurant from Trondheim. Not really like any other place in Tromsø, but I guess along the lines of what Roast is doing, combined with Egon. Not really sure how they’ll do, but I’m guessing this will be a bottom medium restaurant for the masses and tourists. I’m guessing they’ll survive, but with the focus on barbecue the competition from Nitty Gritty might be too much,
DuVerden (opening September 2018.) Chain restaurant from Lofoten. They are basically an upscale version of Egon. That is, they got something for everyone. Pizza, sushi, “traditional Norwegian”. I can understand how they are able to survive in e.g. Svolvær where the competition is not that that great and extreme amounts of tourists. But my guess is that the competition in Tromsø will be too demanding. Perhaps the tourists will make them survive. Guessing the poor quality/tourist trap list for this one.
Nitty Gritty (opening autumn 2018.) Same owners as Casa Inferno. They have stated that this place will be an american bar and grill. Not much more to say here, really. If the quality of food here is comparable to that of Casa Inferno, they’ll be a smash hit with the locals and do great. If they manage that, I’ll eat here on a regular basis.
(Find the Tromsø restaurant list by clicking here)
Tourists, beware! Since 2008-2009 Tromsø has seen a huge increase in tourists, often credited to the Northern Lights and other winter activities such as whale watching and dog sledding. The midnight sun and incredible scenery during summer also attracts quite a lot of travelers. Furthermore, Tromsø – the Arctic capital of the World – is an amazing, wonderful, and beautiful city with tons of activities, museums, places to see, people to meet, and last but not least – great restaurants and amazing food! This surge of tourists is a good thing as a whole. There are, however, some cons following the increase in visits. A major one is substandard restaurants popping up, also know as «tourist traps». I hate substandard restaurants. But before we start, let me introduce myself.
I’m a «southerner» from Oslo living in Tromsø. I arrived here almost a decade ago to study and fell in love with the place and the people. I’m a food lover, and I take great offence in substandard restaurants. I travel quite often due to my line of work, due to my hobby (which is food…), and due to most of my family and friends living nowhere near Tromsø. The common denominator in all my travels is to always find the best food available. I love to eat food, cook food, talk about food. But don’t you worry! This will not be «just another» food(ie) blog. This site (or list(s) if you like) is created to assist tourists navigating the jungle of restaurants and «tourists traps» in Tromsø. I’ve eaten at (almost) all the restaurants in Tromsø several times, even the bad ones, since 2011! It’s time for me to share my experience with you.
As mentioned earlier, I like to eat – and I eat out a lot. Both in Tromsø, Oslo, and the rest of the world when I can. My skills in evaluating food can be described as follows: I’m skilled in pointing out flaws in food and restaurants. This allows me to identify the substandard and poor ones – and tourist traps. It even allows me to identify «normal and bland» ones, which are restaurants not really worth mentioning in travel guides and magazines, but which usually are quite popular with the «not-so-into-food»-locals or «your parents». As a result, and by the method of elimination, I’m able to identify the restaurants worth visiting. Don’t trust me? Go ahead, have a meal at a restaurant in my substandard list. But please tell your friends how mistaken you were. The life of a couple of «substandard» restaurant might cause the death of a «worth to visit» one. We can’t let this happen!
Find the Tromsø restaurant list by clicking here
Tourists Beware - Restaurants in Tromsø 