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.
Tourists Beware - Restaurants in Tromsø 