Tampere is a fantastic destination for a foodie traveler. From street food to fine dining, this 3rd largest city in Finland offers a great variety of restaurants serving both local specialities and ethnic food – local not meaning only Finnish food, but Tamperian food with ingredients grown in the area.
The latest addition to the ethnic scene is a Ghanaian-Caribbean fusion restaurant and Japanese ramen izakaya in the Tampere market hall. (So new that I haven’t tried yet, but there are queues!)
If you don’t fit, who cares: There are tons of places to choose from: Georgian, Thai, Syrian, and, of course, French and multiple Italian restaurants.
Vegetarian, steaks, black sausage, pintxos, burgers, ramen, kimchi, fresh water fish, chicken wings… in gastropubs, food trucks, rooftops, wine bars, pizzerias, Michelin-recommended restos, izakayas… Tampere doesn’t leave you hungry, and you might not want to leave Tampere.
I will keep you updated in this post, adding our blog articles about Tampere food festivals and YouTube videos from the restaurants we’ve been discovering lately, certainly including our all-time favorite spots for wining and dining. We prefer relaxed gastropubs serving excellent food without us foodies going bankrupt.
Welcome to the Tampere food tour with us, enjoy!
Hyvää ruokahalua!
Local Classics & Fine Dining
Restaurants that have “always” been here – and for a good reason.
Restaurant Heinätori – The Best Local Dinner in Tampere?
It’s not easy to find authentic Finnish food in restaurants in Finland. But if you are visiting my birth town, Tampere, I highly recommend this restaurant called Heinätori.
They serve locally produced Finnish food. Everything is produced max 50 km from the restaurant.
Okay, wine and most spirits come from faraway places, for obvious reasons, but their fish comes from the Näsijärvi Lake, mushrooms are local, and meat (much game!) comes from nearby.
This is also a family-run restaurant that has kept its quality for already 18 years.
We have been dining here since the beginning, and we always feel like returning home. And it’s not only for us, but Irma and Lauri value all of their customers.
Heinätori restaurant is located in a former scale house in Pyynikintori, just one kilometer from Keskustori (the main square of the city).
Näsinneula – The Original City View Restaurant
Tampere has got multiple new rooftop restaurants in recent years.
Still, Näsinneula is the original one, the tallest one (actually the tallest in the Nordic countries!), and has the best views over the whole city of Tampere and even beyond.
Näsinneula is an observation tower, but it also has a cafe and a fine dining restaurant.
We celebrated my birthday on a cruise, but a few days later, we had another celebration dinner with my family in Näsinneula.
I had two options: the other one was Restaurant Heinätori, which has been one of our favorite restaurants since it was opened in 2007.
We decided to dine there another day, and I chose Restaurant Näsinneula, because of the beautiful views over the city.
We have been away for years, so it was nice to celebrate my big day (50) by watching my birthplace, Tampere, from the birds-eye view.
I could actually see two of my former homes, plus my new home, at one glance!
So if you are looking for a relaxed way to see the whole city of Tampere, come here for lunch or dinner.
You don’t even have to walk at all, as the view deck (also the restaurant) goes around and makes a full turn in 45 minutes.
By the time you have finished your dinner, you have probably seen the Tampere city views twice. You will also see both of the two big lakes by the city.
If you are not hungry, just come for the views only, but I highly recommend eating in Näsinneula. The restaurant is by no means a tourist place, but popular among the locals and offers locally-produced food.
Restaurant Kattila – Local Food in Tampere
Ravintola Kattila simply means ”Restaurant Kettle” and is one of those places you should try in the center of Tampere.
It is one of those restaurants that offers locally produced quality food, for example, pike perch is fished from Pyhäjärvi “Sacred Lake”, which is only a few hundred meters from the Kattila.
The restaurant tends to be more on the fine dining side, but prices are still reasonable (at least in the Finnish comparison). By the time of filming this video at the end of November 2024, a 4-course set menu cost 59€.
(We had one extra portion, a tartar, that’s why there are 5 foods in the video.)
We managed to dine there only once (for our anniversary), but we loved it and planned to return.
Unfortunately, Kattila closed its doors in the summer of 2025 and hasn’t opened since. Rest in peace, we are waiting for a comeback!
4 Nights in Some of My Favorite Bars & Restaurants
When filming this video (in May and June 2024), I was still partly living in Belgrade and came to Tampere every other month to meet my hubby, who moved back to Finland before me. We had been abroad for years, so whenever I came to Tampere, I wanted to visit some of my favorite restaurants. This time, we went crazy and visited a gazillion bars and restaurants. Watch this video to see four of our dinners in different restaurants. Bonus: a couple of bars introduced. Plus, of course, a bit of tram riding.
Restaurants in this video:
- Huber – Meat restaurant on the finer side (think of horse meat, wagyu), but with a relaxed atmosphere
- Zarillo – burgers (Check their Burger Tuesday, they have burger meals for 7,90 €. Trust me, that is a very cheap price in Finland!)
- Gastropub Tuulensuu – The Name tells it. Belgian-style quality pub food. Tons of quality beers & wines. Our fave for 15+ years. Try their meatballs or frog legs!
- Sailor’s Bar & Grill – We went here for the drinks with my childhood friend, got hungry, and had some fast food.
We also went to some other restaurants and bars; see my other videos for those. For example, fine dining in the observation tower Näsinneula for my birthday, and our all-time favorite restaurant Heinätori for local food.
Gastropubs
Relaxed & Delicious
Update Your Thoughts about Pub Food – This is a Gastropub – Gastropub Tuulensuu
If you thought pub food is something like deep-fried onion rings and crappy burgers, you should try Gastropub Tuulensuu.
They are proud of their Belgian-style cuisine for a reason. After all, this is a gastropub, not just a pub. You can find us here, any time of the year – we’ve been enjoying candlelight dinners here in three different decades. My gosh, I’m that old, but anyway…
Tuulensuu is not for fine dining, but rather hearty pub food to enjoy with friends in a relaxed atmosphere or to have a date by candlelight.
They have rather unusual ingredients for Finnish cuisine. Meatballs are, of course, typical of Finland, but Tuulensuu’s meatballs have a twist. My fave meal here is lamb meatballs with goat cheese potatoes, but you can find interesting suppers to try, from frog legs to rabbit.
Nowadays, the owner of this restaurant also has a few other gastropubs in Tampere; Bar Inez and the newest spot called Schnitzelhaus are a couple of ones to mention. Both are worth visiting.
Read the blog post: Wining & Dining in Tampere – Gastropub Tuulensuu
French Cuisine
Brasserie Deux
Join us for my birthday dinner in Tampere, Finland! We tried the new French brasserie in June 2025, and of course, I chose canard du confit, the duck. Being a tartar lover, I needed to try their specialty, which is made fresh at your table, in a golden bowl that looks like the head of a cow.
I also have to mention the beautiful interior designed by Petra-Miisa Juusenaho, a hugely appreciated interior designer in the Finnish restaurant scene (and also my schoolmate).
Pintxos
It’s not only that I could live eating only tapas, but Tampere is also the home of the best pintxofiesta in the Nordics, hence Tamperrada deserves its own chapter here. This annual food fiesta is a great way to eat through Tampere in small bites. Tamperrada is held around August-September. There are usually about 50 restaurants participating.
Pintxo Fiesta Tamperrada 2023
Pintxofiesta Tamperrada is the annual pintxo festival held in Tampere, Finland. It is considered to be the best one in Northern Europe!
Every year, approximately 45-50 restaurants take part in the pintxo contest.
Basque country style & modern versions of pintxos are available.
The public can join and taste pintxos for a few euros and also vote for the best one. Most of the restaurants offer several different pintxos, but apply only one to the contest.
We toured 8 restaurants that I will show you in this video.
Bonus: The oldest pub in Tampere.
Pintxo Fiesta Tamperrada 2025
Join us for the best pintxo fiesta in the Nordic countries!
Pintxo Fiesta Tamperrada is held every August in Tampere, Finland.
In 2025, 42 restaurants participated in the pintxo contest.
We managed to take only 9 bites in the 4 different restaurants, but we chose well.
Restaurants in the video:
- Ravinteli Haarla
- Bodega Salud
- Saivo
- Tampinkoski Kitchen & Bar
Asian Style
Aloha Ramen – The Best Ramen in Tampere?
I love Japan and used to travel there regularly, usually for a few months at a time. Lately, I’ve been living in two countries, Serbia and Finland, so I had to say bye to Japan trips for a while.
Whereas so-called ethnic restaurants aren’t that common and popular in Belgrade, in Tampere they are. Moving back to my birthplace, Tampere, I was lusting for Japanese food – that was the closest to Japan I could get at the moment. I had a hard time deciding which restaurant to choose.
Then I remembered Aloha ramen.
It didn’t yet exist when I last lived in Tampere, but rumors whispered to me even to foreign countries that this place has the best ramen in town. So we tried.
My goodness! While my hubby enjoyed his chicken ramen, I almost swallowed my tongue with my pork ramen. And he envied my portion (we always taste each other’s food). So yes, do go here if you need some warming ramen for cold winter days!
For Thirsties only
If you are looking for a liquid nutrition only, try these pubs – these are local legends and our favorites too.
