Gastropub Nordic

Nordic, which is part of the Nordic Brewery chain, is a pleasant and cosy dog-friendly gastro pub serving a limited selection of tasty food and a decent range of drinks.

The food menu consists of two starters/snacks, three salads, four mains, and two desserts. As for drinks, they offer a good selection of drafts; 3 Kukko beers, some Nordic brewery beers, Magners cider, and some guest beers. They also have a selection of bottled and canned beers, and a few wines by the glass or bottle.

First, in terms of food, we enjoyed the Nordic Platter (€9) from the snack section, and have tried three mains; two types of Ruisreino (€12) and a burger (€12). The Nordic Platter included high quality ingredients such as bread, smoked salmon, game sausage, house pickles, bread cheese and Emmental. The Ruisreino is a toasted Finnish rye bread topped with mayonnaise, red onion, Gouda cheese and other toppings of your choice. We tried the chicken and goats cheese, and the bacon and blue cheese (pictured) and found them both to be very tasty and surprisingly filling. The burger came on a delicious grainy bun and was topped with tar mayo, Emmental, salad and pickles. The burger was very tasty but almost impossible to eat with your hands, so we did as the Finnish seem to do and used cutlery. Also, the pickles and salad toppings were a little lost in the mayonnaise and cheese, and we would have preferred the option of fries.

While the food did not blow us away, it was very flavoursome, used good quality ingredients, and was very good value for money.

As for the drinks, we have had two very tasty Kukko draft beers (the lager and dark lager) and also enjoyed a very nice glass of prosecco. The beers were €6.50 for half a litre, and the prosecco is €6 for 12cl (although we enjoyed two-for-one using the Tampere Pass App).

In summary, a very pleasant pub with tasty, well-prepared and interesting food, good drinks, and friendly staff. Highly recommended if you are looking for a relaxing place to enjoy a drink and some Finnish pub food.