Piemonte (Modern Italian)

Piemonte is a lovely dog-friendly Italian restaurant located 5 or 10 minutes’ walk from Tampere train station and Hämeenkatu. The restaurant is tastefully decorated and offers a cosy and conformable atmosphere for guests with or without furry friends.  Piemonte offers a limited choice of delicious food inspired by North Italian cuisine and nice selection of high quality drinks. If you are looking for some upscale Italian food in Tampere, then Piemonte is highly recommended, especially if you have a furry friend hankering for some delicious Italian cold cuts!!!

As with a couple places reviewed in Tampere, we have only been to Piemonte once for dinner and a couple times for the Pinchos during the “Tamperrada Pintxo Week”, so again our experience and knowledge is very limited. However, as we had a very nice evening for dinner and enjoyed our “Pinchos” visits, know they are dog-friendly, and there are a limited number of good Italian restaurants (not pizza places) in Tampere, we thought a review was in order. As you will see from the review below, we will definitely be going again, and the only reason we have not been back already is that there are so any places to try in Tampere.

In terms of food, like Bistro Katilla, Piemonte serves a limited a la carte dinner menu along with set menu options (from the same dishes listed in the à la carte). However, the menu changes quite regularly, so unless you are going very often, you will always have new and interesting dishes to try. In terms of the dinner menu, Piemonte usually offers 4 starters (antipasti), 3 second courses (Primi piatti) 2 mains (Secondi piatti) and 3 or 4 desserts (Dolci). While there are vegetarian options, it is not the most vegetarian friendly menu; the starters and main usually include a fish dish and a vegetarian option, the Primi piatti has both meat and vegetarian, but the Secondi piatti usually consists of two meat dishes. In addition to the dinner menu, again like Bistro Katilla, Piemonte also offers a changing lunch menu on weekdays and brunch on Saturdays, and while we have not tried these yet, given our dinner experience and the interesting sounding menus, we will do so soon. Next, as for drinks, they serve a small selection of draught and bottled beers, some very nice wines by the glass and bottle, cocktails, and other drinks.

On our dinner visit, we very much enjoyed the delicious food and drinks, our dog was totally welcome, the atmosphere and décor of the restaurant were lovely, and the staff were very friendly and professional. The review here is quite limited as (a) I wrote this review long after our visit, and my memory is getting worse as I get older (one of the reasons for writing this blog), and (b) we did not have many dishes as we were looking for a light meal at the time. Therefore, I will not go into specifics regarding the food and prices, but will try to be as helpful as possible.

For the starter, we shared an antipasti of roasted vegetables and Mortadella with a side of bread. The dish was excellent with very nicely cooked and flavour packed vegetables, and the Mortadella was as good as most we have eaten in Italy. The we shared a past dish and a risotto, both of which were excellent. The only issues we had was that as they both consisted of fresh wild mushrooms, the taste was a little too similar (but that is our fault for sharing I guess). Then for the main, we just shared one main course, which was a delicious fish dish. While I cannot 100% remember what it was or contained, I think it was Pike Perch but I do remember being extremely happy with it. The fish was cooked perfectly and all the accompanying vegetables were lovely.

We washed all the excellent food down with some nice very clean and crisp draught beers and a couple glasses of excellent red wine. Also, as we do not overly go for desserts, we opted for a couple digestifs instead. All the drinks were well served, of high quality, and suited the food perfectly.

In terms of value for money, I do not remember the individual prices, but the bill for 1 antipasti, 1 pasta, 1 risotto, 1 main, and numerous drinks was a very reasonable €138.50.

All up, Piemonte offers a comfortable space to spend an evening in Tampere while enjoying delicious Italian food and drinks. The food offerings were not only delicious and interesting but also carefully prepared, the drinks were we were great, and the service was friendly and professional. Given the above, we highly recommend Piemonte to those with or without furry companions, and we will definitely be heading back for another visit soon.