| Oulu Eating Guide |
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| By Edward Dutton | ||||||
| Thursday, 12 October 2006 | ||||||
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There’s a wide choice of restaurants in Oulu serving everything from Peking Duck to Finnish reindeer. Ever ready with his knife and fork, Edward Dutton finds out which ones are a great night out and which will make you wish you’d just ordered a take-way Pizza. ‘Istanbul’, Kauppurienkatu * * This restaurant is not quite as good as it thinks it is. Superficially, you can’t possibly fail to be impressed by the interior. If a film director was intent on producing a ‘typically Turkish’ restaurant he could come to Istanbul in Oulu to get tips. Whether it’s the bookshelves replete with Turkish books – including an old copy of the Koran in Arabic, the intricate Turkish carpets or even the ornate Turkish-style, hanging lamps. Everything’s been thought of to make the atmosphere at the candle-lit tables as intimate and Turkish as possible. The wall is also bedecked with innumerable prizes for culinary excellence . . . but many of them date back rather a long time, over a decade in some cases. There’s a even a large certificate – in French – indicating that the chef is a member of the Company of Rotisseries or something. And that, really, is the problem with Istanbul. It’s showy. It thinks that it’s fantastic and it wants you know that. Even many of the people that ate there while I was there were showy. Most of them were dressed-up smartly, many of them speaking in English, seemingly businessmen. It appeared to be the kind of restaurant to which you would take someone to impress them. In fact, it is rather average. My main course – a kebab of some kind – was ‘alright’ but not even ‘good.’ It would have been fine, apart from the fact that I paid an exorbitant price for it. Half that price would have been reasonable for food that mediocre. It really wasn’t that much better than one of Oulu’s more upmarket kebab restaurants. To make matters worse, the portions were pretty stingy and they weren’t even able to provide me with vinegar . . . in a restaurant! If you’re going to charge prices like that you need to produce quality food and I’ve had far better food at Amarillo for half the price. The service quality also wasn’t that great. The waitress, though pleasant, was forgetful . . . even forgetting to set out the napkins. I was so disappointed by the main course that I didn’t bother with dessert but I don’t imagine it was up to much. Like many people that are showy, there’s not that much underneath. Simply, Istanbul’s not worth what it charges. 3/10 Olimpos, Pakkahoeneenkatu 7 * * * This ‘Mediterranean’ restaurant offers an eclectic variety of French, Spanish, Italian, Greek and possibly Turkish food at quite reasonable prices for the reasonable standard of food that you’re getting. The portions are also of an adequate size. The menu offers a great deal of choice, whether you want fish or steak or even pizza. One problem with some of the ‘classier’ Oulu restaurants is that choice is very limited . . . but not here. Certainly, very little effort has been put into making Olimpos ‘seem’ like a Mediterranean restaurant, apart from the abstract-ish pictures on the walls, you could be in any diner. It is a diner right the way down to the fitted, bench-like seats by the windows. The walls themselves are a not too congenial shade of red. This shade was not only oppressive but made me constantly wonder if it was a deliberate attempt to make me thirsty. (‘Red’ does this and many restaurants use it for that reason. The seats by the window, for example, were an even brighter red). The food wasn’t a problem in Olimpos . . . but the service most certainly was. The food was abysmally slow . . . I waited an hour for the main course while being continuously fobbed off with excuses. I was then offered a ‘free dessert’ as recompense . . . a free bottle of wine is more usual as this actually costs the restaurant something. The food is reasonable as are the prices but if my experience is anything to go by, you’ll have a very long wait for your dinner 6/10 Ravintola Taste of India: New Bombay, Asemakatu 39 * This is the worst Indian restaurant I have ever been to in my life and as Indian is my favourite kind of food I am have been to quite a few. My chicken korma with plain rice was absolutely disgraceful. A korma should be rich, brown, creamy and, above all, subtly spicy with perfectly cooked pieces of breast chicken. My korma was watery, tasteless, a kind of insipid yellow and there was nowhere near enough chicken, which probably wasn’t breast anyway. The rice hadn’t been drained properly and had been slightly overcooked. In the words of the famous Indian Sit Com, which they have in Finland, Goodness Gracious Me! ‘What is the point of coming here when I can cook it at home my self!’ In its defence, the food was very cheap, the service was quick and the restaurant had a kind of Indian atmosphere in its decor and music. But, actually, that was another problem. It is not an Indian restaurant at all, let alone a Bombay restaurant, and in some countries there’d be laws against it insisting otherwise. The restaurant served beef, something which Hindus in India would generally never touch. I have never before been to an Indian restaurant that serves beef because, even if it’s run by Non-Hindus, beef simply isn’t done in India (not even at McDonalds) . . . and certainly not in Bombay. The menu also lacked ‘Bombay Duck’ (a very famous fish dish.) To have no Bombay Duck and call yourself ‘New Bombay’ is odd but to serve beef and call yourself the ‘Taste of India’ is quite astounding. It is not an Indian restaurant and it is misleading to term it as such. But these are minor points. The food was just terrible. It’s a shame there are no other Indian restaurants in Oulu. A lot of Oululainen will go round thinking that Indian food is plain and watery. It is, in fact, the best food ever invented. 2/10
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