Ravintola Mezzo, Kauppurienkatu 5.
This is a charming little restaurant with exquisite food, romantic décor, pleasant music and probably the best, and certainly the most conscientious, waiter in Oulu. Slightly set back from the street, the candle-lit bistro is testimony to the old adage that restaurants should ‘keep it simple’ and do a small number of dishes really well. The menu, obtainable in both Finnish and English, offers three choices for each course, choices which are changed periodically. It is a set on menu – 29 euros for two courses and thirty six if you want a dessert. The food was wonderful; just right . . . always a perfect and delicate mix of ingredients and always carefully and artistically presented. I chose salmon as the starter and lamb on a bed of beans for the main course. I don’t really like beans – or any vegetable for that matter – but the chef at Mezzo, who is also the owner of the restaurant, went quite far to winning me round with his little concoction. Dessert choices included ‘Rose hip soup,’ which seemed bizarrely tempting, but I played it safe with chocolate cake . . . which was delicious.
Possibly even more impressive than the food was the sole waiter. In his twenties I guess, he spoke flawless English in quite a plummy accent and attended to our every need like Jeeves, the archetypal gentleman’s gentleman. The table was perfectly laid out. The two of us sat at a table for four so the waiter removed the excess condiments in a systematic – almost theatrical - way. When I accidently spilt a small amount of the sauce he was round almost instantly to clean it up. I asked for the sweetest possible white wine so it was served to me not in a wine glass but specifically in a dessert wine glass. Upon requesting my lamb be medium rare – it is often a problem in Finland that beef and lamb are well-done – the almost shocked waiter responded, ‘Yes, of course sir!’ as if anything else would be unconscionably degenerate. The meal over, we were asked, ‘Would you like some time to consider whether or not you would like a dessert?’ I’ve never come across such flawless English in Oulu . . . not even from English native-speakers! He must have been to some kind of waiters’ finishing school in Paris or something.
This is, at least by Oulu standards, a night of high dining without the expense and without the slightly stuffy and stilted atmosphere of some of the city’s ‘quality’ restaurants. The lighting, décor and music – they played Nora Jones and a Scots Gaelic band called Capercaillie – helps to see to that. I cannot recommend this place enough.
* * * * *
Afroditi, Asemakatu 10
From the outside, it looks a bit grotty and it’s in a pretty grotty area of the town centre but if you can put that aside this restaurant is a rather pleasant surprise. The interior is what you’d expect of a Greek restaurant – clichéd Greek pottery, plates, maps, statuettes and so on. But that’s all part of the charm really . . . as is the background Greek folk music. The waiting staff are friendly, reasonably quick, speak English (and very good Finnish) and also seem to be properly trained. My waitress all but insisted that my choice of wine – I just love sweet, white wine - was not appropriate for my main course. She recommended something else . . . and it went just right with it. I had some kind of shashlik (‘souvlaki’) for the main. This was fantastic! Not only was it perfectly cooked – such that I tried unsuccessfully to recreate it the next day at home – but the portion was extremely generous at a time when some devious restaurants have been upping their prices and cutting their portions because of the ‘food crisis.’ There is no food crisis in Afroditi – though my wife wasn’t too sure about her mousaka . . . so maybe best to stick to the simpler dishes.
That said, there aren’t many restaurants that present me with a meal I enjoy so much that I want to go home and recreate it. It’s also pretty reasonably priced considering the huge quantity of food you get served. This is another great restaurant in Oulu . . . and its food is noticeably different from its main competitor. Perhaps the people at Afroditi are from a different part of Greece. But where-ever they’re from, I’m glad that they and their restaurant are in Oulu and will certainly be going again.
. I mean: "Possibly even more impressive than the food was the sole waiter" 
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