I went to Sokos Hotel Eden with my mother on a Sunday evening at around 5pm. This is a normal time to have dinner for a lot of Finnish people, including my mother. So despite my complaints about it being "only late lunch time" I agreed to go out since it's the first time my mother has taken me out in 5 years.
Thus, as the darkness descended, the frost nipped at the car windshield, and the realisation dawned on me that it was 5pm, we arrived at Nallikari.
Now, after living in Oulu for about 6 months, I've come to expect less from restaurants in general; the Finnish restaurant culture just isn't the same as, well... everywhere else. Yet as someone who has stayed in and, one could even say, lived in probably over 25 hotels by now, I was thrown off balance by the lobby bar "restaurant".
The hotel is beautiful otherwise, it follows to Finnish design principles: modern, simple, and warm. I also can't complain about the design of the restaurant... that is, until I saw a bright display of some sort looming in the back, and I, feeling like my 7 year old inquisitive self, asked my mother: "Mummy, what is that?"
I felt like I was hit with a oven mitt (really, it was a soft blow). I realised that this restaurant was one school cafeteria restaurants that are so popular in Finland, and that bright thing was the counter that I will be ordering from. For those of you who don't know what the school cafeteria model is...
THE SCHOOL CAFETERIA MODEL
Customers pick up a tray, cutlery, napkins and a glass. They then move along the counter to fill their glass with a drink (soft drink, water, milk, option of beer or cider), pick up some bread or coffee etc. After that, they go to the cashier who takes their order and tallies up their bill which they pay at once. The customers sit at a table where their food is brought to the table (okay, this is nicer than expected). After finishing the meal, customers take their own dirty dishes away, kind of like in McDonald's.
I was horribly disappointed that this was a school cafeteria model restaurant. I decided to order the Chorizo with French Fries at a reasonable price of 13.99e, convinced that some fat would cheer me up. Other things on the menu included chicken wings, burgers, corn on the cob- kind of like a Hard Rock Cafe but not. A Hard Not Cafe.
The food was nice, despite the ratio of Chorizo to French Fries being about 1:50000, and a random watermelon ending up in the midst. However, I could not get the disappointment of being in a hotel to have dinner and having a pretty much self-serve experience. This is a horrible practise to begin with, even worse than the forks-in-a-bucket (which you'll hear about later). I wonder if they make guests put away the laundry and take room service dishes back to the kitchen too.
SUMMARY
Food (Chorizo with fries and random watermelon): 6.5/10
Price (13.99 + drink): 3/5
Atmosphere/look: 3/5
Location: 4/5
Service: 3/5
Extra: -5 for cafeteria model
Overall: 14.5/30
Thus, as the darkness descended, the frost nipped at the car windshield, and the realisation dawned on me that it was 5pm, we arrived at Nallikari.
Now, after living in Oulu for about 6 months, I've come to expect less from restaurants in general; the Finnish restaurant culture just isn't the same as, well... everywhere else. Yet as someone who has stayed in and, one could even say, lived in probably over 25 hotels by now, I was thrown off balance by the lobby bar "restaurant".
The hotel is beautiful otherwise, it follows to Finnish design principles: modern, simple, and warm. I also can't complain about the design of the restaurant... that is, until I saw a bright display of some sort looming in the back, and I, feeling like my 7 year old inquisitive self, asked my mother: "Mummy, what is that?"
I felt like I was hit with a oven mitt (really, it was a soft blow). I realised that this restaurant was one school cafeteria restaurants that are so popular in Finland, and that bright thing was the counter that I will be ordering from. For those of you who don't know what the school cafeteria model is...
THE SCHOOL CAFETERIA MODEL
Customers pick up a tray, cutlery, napkins and a glass. They then move along the counter to fill their glass with a drink (soft drink, water, milk, option of beer or cider), pick up some bread or coffee etc. After that, they go to the cashier who takes their order and tallies up their bill which they pay at once. The customers sit at a table where their food is brought to the table (okay, this is nicer than expected). After finishing the meal, customers take their own dirty dishes away, kind of like in McDonald's.
I was horribly disappointed that this was a school cafeteria model restaurant. I decided to order the Chorizo with French Fries at a reasonable price of 13.99e, convinced that some fat would cheer me up. Other things on the menu included chicken wings, burgers, corn on the cob- kind of like a Hard Rock Cafe but not. A Hard Not Cafe.
The food was nice, despite the ratio of Chorizo to French Fries being about 1:50000, and a random watermelon ending up in the midst. However, I could not get the disappointment of being in a hotel to have dinner and having a pretty much self-serve experience. This is a horrible practise to begin with, even worse than the forks-in-a-bucket (which you'll hear about later). I wonder if they make guests put away the laundry and take room service dishes back to the kitchen too.
SUMMARY
Food (Chorizo with fries and random watermelon): 6.5/10
Price (13.99 + drink): 3/5
Atmosphere/look: 3/5
Location: 4/5
Service: 3/5
Extra: -5 for cafeteria model
Overall: 14.5/30
