The best restaurants in Tromsø raise the same three questions for most first-timers: which ones are worth the money, what a meal actually costs, and how far ahead you need to book. The answer that surprised me most is that food turned out to be the best value part of the whole trip. Activities and drinks up here are expensive. Dinner, for the quality you get, is not.
I spent six days in Tromsø in January eating my way round the town, breakfast through to dinner, and it was the variety that pleasantly surprised me. Arctic seafood, yes. But also a Neapolitan-style pizzeria, a curry house with an afterwork menu, and a hot dog kiosk that turns out to be a protected heritage building.
There’s one place on my list I wouldn’t rush back to, and I’ve said which and why. If you’re coming in peak winter, the booking section matters more than anything else here, because everyone’s tour finishes at the same time and everyone wants a table at the same time. I help you navigate that in this guide.
More of my Tromsø guides to help plan your trip
- Where to stay in Tromsø – Best hotels for all budgets, plus igloos and cabins outside the city
- How many days in Tromsø – A day by day itinerary, activity costs and what to skip
- Best pubs and bars in Tromsø – Where to go after a day out in the cold, with live music options
- Travel around by bus in Tromsø – How the buses work, tickets and getting to Fjellheisen
- Skiing in Tromsø – Alpinpark, lift passes and night skiing in the dark months
Quick picks by budget and occasion
If you take one thing from my list of the best restaurants in Tromsø, make it this: book your big dinner before you fly, not when you land.
By budget
- Big night out: Restaurant Smak, Fiskekompaniet, Emmas Drømmekjøkken
- Mid-range: Mathallen, Full Steam, RUDA, Bardus Bistro, Arctandria Sjømatrestaurant, Skarven Grill, Hildr
- Cheaper: Raketten, Casa Inferno, Suvi, Indie
By occasion
- Romantic: Restaurant Smak, Emmas Drømmekjøkken
- Groups: Bardus Bistro, Arctandria, Skarven Grill
- Quick bites / late: Raketten, Full Steam, Casa Inferno
- Seafood fans: Fiskekompaniet, Arctandria, Full Steam
Map of the best restaurants in Tromsø
When to book (and where walk-ins work)
- Peak winter (Dec to Feb): book your evening restaurants before you fly, not when you arrive. That goes double if you aren’t flexible with what time you eat.
- Why peak dinner slots go first: nearly everyone in town is on a tour, and the tours finish at roughly the same time. That squeezes the whole city into the same dinner slot. We were happy to eat early or late if it meant getting a table, and that flexibility got us in more than once.
- Walk-ins: kitchens close earlier than you’d expect. Fiskekompaniet’s kitchen stops at 21:00, Full Steam’s at 21:30, and Mathallen, Hildr and RUDA all close at 22:00. If you’re back late from a northern lights chase, Raketten and Casa Inferno are the realistic options.
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Tromsø restaurants at a glance
| Venue | Cuisine | Pricing Band | Booking tip | Closed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurant Smak | Tasting menu, modern Nordic | £££ | Deposit required, book well ahead | Sun, Mon, Tue |
| Emmas Drømmekjøkken | North Norwegian tasting menu | £££ | Closed for renovation, check first | See note below |
| Emmas Winebar | Norwegian bistro and bar | £–££ | Closed for renovation, check first | See note below |
| Mathallen | Seasonal Norwegian | ££ | Book Fri and Sat | Sun |
| Full Steam Tromsø | Seafood, harbourfront | ££ | Walk-in friendly, kitchen shuts 21:30 | Check |
| Fiskekompaniet | Seafood | £££ | Reserve, ask for a window table | Sun |
| Skarven Grill (Biffhuset) | Steakhouse | ££ | Groups over 10 by email | Open daily |
| Bardus Bistro | Local bistro | ££ | Try bar seats for walk-ins | Check |
| Arctandria Sjømatrestaurant | Traditional seafood | ££ | Reserve for weekends | Sun |
| Hildr Gastro Bar | Seasonal small plates | ££ | Book Thu to Sat | Sun, Mon |
| Raketten Bar & Pølse | Hot dogs | £ | Walk-up only | Check |
| RUDA | Nordic, same site as Smak | ££ | Book at weekends | Mon, Tue |
| Casa Inferno | Wood-fired pizza | £–££ | Walk-ins common, takeaway available | Open daily |
| Suvi | Pan-Asian and sushi | £–££ | Bookings taken | Check |
| Indie | Indian | £–££ | Afterwork curry 15:00 to 18:00 | Check Fri and Sat |
Best restaurants in Tromsø: My hand picked shortlist
Restaurant Smak
PRICE £££
The most expensive meal in this guide by a distance, and the one that needs the most planning. Smak serves a single tasting menu at NOK 2,500 (£198) a head, 16 to 18 courses over four to five hours. Wine pairing takes it to NOK 4,250 (£337). There are 22 seats and it opens four nights a week, Wednesday to Saturday, 18:00 to midnight.
Pick this if a long, engaging and theatric dinner is what you’re after. Skip it if you want to eat and get out, or if you’re chasing the lights afterwards, because you won’t be finished in time.
One thing to know before you book: Smak isn’t in the centre. It’s at Kræmer Brygge on Stakkevollvegen, in the lower floor of the Kanal Nord building, about 15 minutes out. Buses 42 and 33 go from the centre to the Kræmer stop, or you can travel around by bus in Tromsø on a day pass. Parking alongside the building is free.
Booking takes a NOK 1,000 (£79) deposit per person, and cancellations need 72 hours’ notice. Tell them about allergies at least 24 hours ahead and they’ll do the menu without meat or fish, or fully vegetarian. They can’t do vegan, dairy-free or egg-free.
Emma’s Drømmekjøkken
PRICE £££
My favourite meal in Tromsø, and the one I’d send a friend to first. Emmas serves seasonal tasting menus only, six courses at NOK 1,195 (£95) or nine at NOK 1,395 (£111), and the menu changes weekly depending on what the kitchen can get hold of. Downstairs in the wine bar you can order some of the same dishes individually, which is the cheaper option.
We got a table on the day, which I put down to luck as it must have been a cancellation. It’s on Kirkegata, opposite the cathedral.
Go hungry. Nine courses sounds like a lot of small plates and it isn’t, I left properly stuffed and very happy. My other half is lactose intolerant and we flagged it when we booked, so several of her courses came out differently to mine without any fuss and without her missing anything.
UPDATE: Emmas (and the wine bar) is closed for renovation at the time of writing (outside peak season so should change), with no reopening date announced. Everything above is from my visit. Check their site before you plan an evening around it.
Emma’s Winebar
PRICE £-££
The ground floor bar under the restaurant, and the cheaper way to eat Emmas food. Several dishes from the tasting menus upstairs can be ordered individually down here. We came for a drink rather than a meal and the cocktails were very good.
If you want somewhere else for a nightcap, my guide to the best pubs and bars in Tromsø covers the alternatives.
Mathallen
PRICE £££
The one place on this list I was a little disappointed with. The food was good and the room is nice, but the price and the value didn’t quite line up for me. I’d pick others on the list first. Four courses is NOK 925 (£73) and five is NOK 1,055 (£84), or you can go à la carte with mains from NOK 395 to 445 (£31 to £35).
The open kitchen is the best thing about it. You sit and watch the whole team working, and it does make the room. There’s a full vegetarian version of both set menus at the same price, which is rare up here.
Full Steam
PRICE £
A harbourfront seafood restaurant inside a working museum, and the easiest of the sit-down places to get into without booking. Mains are NOK 345 to 485 (£27 to £38), so it isn’t the cheap option some guides make it out to be, but the signature fish soup at NOK 345 (£27) is the thing to order.
Two things worth knowing before you book. Minke whale is on the menu, both smoked as a starter and as a steak, so decide how you feel about that first. And there’s a vegan vegetable and tofu stew at NOK 345 (£27), which is more than the fine dining places manage. The kitchen shuts at 21:30.
The restaurant sits inside the Full Steam museum, which covers the cod and stockfish trade that built this coast. Museum entry is bookable separately and comes bundled into several of their Sami and northern lights excursions.
Fiskekompaniet
PRICE £££
No trip to Tromsø would be complete without sampling some of the incredible seafood the region is famous for, and there’s no better place to do that than Fiskekompaniet.
The creamy fish soup was excellent. It comes as the opening course of the three-course Menu Maritim at NOK 850 (£67), and there’s a five-course version at NOK 1,150 (£91). Everything is local, and the menu shifts with whatever came in that day.
King crab is available at the shellfish bar as a 100g addition at NOK 495 (£39), on top of a NOK 1,095 (£87) platter.
Lunch is 11:30 to 14:00, dinner 17:00 to 22:00 with the kitchen shutting at 21:00. Closed Sundays.
MY TOP TIP! Ask for a window table when you reserve.
Skarven Grill
PRICE ££
The steakhouse of the Skarven group down on the waterfront, properly called Skarven Grill or Biffhuset depending on which sign you read. Pick this if someone in your group has had enough fish.
It’s the most flexible option here for timing, open every day from 15:30 to 23:00, which is unusual in a city where a lot of kitchens shut at 22:00. Groups over 10 need to email rather than book online.
Bardus Bistro
PRICE ££
A small bistro with a bar attached, and bar stools that make it worth trying as a walk up if you haven’t booked anything. The kitchen leans local and the menu is short.
Arctandria Sjømat
PRICE ££
The seafood restaurant of the Skarven group, upstairs from the pub on Strandtorget. It seats 80, which makes it one of the easier places to get a weekend table, though I’d still book. Open 16:00 to 23:00 Monday to Saturday, closed Sundays.
Hildr
PRICE ££
Small plates with Nordic flavours, built to share across the table. It’s a short week: open Tuesday to Saturday, 18:00 to 22:00 only, with the bar going later. Closed Sunday and Monday, which catches people out on a three-night trip.
Raketten Bar & Pølse
PRICE £
We ate here twice in six days, which tells you most of what you need to know. It’s a hot dog kiosk on Storgata, it’s quick, and it’s fun. We went on our first day and stood outside in the bar area next to the fires, which was a good way to get a feel for the town before doing anything else.
The reindeer dog was my first taste of reindeer in Tromsø. There are regular hot dogs too if that isn’t your thing.
The building is worth a look in its own right. It’s the old Løkkekiosken, put up in 1911 by an 18-year-old called Margit Løkke, listed as a nationally important heritage site in 2009 and formally protected in 2019. It’s also billed as Norway’s smallest bar. Fit it around your day using my guide to how many days in Tromsø you need.
RUDA
PRICE £-££
Same building as Restaurant Smak out at Kræmer Brygge, same owners, much lower bill. Mains are NOK 365 to 595 (£29 to £47) and there’s a three-course menu of the month at NOK 995 (£79). Closed Monday and Tuesday.
Pick this if you want the Smak kitchen’s thinking without the four-hour tasting menu commitment. Note that it’s a bus ride from the centre, same as Smak.
Indie (Indian Cuisine)
PRICE £-££
A proper Indian restaurant on Grønnegata, and the best value sit-down meal in this guide if you time it right. The afterwork curry runs Monday to Friday, 15:00 to 18:00.
Otherwise it’s 15:00 to 22:00 Monday to Thursday and 14:00 to 21:00 on Sundays. Friday and Saturday hours aren’t published, so check before you turn up on a weekend night.
Casa Inferno (Pizzeria)
PRICE £-££
Very nice pizza, and better than I expected to find this far north. It’s a Neapolitan sourdough style, wood-fired, with the ingredients brought in from Italy. Open every day, which almost nowhere else on this list manages.
Takeaway is a great option here too, and worth remembering on the night you get back late and cold from a tour.
MY TOP TIP! Order the takeaway and eat it back at your hotel. When you’re tired after a long day out in the cold it sometimes beats sitting in a restaurant.
Suvi (Asian Cuisine)
PRICE £-££
Sushi and Asian fusion in the centre of town, and the obvious choice on the night you’ve had enough fish soup. They take bookings online.
Best stops for breakfast, brunch and coffee with a view
Koselig Café was our favourite breakfast in Tromsø. We went twice, once for pastries and once for the eggs, and the brunch menu is big enough that we could have kept going back. It gets busy, so go early if you want a table without waiting. Storgata 45, open every day, 08:00 to 20:00 on weekdays and from 09:00 at weekends.
Risø Kaffebar is on Sjøgata, right near the Radisson Blu, which makes it the easy option if you’re staying there. We had pastries and a very good cinnamon roll. This is the sourdough-focused site that opened in 2022, open 08:00 to 16:00 on weekdays, 10:00 to 16:00 on Saturdays, closed Sundays.
Risø mat & kaffebar is the original, a few streets away on Strandgata, with a bigger lunch offering. Open until 18:00 on weekdays, also closed Sundays. Worth knowing they’re two different places before you set off for the wrong one.
Svermeri Kafé og Redesign sits over several floors of one of the oldest houses in the city, up at Jaklins plass near the Polar Museum rather than in the central cluster. In winter they do a breakfast package from 08:00 until lunch starts at 11:00. Best known for the cakes.
Fjellstua, at the top of the Fjellheisen cable car, is drop-in only, no bookings, open 09:00 to 23:30. We had a coffee and a snack up there and the view is the reason to go. Two things to check first: high winds close the cable car at short notice, and a major reconstruction project means it won’t be accessible to wheelchair users until the end of 2027.
What a meal costs in Tromsø (NOK/£)
- Small plates and starters: NOK 175 to 255 (£14 to £20)
- Main courses: NOK 345 to 595 (£27 to £47)
- Set menus: NOK 850 for three courses at Fiskekompaniet, up to NOK 2,500 for the full tasting menu at Smak (£67 to £198)
- Wine pairings: add NOK 595 to 1,750 (£47 to £139) depending on the venue and the menu length
- Drinks, from what I paid: beer (0.5L) NOK 110 to 140 (£9 to £11), wine by the glass NOK 120 to 180 (£10 to £14)
- Tipping isn’t expected. Round up if you think service is excellent.
Dietary needs and the best child friendly restaurants
Every place we ate at handled my other half’s lactose intolerance without a fuss. Staff steered her away from certain dishes, and at Emmas several tasting menu courses came out differently for her because we’d told them when we booked. That’s the thing to copy: tell them at the booking stage.
Vegetarian: Mathallen is the standout, with a full vegetarian version of both set menus at the same price as the standard ones. Smak will do the tasting menu without meat or fish given 24 hours’ notice.
Vegan: harder than you’d think, and it’s the opposite of what you’d expect. Mathallen states plainly it has no vegan options and its vegetarian dishes contain dairy and egg. Smak can’t do vegan at all. Full Steam, one of the more casual places, has a vegan vegetable and tofu stew. The casual end is where you’ll eat, not the fine dining.
Opening hours and Sunday trading
Many kitchens wind down by 21:00–22:00 so make sure you factor this into your planning.
Sundays are the day that catches people out. Mathallen, Fiskekompaniet and Arctandria all close completely. Smak is shut Sunday through Tuesday, Hildr Sunday and Monday, RUDA Monday and Tuesday. If you’re on a three-night trip that includes a Sunday, plan that evening first and build the rest around it. Casa Inferno and Skarven Grill are open every day.
Local Specialties to Try
A few things worth trying while you’re up here, and where I ran into them.
- Reindeer: A staple of Sami cuisine, reindeer meat is lean, flavourful, and often served as steaks, in stews, or dried as jerky.
- King Crab: These enormous crustaceans are a delicacy in Northern Norway. Usually steamed and served simply with butter and lemon.
- Cloudberries: Known as ‘Arctic gold’, these tart berries are often made into jams or served with desserts.
- Stockfish: Dried cod, a traditional preservation method that concentrates the flavour. Often rehydrated and used in various dishes.
- Whale: While controversial, whale meat is still eaten in Norway. It’s often served as steaks or cured.
- Arctic Char: A delicate fish similar to salmon, often served grilled or smoked.
- Seaweed: Various types of seaweed are used in Arctic cuisine, adding a unique flavour and texture to dishes.
Remember, many of these ingredients are seasonal, so availability may vary depending on when you visit.
FAQ about Tromsø restaurants
Can you buy beer and wine in supermarkets in Tromsø?
Beer yes, wine no. Anything above 4.7% is sold only at Vinmonopolet, the state off-licence, which has three Tromsø branches: Nerstranda in the centre, Jekta near the airport and Pyramiden across the bridge. They open 10:00 to 18:00 on weekdays, 10:00 to 16:00 on Saturdays, and close on Sundays.
Supermarket beer sales stop at 20:00 on weekdays and 18:00 on Saturdays, whatever time the shop shuts. Miss it on a Saturday and you’re waiting until Monday.
Is lunch cheaper than dinner in Tromsø?
Yes, and by a lot. Mathallen does three courses at lunch for NOK 715 (£57) against NOK 925 (£73) for four at dinner, with lunch mains from NOK 315 (£25). Fiskekompaniet has a separate lunch service, 11:30 to 14:00.
If you only want one meal at a well-known kitchen, make it lunch.
Do you need cash in Tromsø?
No. Card and contactless work almost everywhere, and some places have stopped taking cash altogether. Carry a small amount of kroner for the odd kiosk without a terminal.
Can you self-cater in Tromsø?
Yes, and over a week it saves a lot. Supermarkets open 08:00 to 23:00 on weekdays and 08:00 to 22:00 on Saturdays. Most shut on Sundays, though a few open daily. Tap water is safe and tastes good too.
Final thoughts on Tromso Restaurants
Looking for the best activities to do in your time in Tromsø, take a look at my full itinerary. Or my full guide to the best hotels in Tromsø and best pubs in Tromsø
Six days of eating in Tromsø and the thing that stuck with me is how good the value was next to everything else. The tours and the drinks are what empty your wallet up here. The best restaurants in Tromsø, for the quality you get, are not the expensive part of the trip.
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