Dinner at Scandic Oulu - Torilla restaurant

Tapas starters

This week I have been on a business trip to Oulu in the Norther part of Finland. I was expecting much less sun light, than that there actual was, the sun was “on” between 9 am to 15-15.30 and combined with the snow covered landscape, it was quiet light.

On our first evening in Oulu we decided to make it easy for ourselves, so we ate at the Scandic hotel in Oulu. Looking at the menu card we all decided to have the Mediterranean Menu to a price of 35 €.

Lamb main course

As starters we got three different tapas dishes.  The first tapas was Parma ham with cherry tomatoes and avocado. The second tapas was a soup called Chanterelle Cappuccino and the third tapas was green olive tapenade on bruschetta.  The tapenade layer was quiet heavy, too salty for me and lacking olive flavour in my opinion. The Parma ham tapas was quiet plain in it´s character. What really saved this starter was the magic Chanterelle soup with a light whipped foam on top, so it could look like a cup of cappuccino. The soup was creamy and had a wonderful taste of cantrell.

The main course was grilled lamp roast wrapped in Parma ham, sage butter, marsala sauce and chili-glazed sweet potatoes. Besides from the potatoes the dish was also served with orange and yellow carrot bites. The lamb-Parma ham combination was good, the amount of vegetable was very fitting, but I could not identify the chili-glazing on the potatoes.

Raspberry sorbet

As dessert we were served a huge portion of raspberry sorbet on top of marinated fruits in form of pineapple, banana and strawberries. This dessert did not work for me, the sorbet reminded me more about a creamy raspberry ice cream than a light freshing sorbet. I am OK with pine apples and bananas as seasonal fruit from the tropic, but strawberries without any flavour served during Winter, does not work for me as person.

All in all it was a menu to the plain side in my opinion. The lamb main course was good. What really was standing out for me was the chanterelle soup, which was excellent. However, it is easy to eat at the hotel and we did not have to dressed up in the entire Winter equipment and go outside in the cold looking for a different place to eat.