Retro Coffee and other Rovaniemi, Finland Restaurant Reviews

Restaurant Name: Kauppayhtiö Café

Idea
Café Kauppayhtiö has a very unique idea for a coffee house! EVERYTHING is for sale if you name a price and bargain a little! The furniture is mostly retro from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s and despite the mixture of different styles, it is amazingly stylishly furnished. It has a lot of details and you could spend a half an hour just looking around the coffee house. Also, the atmosphere allows you to do so, even if you don't buy anything!

Specialities
There's a pool table and free wlan for customers, as well as a laptop with internet connection for the customers to use. There are old antique pianos, other instruments, old toys, LP's, old sports equipment and you are allowed to touch ANYTHING. There's also a photo exhibition of Rovaniemi before it was bombed, and there are always some pieces of art made by local artists.

Comfiness
While drinking coffee or having a delicious lunch baguette you will be sitting on comfortable living room couches from earlier decades and there's space for big or small groups of people. Usually when me and my friends go there, there are some 10 of us and we can all fit around one table.

Music
The music is usually soft rock/indie/chill rock type which creates a nice coffee-housey bohemian retro feeling.

Atmosphere
The atmosphere is like you would visit a dear friend. You don't have to buy anything if you're not up for it, you can just chill. Once I went there during opening time and the rolls hadn't come out of the oven yet when I bought one, so the guy who owns the place decided to give me discount. 5 minutes later he came next to my laptop with a GIGANTIC , fresh, out-of-the-oven roll on a tray in his hands. YUMMY. The service is incredibly friendly.

Pictures
Finally, here are some PICTURES!
And some more: Kauppayhtiö!

Favorite Dish: You are going to love the smoothies/milkshakes they make from any two ice cream flavors you want. Also the lunch baguettes which you can choose yourself are wonderful. It's also easy to eat here if you're vegetarian; the baguette table has a lot of vegetables.

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Theme: Coffeehouse
Comparison: about average
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Directions: When you're standing on the main square, look towards the river. Walk straight down the street til you see a chinese restaurant (Hai Long) to your left. Take the road to the left and walk until the next crossing. There you'll find Café Kauppayhtiö!

Restaurant Name: .Zoomit.

Zoomit is a modern, cool and stylish bar/cafe in the centre if Rovaniemi. It's situated just below the luxurious Hotel Santa Claus, on street level and in a place you can see the central square of Rovaniemi.

During the day Zoomit is described like this: "Scent of the special coffees and cakes seduce you to spend a moment watching people around you or behind the wall-size windows. " You can also have specially flavoured (for example blueberry or banana) soft drinks, tasty brown coffee or a creamy hot chocolate and many other drinks and foods.

During the night Zoomit merges into a nightclub/bar. Here's how it's described in the ad: "During the evening the music changes, people gather together to enjoy each others company while our ZoomIt-bartenders make the best drinks in town. "

Most of Zoomits customers are youth, but during the day I have seen even little kids with their parents or older couples.

The furnishing and general atmosphere in Zoomit is youthful, modern and warm-coloured. Most of the tables have red, very comfortable sofas as their seats, but there are also barchairs. Tables are made of dark wood and match all the other colours. So it's kind of a perfect coffee break here! ;)

OH AND ONE MORE THING!!!!
If you wanna meet local youth, go to Zoomit! Specially after three o'clock on normal working days many youth go there and hang around with friends, and of course when the night comes... ;)

Favorite Dish: I LOVE the specially flavoured soft drinks, and my own favourite is strawberry. The drink comes in a relatively big glass with crushed ice, a straw, a decoration and a piece of some fruit.

There are many flavours... coconut, strawberry, cola, blueberry, banana, vanilla... etc etc. JUST TRY IT!!!

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Theme: Coffeehouse
Comparison: about average

Address: Korkalonkatu 29 - 96200 Rovaniemi
Directions: In the centre of the town, just by the Sampoaukio, the main square in Rovaniemi.
Website: http://www.hotelsantaclaus.fi/?deptid=7987

Restaurant Name: Hydos - Turkish Restaurant

WOW! In Rovaniemi we have some really good restaurants, and this is one of the best, in my opinion. It's good for everyone, not only tourist, but also for backpackers, because it's interesting and has great, friendly service. It's not usually crowded with tourists, and on the rare occasions it IS crowded, the people are mostly locals.

The owner of the place is really nice. Once we were eating there with our family and there was only one other customer, and suddenly he came near our table and talked with us and played a cool Turkish instrument and also the balalaika.

The place has nice interior. Clean bathrooms and beautiful decoration isn't the only thing, there are instruments on the walls and Turkish paintings and EVERYTHING!! :) It's really Turkish. It has Turkish cloths on the ceilings and walls and.. WHOO!! :)

Now THIS is something special. The owner is a numismatist (collects money from other countries), and he has a huge collection of coins and greenbacks. The coins are glued on the walls (at least if I remember right) and the tables are interesting: he has placed his greenbacks between the tablecloth and the glass covering the table, so that people can see the money while they eat and it's something really interesting to look! :):)

Favorite Dish: The fuuuud is guuuuud. :P Means the food is good. I really like it, they have everything from pizza to different kebabs, steaks and beefs, falafel and other veg food. They have good Turkish desserts and even the wines are Turkish. My own favorite is probably one of the different choises of kebabs... :)

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Theme: Middle Eastern
Comparison: about average
Prices: US$11-20  » Currency Converter
Phone: +358 16 311 181
Address: Kansankatu 10
Directions: Near the library and the governmental center of Rovaniemi.

(sorry, the web page is only in Finnish, but maybe later they'll translate it. You can understand the main things, though. Like the menus and stuff)
Website: www.hydos.com
Other Contact: email: hydos@hydos.com