A quick glance at Rautatienkatu won’t reveal that Tampere’s best restaurant is hidden here. Renovations around the station have left the surroundings rather rough, and Rautatienkatu is more of a traffic corridor than a pretty sight. Then again, I’ve eaten in a highly praised sushi restaurant in Japan that sat beneath building-site tarps. So don’t let the setting mislead you.
The contrast between Kajo’s dining room and the world outside is striking. Dried herbs hang from the walls, and shelves are lined with jars. The lighting is warm and the surfaces are pale wood. It feels like stepping from a busy street into a birch forest or a grandmother’s jam cellar. The atmosphere is intimate yet relaxed, and the service reinforces that ease. Sommelier and co-owner Marko Simunaniemi presents the dishes and drinks with precision and humour. The origins of the ingredients are clear, but the guest never drowns in information – his storytelling brings a smile.
Not all young chefs today know how to scale, gut and process whole animals, but Kajo’s head chef Veli-Matti Lampinen doesn’t settle for ready-cut fillets. Meat and fish are prepared in-house and used down to the last morsel. I’ve had dishes here where fish skin and smoked bones were put to clever use. The kitchen treats vegetables with deep passion too: they are dried, pickled, salted and fermented. There are also old-fashioned wild herbs that many no longer recognise. Still, the restaurant isn’t rigidly Nordic. There are often Asian influences, from the occasional lobster to domestic mushrooms served with Japanese egg custard.
The drinks at Kajo are on the same high level as the food. The restaurant favours small, low-intervention wine producers with transparent production. I recommend trying the drinks package designed for the tasting menu – it doesn’t just complement the dishes but creates entirely new flavours. The non-alcoholic pairing is just as good, sometimes better. Alcohol-free wines are far too often bland, but Kajo doesn’t rely on them. Instead, the non-alcoholic drinks package is built from house-made juices, distillates and tea-based drinks. The teas add body and tannins often missing from alcohol-free products.
Atmosphere: The spirit of Kajo is perfectly summed up in my most recent visit. I jokingly asked Simunaniemi whether I could have a cup of tea and a Rennie after dinner. He gave a mischievous grin and soon returned with a teapot and a little plate holding an antacid. This is a place for savouring – and laughing.
Food: Kajo doesn’t offer individual à la carte dishes, but a seasonal tasting menu called Ode to Nature, with around ten courses. It can be served as a vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free version. The restaurant asks that dietary needs be mentioned when booking.
Drink: The selection includes high-quality, ethical wines from small producers. Despite being a fine dining restaurant, Kajo also offers affordable wines for relaxed drinking, introduced as equals to the more expensive bottles. The list includes mocktails and cocktails that use plants in inventive ways.
Time Out tip: Continue the evening next door at Kajo’s wine bar Villit & Viinit. The leftover herbs and berries from the kitchen are used in the bar’s syrups and distillates, which are transformed into imaginative craft cocktails.