Yonas Pizzeria — Restaurant in Tromsø

We were in Tromso over Christmas and nearly everywhere was closed. Also, we were planning to watch Christmas day NFL and nothing goes with football like pizza. So, when I found out that Yonas Pizza was open, I decided to order pizza. I began by trying to order from the website. That didn't work because it wanted to send a code via text message and it couldn't send one to an American phone number. So, I called in an order. I made no changes to the toppings listed on the website because I was certain that would cause confusion. I ordered four small pizzas. But, they didn't want to deliver because our hotel was too close. The guy on the phone insisted we pick up the order. Google Maps pinpoint their address incorrectly. It is one block away. The clerk in the Raddison hotel pointed us to their front door. Because nearly every restaurant in Tromso was closed, this place was packed. We eventually made it in, picked up four pizzas, and walked back to our hotel. We had a cheese, a bbq chicken, and two combination pizzas. All were good. If we were back home, this wouldn't be our restaurant of choice. It is like a brick oven pizza. Dry crust and very little cheese. The rest of the toppings were plentiful. In the end, we had pizza and our favorite team won. So,...

The restaurant was cozy and fresh, but as Finnish tourist (first time in Norway) I was not familiar with the system of choosing the table first. Guy at the counter was not so happy about that and seemed a little rude or at least bored. He send us away from queue to choose table though I asked if he knew the number of the table what we were pointing (nearby). He said no. He had the table map laminated in front of him.

And the food? Well.. I did not realize it was pan pizza, but that does not really matter bc pan pizzas are ok. If they are ok.. These reminded me of frozen pizzas like Grandiosa. I may be used to exremely good pizzas in Finland but the crust had absolutely no taste. It was obviously a minimum effort, yeast raised no-knead dough with minimum sugar/salt. (In Finland these ”a-little-better” pizza restaurants always serve sourdough pizzas.)

Anyway the toppings on the menu seemed interesting but nah.. My salmon pizza was not that bad (the crust still was) but margherita pizza was like straight from freezer and held too long in the oven.

Even the coke barely had bubbles. And I drink sodas like once in a year so this was a disappointment all the way.

Only positive thing was that there were 3 size options from which I chose...

Oh, where to begin with Tromso's "Famous" Pizza Place! We waited an entire hour for our pizzas, during which I'm pretty sure I witnessed a new ice age come and go outside.

When the pizzas did arrive, it was a culinary mystery. The crust was so soggy, I suspect it had been practicing for a role in "SpongeBob SquarePants". The toppings seemed to have been in a competition for 'Least Fresh Ingredient of the Year'. And the cheese? Let's just say it was doing a remarkable impression of plastic.

The staff, bless them, were as scattered as the toppings on their special 'Surprise Me' pizza. One waiter was so forgetful, he introduced himself to us three times. It's a miracle we got our order at all!

In the end, we paid a Viking's ransom for this comedic tragedy of a meal. Would I go back? Only if I'm in the mood for a good laugh and some...