Restaurant Plough your way through Finnish cuisine

Retired tractors, life-size cattle and antelopes and farming tools are the last thing you'd expect to see in the centre of Finland's capital, however this legendary restaurant has them all in abundance! Opened in 1991, Zetor, which takes its name from a Czech tractor manufacturer, serves up (very) hearty Finnish fare against a backdrop of traditional country and outdoor décor and memorabilia. As well as the charming machines at which clients can even sit and eat their meal or drink their beers, you'll find all sorts of things hanging on the walls or off the ceiling including skis, churns, motorbikes, cart wheels, hoes, animal skin rugs and old black and white shots of the great Finnish landscape, a million miles from what's just outside the door in Downtown Helsinki.

A perfect venue for a dinner amongst friends to be followed by a boogie on the well-worn wooden floor, eating at Zetor requires mental preparation and a whole lot of stamina. How we powered through both a starter and main will remain one of the great questions of our age. But try you must as despite not being especially glamorous, the food is decidedly flavoursome. We recommend the rainbow trout soup to start (although not the bread that accompanies it) or perhaps the serious-looking reindeer sandwich, which also tempted us (and no, there isn't a whole reindeer between the toasted rye bread).

Aside from one salad and a couple of fish-based dishes, all the main courses involve meat: chicken, bacon, sausage, meatballs, reindeer liver or beef. In other words, vegetarians steer clear. We opted for the seriously greasy yet moreish hash which comprises potatoes, onion, bacon and sausage topped with a fried egg, pickled gherkin and beetroot (cream optional and totally unnecessary). Yes, this is akin to eating yourself to death, but think what a glorious, gluttonous death it would be!

If you are superhuman and find that you have space enough for a dessert, then the choice is between blueberry or apple pie, cheese with cloudberry jam, ice cream or sorbet. Not the most inspired selection but to be honest, I'd bet that the number of desserts exiting Zetor's kitchen is roughly equal to the number of people who leave still hankering for a bag of chips.

A word of warning to those coming with small kids (and a nudge to their fathers) the walls of the male facilities are plastered with the front covers of 1970s porn magazines. For the ladies, alas, no such treat, just a selection of old homemaking mags.

Smoking area: no

Quality:

Details: Mannerheimintie 3-5, Kaivopiha, 00100 Helsinki

Tel: +358 10 76 64450