SAMPO

Every element of the cuisine, every recipe, is a tribute to northern traditions and a pursuit of new gastronomic discoveries.

In the autumn of 2024, the SAMPO restaurant opened its doors in Murmansk, a city in the northern part of Russia. This new project on the Russian gastronomic scene brings together the most important and valuable aspects of the northern region. SAMPO is a story about the rituals of northern peoples, recipes passed down through generations, and the soul, sometimes stern, but very passionate, like an open fire. At SAMPO, every detail is carefully considered, because even the smallest things matter, as the restaurant team believes. Therefore, a visit to the restaurant becomes an unforgettable journey for each guest, opening up new horizons. Chef Sergei Balakshin (Tundra, Tsarskaya Okhota) leads the kitchen at SAMPO, representing his unique concept of modern northern gastronomy. In his work on this new project, Sergei chose an author's approach, combining ancient northern recipes, local ingredients, modern technologies and trends, and, of course, the harsh northern spirit. A team of renowned Moscow chefs, including three foreigners who came to Murmansk for test runs and immediately fell in love with the north, signing a one-year contract with SAMPO, also contributed to the menu development. They are responsible for the artisanal bread, the smokehouse, the meat, and the pizza. Thanks to this rich combination, the restaurant's menu offers guests a wide selection of not only northern specialties but also modern dishes that have firmly entered global trends. At the top of the menu is artisanal bread baked in a large wood-fired oven, filling the restaurant with a warm aroma and offered to all guests of SAMPO. Sergei Balakshin firmly believes that a meal is not complete without freshly baked bread and salted butter, so every day the restaurant's chefs experiment with new flavors, using only local ingredients to surprise each guest. The menu features fresh seafood from the Barents Sea, which is not only beautifully described but also presented to guests in an aquarium and a large stone display in the restaurant's hall: sea urchins, scallops, oysters, and crabs. SAMPO has five sources of live fire, one of which is the wood-fired oven for bread, and the other is a smoker. This is why dishes from the in-house smokehouse are particularly prominent on the menu: slow-cooked brisket, wild boar with pickled cucumbers in bourbon, duck and chicken roulade with roasted grapes, as well as salmon, halibut, mackerel, and cod. The third source of live fire is a three-ton Marana oven with a rotating stone, one of only four in the world. This unique oven, for the Murmansk region, is used daily to bake five types of pizza with a fluffy, delicate dough: the signature Sampo pizza; with halibut, salmon, oily fish, and caviar; with brisket, pork, and duck; with four types of cheese from the restaurant's own cheese factory; and with forest mushrooms. The fourth source of fire is a large grill. Several months before the opening, SAMPO installed its own dry-aging chamber, where all steaks are aged for at least 15 days, resulting in the best selection of dry-aged steaks on the menu: Chateaubriand, Ribeye, New York, and Dallas cuts. Every element of the cuisine, every recipe, is a tribute to northern traditions and a pursuit of new gastronomic discoveries, so every guest will find something to their liking on the menu. Sitting at the bar in SAMPO, you can't miss the top of the brewery, which has found its place in the 800 m2 basement of the restaurant. Here, Natalia Korepanova, a renowned and well-known brewer from all over Russia, brews beer according to ancient Bavarian recipes. The steam engine that greets guests at the entrance to the restaurant was used in a family Bavarian brewery since the beginning of the last century and was gifted to the people of Murmansk by a German family of hereditary brewers, the Schaad family, whose photographs are harmoniously displayed on the walls of the restaurant. The modern family of hereditary Bavarian brewers, Siegfried Schaad and his wife Krimhilda, specially commissioned a modern European brewery for the "Restaurant Syndicate" company, which is now located directly in SAMPO. The Schaad family also kindly provided Bavarian brewing technologies and donated this steam engine as a museum exhibit to the people of Murmansk. Lovers of strong alcoholic beverages and the unique craftsmanship in cocktail preparation will appreciate the painstaking work that went into creating the bar menu by the master of his craft, Alexander Yatsenko, and the wine list will certainly delight all gourmets. One cannot overlook the fifth source of fire in SAMPO – the wood-burning fireplace in the center of the hall, which creates a unique atmosphere of warmth and complements the original interior, where stone, wood, iron, fur, and fire are organically combined into a single concept. The SAMPO restaurant is a journey into a new world of old mysteries and secrets, a place of magic and comfort, a place where the warmth of the fire meets the cold of the ice. It is a new experience, new feelings, new horizons of possibilities, and a new you.