Ølhallen, the brewery tap for Mack Bryggeri, is the oldest pub in Tromsø and celebrated its 85th anniversary the day of my visit (28 February 2013). The interior is rustic, with red brick stone walls and well worn, brown wooden furniture. The walls have much local memorabilia to show, there’s a stuffed polar bear greeting you when you enter and the place just feels old. My kind of place! Because it’s only open from 10 am to 6 pm, you don’t risk running into drunk teens (though you will see some regulars, moving unsteadily between bar and tables). Even if I liked the place, the beer selection was a big letdown - they didn’t have anything else than various Mack lagers on draft and on bottle there were a couple of Nøgne Ø beers plus Chimay Blue, everything else was Mack. According to the bartender this will improve when the new Ludwig Mack Brygghus micro brewery opens up next door, until then their selection will be rather limited.

I’m 41, I’ve travelled to over 30 countries, I love beer and this is my first rating... My impression- An ok, average place... If the bar tender/brewer hadn’t ripped me off...twice. Good luck to you if you choose to go. I won’t ever go back.

Historical and nicely set in the old Mack Brewery. Feels like a classical beer hall. Has kind of a German feeling to it. Interesting opening hours. Ok service. Had liked to be able to get a bit more information about the brews. Mixed crowd. Tourists mixed with the local drunks. Heard that they had some problem with the quality of the microbrews. Only Mack beers on tap but a few other Norwegians on bottle and also some international ones on bottle.

We visited here on Saturday 19th January 2013 (me, Loz & Isobel) in the company of Rune & Finn and Runes wife who joined us later but I have forgotten her name. On entering the pub the bar is ahead of you and there are drinking areas around it to the front and left and stretching along past it to your right where we sat in a small alcove. I understand that the bar dates back to the 1920’s. We had a couple of the seasonal Christmas beers in bottle but were unanle to try the CCCP which was just going on as they had some dispense issues, we also tried the Bok. The bar was quite busy for 3pm on a Saturday and the area off to the left was full with a large group. I would like to thank Finn & Rune for their wonderful company and for keeping popping up with bottled beers. I liked this place, the staff were friendly, there was plenty of seating and the beer choice was good, however I preferred Skarven overall for atmosphere and general ambience.

Watch out! A short walk through the ice and slush for an evening drink ended in dissapointment. This place closes at 18.00!! Returned the next day to find a spacious and characterful pub with very good staff who helped me a lot cleaning out all the Mack beers available even to the unlabelled Christmas porters in the fridge. Obviously Mack dominates here but the beers are not bad at all and certainly tasted fresh. Service was always snappy even when the place suddenly filled with tourists. Prices are very expensive but you can get small glasses which helps. Overall a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours. Well worth seeking out.

12.03.2012. Nice place with a lot of history. Since this is a Mack brewery dominated place the selection was not the best. One of the beers I tasted was very poor and infected, and that is not good. Nice place, and the woman behind the counter was helpful and knew a lot about Mack beers.

Nice place for a beer in Tromsø. Went there first and foremost to try the microbrew (certainly better than other beer I have tried from Mack), but the atmosphere is interesting too. Colourful regulars.

herlig sted en lørdags formiddag :-)

A Classic Beer Hall where you can start early : )

Ølhallen sometimes offers a micro brew from Mack. The quality is never going to be top notch, but still far better than any regular Mack beer on tap or bottle. The place has tons of atmosphere, being a "day pub". The place also attracts the non-working crowd.