Arvostelu

Café Savoy

Timo NyyssönenLeave a comment

Helsinki, Finland

Restaurant Savoy is an institution in the finnish restaurant world. Savoy was opened in 1937 and since 2019 it has been ran by Chef Patron Helena Puolakka. Late last year, a newcomer Café Savoy was opened in the same building at street level and is Puolakka’s creation.

The restaurant (or café, don’t get confused by the name) might not look that inviting looking from the outside, but once you enter, it is a completely different story. The warm light with stylish but cozy interior makes the place very pleasant and large open kitchen adds some charm to it.

They have classic à la carte menu and prix fixe menu (65€, wines 57€). We chose the prix fixe, which consists of four dishes. For starter, there is a vegetarian, fish and meat option. For starter I chose the meat, which was in this case sweetbread. It was prepared as crispy pané, served with apple & envide salad and finished with pepper mayo. Really nice dish with clear and simple tastes. I might have been more bold with seasoning the sauce, but overall very enjoyable start.

Next dish was highlight of the evening, gnocchi with truffle velouté. The sauce is one of french cuisine’s mother sauces (like bechamél, hollandaise, etc.). In this case it was prepared to perfection. To finish dish some parmesan was in top to make it one of those dishes that you remember after years and years.

For the main, you will have again three choices. I went with duck confit. The leg had nice crispy skin and was served with braised cabbage and port wine sauce. Simple, yet elegant and tasty, bravo.

As not being too much of dessert person, I usually select cheese plate as dessert if there is such option. There was, so easy choice for me. I got a taste of rum savarin also and I could say that it would not have been a bad choice.

Service is easy-going and friendly, being very professional at the same time. I can’t wait to visit Café Savoy again.

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Boon Nam

Timo NyyssönenLeave a comment

Helsinki, Finland

This Thailand inspired Tomi Björck’s restaurant is located in same building as St. George hotel. If you have been to any other Björck’s restaurants (Farang, Gaijin, etc.) you know what to expect.

Food is usually really good with quite strong and fresh tastes. Boon Nam has two different tasting menus, to be shared with the whole table. When there are individual bites, this works well but when you have to divide one larger portion, I’m not such a big fan of that style. Menus are priced 86€/76€, both having some supplements adding about ten euros to the bill. Pairing wines cost 56€.

Crispy softshell crab was one the best dishes in my opinion. If I remember correctly, Farang has also similar (same?) dish, also very good there. Nothing wrong with other dishes either, all good or very good.

That said, I cannot help getting feeling of being on an assembly line. You come in, you are served food with memorized descriptions, you pay, you leave. Next ones come in and do the same. Well, of course this is basically how restaurants work, but in this case it is lacking any personality and that final touch that makes the difference. If this doesn’t bother you, give Boon Nam and a chance and you won’t be disappointed by the taste of food.

Palace

Timo NyyssönenLeave a comment

Helsinki, Finland

Palace is one of the legends in the Helsinki restaurant scene. It dates back to 1952 (year of summer olympics held ín Helsinki) and is first Finnish restaurant to receive a Michelin star. Palace received second star this summer so I was really looking forward to my first visit in two-star restaurant.

You could sense from the very beginning that evening is going to be an experience. I started evening with a house negroni (16 euros with Tanqueray 10 and two different vermouths). Unlike many other fine dining restaurants, Palace has their menu available online so we knew what to expect from it. Palace has version numbering for the menus, which I enjoy having background in software engineering. Now they are serving menu 21.2. You have also a cheat sheet at the table, which makes it easier to follow and remember what you are actually having.

The menu started with four small starters, served in pairs of two. They were paired with Keller’s riesling. Very first appetizer was one the highlights for me, salted trout with roe and karashi was really good. After these came larger starters, featuring hiramasa (yellowtail kingfish), lobster and the probably the best dish of the evening, caviar with cauliflower and miso. Along these was also the only miss of the evening. I think the grapefruit and pomelo took over the lobster so much that the dish was not on the level of the other ones. With caviar, wine pairing was naturally champagne (Lambardier-Bernier).

More fish & seafood came in mains, first dover sole and then langoustine. Last main was white tail deer served with amazing brioche so you could take each drop of the sauce Périgueux from your plate.

There were also two supplements that you could order for the menu. First scallops with truffle (50 euros) and then a cheese trolley with condiments (25 euros). We skipped the first one but went with the cheese which did not disappoint me. Seven different cheese with interesting condiments was a real treat.

The dessert part of the menu was quite extensive, first two larger ones and then some small bites with also something you would necessary expect to find in two-star place, tiger cake. But don’t get me wrong, fresh from the oven cake was delicious. For dessert wine, there was interesting choice from Romania, ice wine by Liliac & Kracher.

Was it the best food I’ve ever had, definitely not. Was it most interesting restaurant experience ever, I might have to say yes. We stayed there nearly five hours, which really did not feel like overkill in a sense that we would have needed to wait for food much or anything like that. Several little details made it a night to remember. Writing them down here would not do justice, I strongly recommend for you experiencing it yourself. Of course, all this does not come with a small price tag. Menu costs you 210 euros and wine pairing 190. Add there the negroni, cheese, tawny port and a 1986 calvados and you are looking at spending 500 euros for a meal.

Kultá Kitchen & Bar

Timo NyyssönenLeave a comment

Helsinki, Finland

When you think of Lapland themed restaurant at the hotel in Helsinki, first thought might be if it a cheesy tourist trap serving mediocre food or something else. First impression of Kultá was opposite, what comes to décor. Some lappish elements but not too many. A bit of feeling of a hotel restaurant, but hey, that’s what it is.

Right after walking in I got feeling that waiters might be understaffed as it took almost ten minutes for them to show us our table. Then another ten minutes to bring the menus and get order for some drinks. We did not waste anymore time there as we had decided beforehand that we would go with a five course tasting. This time it was a little bit different as they are having “Artic Ocean” menu for couple of weeks. Price for the menu is 74€ and wine pairing adds 65 euros.

After a bit of more waiting (almost an hour from walking in) menu started with two types of bread and browned butter, along with amuse-bouche of mushrooms and rainbow trout roe. That was promising start. Next dish with hand peeled shrimps and cucumber was quite good as well. After this was in my opinion the best dish of the menu, smoked willow grouse with beetroot cooked three different ways. Beetroot complemented perfectly very smoky bird breast.

After this came monkfish with mussels and roe. All in all tasty, but I think less components in this one would have resulted tastier and more elegant dish. Also the fish was not evenly salted. Second main was, as you might guess from the Lapland theme, reindeer fillet. On a side was really good, creamy parsnip puree. Dessert had cloudberry and ice cream and something else, but this brought to the table by different waitress, who did not tell what she served and left quickly before we could even ask.

Overall quite good experience, but I think menu was a bit pricey and they would need more staff to have smoother experience. Wine pairing was really good and service friendly and professional, except for the points mentioned earlier.

Aleria

Timo NyyssönenLeave a comment

Athens, Greece

After a week of traditional Greek food (which is great, btw) we thought it would be nice to see what Athens has to offer on the fine dining scene. I found out that just around the corner from our airbnb there is promising sounding place called Aleria. I made a reservation for Monday evening and the place was already quite fully booked few days before

We could not get table outside (with a stunning inner yard) but inside was almost as nice as it would have been outside. From the first minute the staff was really attentive and polite. After seating, they took orders for water (sparkling/non-sparkling). Only minus for the service was after this: it took some time for the waiters to come to ask if we would like to have some apéritifs. But it was worth the wait, the Negroni was excellent.

After that, we were presented with the menu cards. The options are limited to two; you can have one of tasting menus. The first one is called “Earth and Sea” (with fish and meat) and the other one “Garden and Nature” (vegetarian). For both of the menus you can choose either five (65€) or six course (78€) option. The selection can be different for everybody in the table, so they are flexible in that sense. Also they were really paying the attention to any possible food restrictions and allergies.

With the menu you can choose wine pairing or premium wine pairing. Both include mostly Greek wines (premium might have some from other countries as well) but the premium one is almost double the price. We went with the “basic” one (48€) which turned out to be quite good.

Then the food: starting with really nice amuse-bouche followed by excellent starters, featuring crab, beef tartar and pumpkin as main ingredients. Unfortunately the mains: “catch of the day”, being cod this time and the lamb did not impress me as much. I found the fish dish being too acidy and the meat dish having several good components but not really combining them together. Anyway, there were good but did not keep the level of the previous dishes in my opinion. Also the dessert did not change this. Except for the dessert wine, which I think was the the most interesting one of all the wines.

We were group of seven and one of us took the “Garden and Nature” menu while other ones chose “Earth and Sea” (which I commented above). The vegetarian menu got highly appraised being a real menu instead of being the same menu with meat left out. This said, there was one exception. The pumpkin soup benefited from the salty pork pieces and the extra chestnuts just could not make up for that.

So the verdict would be that while moussaka and souvlaki are great, there is room also for modern Greek cuisine, taking some elements from the old traditions.

Noua

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Bucharest, Romania

https://nouarestaurant.ro/

After a long time not visiting Romania, I was thrilled to see how the fine dining restaurants have developed. Previous trials have not been that great. After some studying, I found this place called Noua (“New”) with pretty good reviews and exactly what I wanted, local cuisine with local ingredients.

We were a large group (13 pax) and had reservation at 6pm on a Friday night (opens at 5pm). As expected, there were not too many customers yet. They have a terrace by entrance where they serve smaller terrace menu, but we were seated inside, where the only choice is the tasting menu (250 lei ~ 50€).

With the tasting menu they have wine pairing (160 lei) and quite extensive wine list. When asking for getting some bubbly for the start, they just presented the wine list without further recommendations even though I kind of hinted that we could have some advice. Well, anyway our choice was decent and we enjoyed it while admiring beautiful interior of the upstairs sitting area with the view to an open kitchen.

Soon after that started the first dish “Romania on a plate”. This is actually 7 different small bites, served one by one. The serving is part of the fun. First they bring you a wooden puzzle frame in the shape of Romania. Then come the dishes, each on a piece of the puzzle and of course the dish is something typical for that geographical area. After you have finished the puzzle, comes a surprise, one more piece. Yes, you guessed correct, Bessarabia. If you didn’t guess, google “Basarabia, pământ românesc”. This whole thing was in my opinion the tastiest and most interesting part of the whole menu.

There were several other dishes after this, some excellent (the two mains, golden gray mullet and the lamb!), some good, some ok tasting. All of the beautifully laid out, superb presentation but in some parts trying too much. Have to remember sometimes to keep it simple as well. All in all, I was really happy with the quality of the food. The wines did not really live up to the food. Some pairings were excellent and good wines, but some not that much.

Then comes the negative. Unfortunately the service was not what you would expect in a level of a place they obviously try to be. Don’t get me wrong, there were polite, explained the dishes well and so on but small details is what makes the whole experience. Few points, they did not ask what we’d like to drink with the food. They started serving the food with some people having nothing to drink. Also, the first forgot that we had ordered one vegetarian menu and served him meat as well. Also, after the mains, we had wait 45 minutes for the desserts. They did not apologize or explain anything before we asked after over 30 minutes of waiting. Maybe some round of drinks would have been nice while waiting, for those we had also ask if we could get some. I’d suggest that chef Alex Petricean would take his staff somewhere top notch place abroad to see what is service in a high quality restaurant. But again, I must stress that these were little things and we had great time. I’d highly recommend Noua to anyone visiting Bucharest.

Gastro Bar Sesonki

Timo NyyssönenLeave a comment

Järvenpää, Suomi

https://ravintolasesonki.fi/

Now almost one year old Gastro Bar has interesting location, it is in the same building as K-citymarket. And not just any K-citymarket, this supermarket is one of Europe’s top selling sushi places. Yes, you read correct, they sell almost 20000 pieces of sushi every week. Would have wanted to taste some before going to dinner, but there was a bit of queue and had to rush.

Sesonki also gets their ingredients from the same shop, how convenient is that. The place it not that big and was packed on Friday night at 7pm, so better make a reservation.

While waiting for everybody to arrive, we had the bread basket featuring three different types of bread with some spread flavoured with truffle salt. Good breads, but charging everybody 4.5€ was maybe a bit too much.

For the dinner, we decided to go with the 5 course surprise menu (58€). To go with the menu, they have wine package 41€ and also non-alcoholic drink menu, which seemed a bit expensive (32€). Nobody had the non-alcoholic drink menu, so cannot say more about it.

The menu started with amuse bouche, which turned out to be weakest link in the menu: pomme noisette type of potato with smoke-flavored crème fraîche. I mentioned earlier the bar getting the ingredients from the supermarket next door, this potato tasted like it was taken from the freezer box and did not even melt properly. The sauce was nice though, and would have made perfect pair for some salmon, for example.

First appetizer was salsify soup with tasty mushrooms. Really good and some lime tasting element gave the soup nice twist. Second came lamb ragù based dish. It was bit surprisingly warm appetizer, but nevermind, it was really tasty. Third was a fish appetizer, semi cured salmon cut in cubes with sauce, cucumber and dill. Good basic dish, but not on the level of the previous ones. Although the others seemed to enjoy it more than I did.

As a main, there was perfectly prepared pork belly (I think it was belly, might be mistaken here). The flavor and the the texture was amazing: bit crispy on the outside and when pressed with side of a fork, it fell it to juicy little pieces.

As a dessert, there was sorbet with berries. I like desserts that are not that sweet, so this suited well for that, but did not not impress me otherwise. Before the real dessert there was a small surprise dessert, but now not being to tell exactly what it was, tells all about it.

Wine package was OK, quite safe mainstream choices mostly. For example, two of the wines were Cono Sur’s 20 barrels wines.

All in all, I was really happy with the food. The service was good as well and the place is… well it is located next to a supermarket with a view to a parking lot. I definitely want to go again and I’m not disappointed if the still have the pork on the menu.

Lehtovaara

Timo NyyssönenLeave a comment

Helsinki, Finland

Oops, no #emptyplate picture this time.

But not because I would not have enjoyed it, just forgot to take a picture before it was too late.

Anyway, I mentioned in earlier post Lehtovaara being one of the classics for me in Helsinki. And for many others too, I bet. Restaurant has been there since 1940, but history of the restaurant is much older. It was originally located in Vyborg (which is currently russian territory).

And the classic place has one classic dish: Cœur de filet Provençale 1952. 

I guess the dish was launched for the Olympic Games held in Helsinki in 1952 and therefore it has this year as a postfix. I’ve had this probably ten times and always I have been satisfied. The dish in all simplicity consist of beef tenderloin (the center part, that is where the name comes from) topped with garlic butter, fried garlic potatoes and fried mushrooms.

This time we visited Lehtovaara on Sunday and then they have “Sunday lunch”, where starters and dessert are served as buffet and main dish is server to the table. For main dish you had three different choices, jerusalem artichoke soup, fried acrtic char or some meat dish, which I can’t remember as I had my eyes on the classic. Every sunday you can have also the filet with the lunch menu with extra 10 euros (menu is otherwise 39 euros, children under 12 half price).

Starters were pretty much as you can be expect them to be from a buffer: some herring, gravlax, smoked salmon, potatoes, pâté, roast beef etc. From the dessert table I was happy to find Crème brûlée and lime cake was also good.

And the cœur de filet did not disappoint me this time either. Only mistake was going for the second round, I was way too full after eating it. That is the way they serve it, they bring the meat and the potatoes on a big tray (of course depending how many are having it) and then put some on your plate, while leaving the rest on a hot plate for later addition, if you wish.

 

Baskeri & Basso Bistro (BasBas)

Timo Nyyssönen4 Comments

Helsinki, Finland

http://basbas.fi/bistro/

Second visit to this highly popular restaurant. The first one was before I started the blog, so no review from that. But some of the dishes back then were one of the best I’ve ever eaten in a restaurant (especially the tongue!), so expectations were set really high for this time.

Once you find the entrance from the backyard and leave your jackets hanging on the left side, to your right opens one big dining area, usually with most of the tables full. They also rent a private room for groups, which is naturally separate space from the the main room. In one corner of the dining area is open kitchen, so you can get a peek how your dishes are being prepared.

The menus are written on chalk board and one of those is also brought to your table when you are ready to order. Dishes are divided in three categories, starters, pasta/risotto and mains. They sell 2+1+1 menus, (45€) but of course you can select whatever you want from the menu. So menu does not include dessert, but those can be of coursed ordered separately. Starters come to table at same time, so easy to share, if you want to sample more. I would recommend that, as the starters are that big that they can be shared to get a taste. Not enormous, but still you get at least few bites even from half of a dish. And in both occasions the starters have been the highlight of the whole menu.

They don’t have wine menu as such, but of course give recommendations for your selected dishes. BasBas also is following the trend of natural wines. Prices for the wines vary a bit, but go around 10€/glass (16cl, if I’m not mistaken). We would have been easy target to sell a bit more wine, but they did not insist filling your glass, so basically ordered one glass first for starters, then one for pasta, one for main and one for dessert.

For starters to share we got this time, White fish carpaccio (Siika from lake Inari), scallops (fresh from Norway) with Ponzu sauce, roasted butternut squash with leaf parsley-pesto and feta and beef tartar. I listed the starters in the ranked order, the White fish and scallops were amazing. Butternut squash also great and nothing wrong (well, somehow unevenly salted) with tartar either, but I’ve had better.

After starters there were sage risotto (quite heavy on sage, but not in a bad way) and tagliolini with funnel chanterelle. Pasta was tasty and perfectly cooked, I would say one of best pastas I’ve had.

Main dishes did not impress me that much this time either. I had flank steak, quite basic. And tasted a bit from my wife’s pulpo (=Octopus, which she did not really care for), pretty ok as well, but nothing extraordinary.

For dessert I had pavlova with rasberry sorbet. Quite good, but I’ve had recently better home made pavlova. Also the ratio between the pavlova and sorbet was a bit off: little bit more pavlova and little bit less sorbet would have been better in my opinion.

The place is really nice, staff very professional and friendly. This time we were served by one the owners (Nicolas Thieulon) who really shows his passion for food and wine, which is always positive thing. So that added to excellent food, BasBas is a place where I could visit again and again. Only problem with that is that it might not be that easy to get a table in short notice. They take bookings via Web, so be ready 30 days before you want to visit BasBas to book yours. Reservation opens for next day always at midnight. Maybe there are cancellations and you can get a table by calling, but I have not tried that one.

 

Elite

Timo NyyssönenLeave a comment

Helsinki, Finland

New restaurants come and some of the old ones go. But the classics stay. One of these classics is definitely Elite (another quite frequently visited for me is Lehtovaara). You pretty much know what you are going to get, so no disappointments, no surprises.

That was the case also this time. I chose “Korttelimenu”, which consisted of salmon pâté for start, for main elk meatballs with root vegetable purée and Jallu-sauce. Dessert was some pears marinated in glögi and blue cheese. Pâté was quite basic, for meat balls I would have wished a bit more gamey taste and dessert was maybe the most interesting part of the whole menu.

They also have wine recommendations for the menu, but I was driving this time, so cannot say anything about that.

Elite attracts a wide mix of people, families with children, businessmen-alike, couples, etc. All this combined with nice looking venue and good basic food makes Elite always enjoyable experience. Although this time the older male waiter was not that great, the guy serving the table next to us seemed much more friendly and chattier.