Brief report on a couple of relatively new openings in Helsinki:

Restaurant Grotesk -- a new relaxed dining type effort by the owners of Demo. Press reviews have been generally favorable, but my own experience was a huge disappointment. Indifferent, unprofessional service and uninspiring food. To be avoided, IMHO.

La Société du Cochon -- the much-hyped medium-price restaurant owned by Hans Välimäki of Chez Dominiqué fame. No personal experiences, but my better half was far from impressed: mediocre food and even more mediocre service.

Apparently finding good restaurant staff in Helsinki is a major problem right now.

Cheers,
T.

Hmm, this thread is a find. I will offer Kruo Thai on Mechelininkatu- very authentic food, and better prices than the other more known Thai options.

Hey, that's my neighborhood joint! Personally, I wasn't too impressed by the authenticity, but after a year in Bangkok I have ridiculously high standards and in HEL you certainly could do worse.

New openings
 

Erottaja area has suddenly become the new hot spot in Helsinki's nightlife after the openings of Rymy-Eetu and Cuba!.

Rymy-Eetu tries to bring Bavarian Brauhaus atmosphere into town. Food isn't bad if you like the German fare and they do serve HB and Spaten in one liter jugs. This quite big place seems to get busy even on weekday nights with people from the all walks of life. The age distribution of the patrons is unbelievably wide for Helsinki's nightlife. Fun place to go with a group of people. I recommend going in the afternoon and enjoying "pitkä lounas" (long lunch), which is served with beer and appropriate schnapps, and later when the live band starts playing (8 pm) enjoying dancing on the tables! :p

Cuba! has taken over the space of the former Filmitähti restaurant (of Klaus K hotel). The location is right opposite of Rymy-Eetu. This bar attracts the younger crowd. No food served, AFAIK, unless you book their private party room (some catering available then).

Long lines to both of these places on recent weekend nights...

AFAIK, Cuba! is the only bar in the world that features "Personal Jesus" on its drink list -- you can get a guy dressed as Jesus pour you and your party wine all night long. There is also a menu item for trashing the whole place -- at a steep price.

Cheers,
T.

Would any of the resident experts recommend a couple of currently nice places for early April:

1) A relaxed biz lunch venue with old friends. Private, no need to impress and we all like food. Not too far from the Kamppi area.

2) Somewhere to go out with equally old friends on Saturday night. Preferably a place for talking and maybe some bar food & quality beers on tap I have an afternoon longhaul flight in the next day and will be coming directly from a domestic flight if that clarifies the situation.

This is the best "restaurant Guide" www.ravintolaopas.net
Only in Finnish, but you get links to most restaurant pages which are also in English

1) Strindberg or
Lasipalatsi http://ravintola.lasipalatsi.fi/page.php?language=3
2) This is more difficult: I do not know any gastro pub in there. maybe Belge
http://www.belge.fi/frontpage_belge.html

Yes, Belge should fit most of your criteria. Great selection of Belgian beers (and then some), decent pub grub, and a fairly good selection of different rooms to hang out in (try the "library" on the 2nd floor). It may get quite busy and thus noisy on a Saturday night though.

Two new Michelin star restaurants in town:

* Carma
* Postres

Star taken away from G.W. Sundmans. Demo retains their one star and Chez Dominique their two stars.

Cheers,
T.

For #1, I'd think about a few choices:

* Don Corleone (in the basement floor of Kamppi Center). It is *very* informal and busy, but the pastas are some of the best in town.
* Gastone (Korkeavuorenkatu, near Eteläesplanadi) -- reliable Italian, prix fixe menu. More private and upscale than Don Corleone.
* Also, if you really like food, the prix fixe lunches at either Carma or Chez Dominique are excellent value for money (if not exactly relaxed).

One further option might be Nuevo (Spanish/Mediterranean) on Sofiankatu.

For #2, I think Belge is right on.

Cheers,
T.

The 50 best restaurants in Finland 2008
 

Viisi Tähteä magazine has again polled the chefs, food writers, and other professionals to find out their favorite restaurants in Finland. The full list is available at http://www.viisitahtea.fi/content/view/2905/1/

The top 10 are:
1. Chez Dominique, Helsinki
2. Demo, Helsinki
3. Savoy, Helsinki
4. Olo, Helsinki
5. Postres, Helsinki
6. Carma, Helsinki
7. G.W.Sundmans, Helsinki
8. Atelje Finne, Helsinki
9. Näsinneula, Tampere
10. Sky Ounasvaara, Rovaniemi

No big surprises here, in my opinion, except maybe Atelje Finne. It is a very good restaurant but maybe not top 10... yet. Sky Ounasvaara I haven't tried but have heard a few praises.

At the top I would put Olo, Postres and Savoy ahead of Demo. Savoy, though, scores a lot points in my mind for its nice upscale but relaxed atmosphere and the best service in town. Congratulations are in order to the guys at Postres for their Michelin star! Carma definitely belongs to the top too -- Aremo got his star back this week, too.

Further down the list Sasso's continuing popularity (12th) keeps surprising me. Also what comes to Japanese places (none of which are good by the Japanese standard) I definitely would not rank Kabuki very high. It is a fun place with a bigger group but the food... well... (I prefer Koto foodwise).

Thank you a lot for the suggestions. Belge looks good for Saturday and I will forward the lunch spots to my local friends.

Very interesting "best of" list for 2008 regarding Helsinki. More local food taking over which is always good but sad to see Palace Gourmet slipping. If they found an investor and excellent chef, the location and views could easily guarantee two to three Michelin star status.

Well, I would say #9 is quite a big surprise. We have gone to Näsinneula about once or twice a year for the past ten years, whenever we have first-time visitors from out of town. The food has been so regularly disappointing that after a few years I gave up all expectations; now we go there simply for the view, and to give our guests the experience.

On the other hand, maybe this is not really presented as a list of the best? If the food writers, etc. were asked for their favourites, then maybe I can see how Näsinneula got in the top ten. I mean, there are a lot of categories where I have 'favourites' which I would never try to pretend were actually the best in their class.

cheers,

Henry

Well, after all the lunch meeting was pushed back to 3pm so I called another friend and we had a buffet lunch at the Hotel/Restaurant Helka near the House of Parliament.

Very interesting Artek style decoration and almost uber-Finnish/Nordic. They offered a salad buffet, soup of the day and three mains plus water and coffee for a reasonable price. What I was delighted to see were proper condiments like olive oil, vinegar, pepper from the mill and various hot sauces on offer. The food was quite ok and the place seemed very popular with an office crowd.

On Saturday evening we ended up on the southern tip of Helsinki and in the restaurant Central. Just had some pizza and a few beers but the crowd was enjoyable, looked like a mix of artists/media people and local residents at dinner and chatting. Could well recommend this place for meeting friends. Will try the Belge next time...

Had lunch with a colleague in Carma last week. Food was well-prepared and nicely presented but not really inspired (nor inspiring). Three-course lunch for two with mineral water came to 80 €. Service was friendly but slightly sloppy.

Michelin star worthy? Probably (if only just).

Good value for money? Sadly, no.

Cheers,
T.