Boulevard Bar & Seafood — Restaurant in Helsinki sub-region

Boulevard Bar and Seafood

@boulevardhelsinki is regarded as the best seafood restaurant in Helsinki by several food critics. Boulevard is one of the few restaurants offering top-notch to its customers. Several waiters kept checking in with me and asked if everything and lightning were alright for my food photography hobby. I also like the relaxed ambiance of the place, especially the cocktail bar.

The first course is gougères (savory choux) filled with cheddar, aka. Simple as it is, a cheesy choux. I am curious why this food is in our seafood-tasting journey as it reminds me nothing of seafood.

The second course is whitefish roe with blini. Blini was quite thick and a bit crunchy on the crust. The second blini wasn't as crunchy as the one before. and the roe was just some side character for the show and blini was the main protagonist.

The third dish is Hiramasa Vietnamese. I was inquisitive about how they would use an ordinary and affordable Vietnamese fish in a fine-dining dish. In Vietnam, one could get this fish for 6€/kg when it's in season. The dish has a strong inspiration from the Vietnamese sweet and sour salad. It has a refreshing taste, but the sourness was overwhelming all the other flavors. After the sourness note, my friend and I could feel the lingering fish taste for quite some time.

Our final main course was trout with orange. All the main dishes were presented beautifully. The trout was poached, so it was a bit raw inside. It was interesting to eat trout with a different kind of texture other than sashimi, fried or roasted.

Last but not least, the rum panna cotta. This panna cotta was made with the same recipe in Chez Dominique. FYI, Chez Dominique was the first two-star Michellin restaurant in Helsinki in 2003. I think it has to be one of my few "oh wooow" desserts or even fine-dining dishes I have tasted. I could taste a slight hint of rum, and it was perfect. Otherwise, the punching rum would have been too much. The silky, smooth, but not flaky consistency was just 💯. Just, mamma mia, I am still drooling over it 🤤

Overall, it has been a good experience. I will come here again for the panna cotta and more...

Over priced menu and lazy kitchen. One of the most disappointing menus in town.

We took their seafood 5 course menu and the food was a disaster.

To start we got some tiny skewer with sausage cheese and pickles and 1 anchovy + some "dip veggies". (pics show serving for 2 persons)

Second course was a white fish row tin with dried and old tasting toast. Additionally the amount of smetana was overwhelming and thus couldnt enjoy the small amount of row served.

Third course was the yellow tail sashimi with a nice zesty sauce. This was the most rounded dish of the evening, however it was extremely small.

4th course was a trout fish with beurre blanc sauce, so once again a good portion of cream. The dish lacked acid and it was hard to enjoy after a kilo of smetana in the second course.

The dessert was inedible and had to skip it; a tasteless custard which did not taste of anything but sugar and some artificial-like flavour. Even the cream itself in it could not be found with the heavy amount of sugar used and overall it lacked some sort complimentary garnish for balance.

Overall the experience was bad despite the last server offering a glass of champagne when he noticed that we did not enjoy the menu. None of the multiple waiters we had asked if we wanted to have additional drinks and or how the food was until after main course. We came to eat seafood and surprisingly their menu did not include anything else except for fish, cream saususage and dipped vegetables. The dishes gave the impression that the Chef is lazy, lacking creativity or they are cutting...

Overall great food but service was shockingly bad to start with which was surprising having read the reviews (maybe just a bad night). If there are a few of you highly recommend avoiding the tasting menu and ordering lots of different dishes from the menu as the portion sizes are great and there’s a variety of good options.

Bread: Great bread (not rye which I was pleased about)

Whitefish: Tasty. The strawberries made it interesting. Would recommend.

Fritto Misto: Good. Not a stand out of the evening but enjoyable with garlic aioli.

Crab: Absolutely delightful and was the best dish we ordered. Would highly recommend. HUGE portion so recommend sharing

Blood orange fish: Fish was well cooked. Personally I hated the sauce but my friends enjoyed it.

Panna cotta: Nice and boozy

Service: Overall very poor. Server kept changing. Some very nice others but others not. 10 minutes to be handed the food menu once seated is unacceptable. Looked like they were struggling with the level of customers (8pm on a Saturday). Maybe was just a bad night for them. Food also took a VERY long time between courses for the tasting menu. My two friends who ordered the tasting menu were really not happy with the timings. 1.5h after arriving they had only had two...