Garden by Olo — Restaurant in Helsinki sub-region

I had high hopes for this, as we had been trying some of their food in the summer festivals of Finland. This was not a traditional dinner, but we had our company's christmas party here. It should affect the food quality though...

The atmossphere was great and the high glass ceilings on an outside patio felt great. The food looked very stylish and well thought of, if it would just tasted good. We had some bread and butter first, but the butter was salted so much you could barely eat it. The mushroom soup had the same problem, wayyyy too much salt. Pork was fine, but the side cauliflower was both burned (probably on purpose) but raw. Dessert had way too many fighting flavours to be good.

The real pain was in the vegetarian menus though. They were not listed anywhere, which already gave me a feeling they didn't care much. Then the chef came and let us know what was in the menu again, still no mention of the vegetarian foods. And they were truly terrible. Instead of pork, vegetarians got some kind of leafy green. So cauliflower with leafy greens, that is how you make a fine dining experience?

Their homemade limoncello and the wines were great, I'll...

Food 5/5 based on the 8-course seasonal menu.

Unfortuntely service for a business dinner of 15 people was a bit slow. Full menu took almost 4 hours. When reserving duration estimate was about 2 hours. This takes one star away.

Venue (December thursday night) was chilly. And if not dark, lightning was definately not classy or cozy either. Emphasis to Interior planning regarding acoustics and lightning should be paid much more attention. Echo from another party behind the curtain mixed with our tables making the acoustics very hard. Venue also had some temporary furniture hidden in the corners, not something expected from a place of this level. Another star deducted...

I was looking forward to dining here during my trip to HEL, and overall, it was a positive experience. The tasting menu was thoughtfully prepared, with a range of dishes. The wine selection was not extensive, but had enough choice. My only critique is that some of the dishes were not as well done as I would have expected. My risotto, for example was runny, whereas I typically prefer it firm. One other dish relied too much on local ingredients for the mix (carrots, pumpkin, and potatoes) and, while tasting good, was not particularly inspired. The service was excellent, and the opportunity to talk with the...