OR Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Helsinki sub-region

I was eager to see the renovated interior of this restaurant in an iconic location in Helsinki. And hopefully be surprised by the food as well. The interior was surprisingly eclectic and even if I don't get all the design choices, overall the vibe was nice.

Me and my friend (a vegetarian) ordered grilled green asparagus with hollandaise - a classic dish. We were surprised to find fish roe in the dish, even though there was no mention of it in the menu. Obviously not suitable for vegetarians. They changed my friends dish to one without fish, so that was fixed. You expect such a simple dish to be executed perfectly, but that wasn't the case. There was no salt in the aspargus, and no smoky grilled taste either (only few burn marks). The hollandaise had a pleasant tanginess to it, but tasted a bit watery. It needs to be very creamy to balance the juicy asparagus, in my opinion.

For the mains I had a mixed seafood platter in saffron broth, and my friend had one of the vegetarian options, grilled cauliflower with fried king oyster mushrooms. The seafood platter was cooked to perfection - all the fishes were cooked just right and not over at all and the broth was quite tasty, complemented by the fermented aioli. The broth wasn't piping hot though. Would have worked nicely with the fish.

My friend told the mushrooms in her dish was nice, but the red wine sauce had a very weird consistency (more like kiisseli) and was lacking in taste. The whole dish was served only lukewarm.

Even if we were not that impressed so far, we decided to order dessert. Some 20 minutes later our desserts were nowhere to be found, and I asked a waitress about it. There had been some error with the order, so our order got lost. She promptly solved the situation though and offered the desserts for free, which was really nice!

My choice was chocolate mousse and my friend chose another classic, crème brûlée. Except what we really got was a chocolate parfait (frozen) and the crème brûlée was actually crème caramel (no crispy top to crack with spoon). Each were quite good on their own and beautifully presented, but the menu was totally misleading.

Overall impression: slow but very polite service, inconsistent and lacklustre food, interesting decor, reasonable price. I would say the fish main dish was the only real success. Restaurants like this are not bad, but then again, there's nothing to make me want to go...

Service one of the best, the professional and cheerful staff makes the atmosphere feel like a classy Michelin restaurant and a dear relative's dinner table at the same time. Their sourdough bread (called Irma, obviously) and whipped brown butter with sea salt are just one of those things that you could happily live the rest of your life with. The restaurant leans towards three-course dining with their set menus, but larger menus are also available, as well as separate dishes. Starters from Raw Bar are simply stunning works of art both aesthetically and technically, and taste absolutely divine as every ingredient seems to have been meticulously thought out, forming incredibly well-balanced dishes bursting with flavours. Each starter has been like an adventure of new flavours and things one never even thought possible. The mains and desserts vary, on some visits they have been pleasant surprises as well, while on other times perhaps a tad lackluster - especially after such a magnificent starter. The restaurant's signature blackcurrant sorbet, served from a golden bowl and topped with their own champagne is always a nice, slightly luxurious way to end the evening. Definitely one of my personal favourites in the city, a place where I always return to eagerly. Thanks to the lovely staff making the...

I had my expectectations up for this restaurant and the service was excellent, but the kitchen, sadly, did not deliver. We had the three course fish and meat menus. The starters and the deserts were delicious, but main courses looked like something from an ABC station. Mine was just potato mash, a steak and and some gravy with carrot slices hidden under the meat. Even at medium the meat was a little dry. Not an absolute disaster of a menu, but at 100€ a head with wines you are expecting something... more. If you have an S-Card and you absolutely must spend a lot of Ateriaetu-points somewhere then maybe this is the place for it, but at least have...