Quê Em — Restaurant in Helsinki sub-region

Probably the best Vietnamese restaurant in Helsinki. Great vibe, decor, attentive staff with authentic taste. Came here twice during my 4 days in Helsinki, once for lunch and then for dinner with a party of 8.

For lunch, I ordered the pho, and it was excellent. The presentation was quite original: it came with a piping hot pot of soup and all the pho ingredients on the side. You pour everything (except the beef) into the soup. Then, you can add the beef later to control how cooked it is (I preferred it and recommend it medium rare), and it amazingly melted in your mouth. Took the (double) creme brulee that was also perfectly balanced!

For the party of 8's dinner: The Cochon de lait (crispy pork belly) and the duck were authentic and delicious, and crispy! Personal favorite was the dish with eggplants and bitter melon. The crispy fish was also a nice discovery: you can wrap it in the rice rolls they provide to make it like a spring roll then dip it in the nuoc nam sauce. It paied well with a bottle of red.

We can feel that lot of thought has gone into the presentation and serving style while preserving the authentic taste of the dishes. Had a chance to chat with the cooks, and I learned that they are from Ho Chi Minh City! Good vibe and modern decoration. It appears that the plates are directly imported from Vietnam.

Small disappointment: I wish there was bahn mi on the menu.

Definitely recommend this restaurant if you're looking for a great (and upscale) Vietnamese dining experience in Europe with authentic flavors. It's hard to find one in europe that care so much about services, decorations, taste alltogether. I've tried quite a few (in Europe and Vietnam), and this...

Update 08/2024: I had a bad hangover on monday and decided to go here for lunch. Ordered the wonton soup with cha siu and it was exactly what I needed: homey and tasty. The broth was a tad too salty but the flavour was there. Included in the price was also a salad table with pickled vegs, a DYI Pho station, and a desert bar. Quite good value. Will try their a la carte menu again to see if it has improved.

The restaurant has one of the nicest decoration amongst Vietnamese restaurants in Helsinki, very cozy and ambient. Service is friendly but they have an attitude when we want to pay with our lunch card. The chinaware they use is beautiful as well. I personally like some of the foods, such as the Lang Son duck and quail meat. I think the use of herbs and spices is very close to how the dishes are made in Vietnam. However all of them are under seasoned. Vietnamese foods are usually not aggressively seasoned, but they are always served with condiments like chilies, fish sauce, soy sauce so guests can adjust to their taste. The sauces that come with the dishes we ordered are simply not enough. The sweet and sour fish soup are horrible, too fishy and too spicy. We rarely use fatty cat fishes for this dish because of their strong smell. But they do exactly that, and without sweet/sour ingredients like pineapple, bean sprouts to cut through the taste. It is the only dish we couldn’t finish. We also find the dishes way...

I WOUD RATE THIS RESTAURANT 0 STAR, IF POSSIBLE. We already booked online just in case the restaurant would be so full. When we arrived to the restaurant, the manager took us to a table which was so dirty and uncleaned. We waited for 20 minutes, no one came to take order or even bother to clean the table. Once they noticed us, one of waitress came to ask impolitely if we had a reservation and why we were here. Secondly, they started bringing spoons and stuff, and they FORGOT to bring us glasses to drink water. I didnt notice until we almost finished the food and the glasses weren’t even there yet, how were we supposed to drink? I even got up and went to the cashier to ask if they could bring me glasses for water. Thirdly, the tall white waitor took the orders wrong for so many times, they had to bring foods to our table and asked if we ordered this , if we ordered that. Not too professional at all for this kind of fusion restaurant. Foods were not too good, they were too cold. Nothing special. Our bill were like 95€ with 20% off, it were 76€ in total. To be honest, it were not even worth for me to pay 76€ for the food, especially the service, which were so HORRIBLE. I will never go back to this restaurant and don’t recommend it...