Ravintola Maukku — Restaurant in Helsinki sub-region

New fine-dining option in Helsinki with a wide range of natural wines.

We had the Maukku menu and the vegetarian menu with the matching wine pairings. I had high expectations and luckily the food did deliver! Especially the first two courses were a hit. Beautiful modern twists on traditional Finnish flavours mixed with some new world inspiration.

The wine pairings were a bit of a hit or miss. Some great, some not so much. The young sommelier was really trying a little too hard to come across as a serious professional, which led him to not really listen to our personal preferences. After the courses, I asked for glass of a certain natural wine, which was sold out. Instead of suggesting a different (natural) wine in the same flavour profile, he poured me a glass of really overpriced champagne.

The service was a bit all over the place. Our first course was served to us a second time, after which we had to wait for almost an hour for our second course to arrive even though the wine had already been poured. Some waiters were nice, some overly pretentious. The overall experience gave the feeling of the Helsinki 'incrowd' and us very much not being a part of that (since I don't live in Finland anymore), and because of that, not getting the same service and quality.

Sadly, I would not recommend (unless you are, in fact, part of said incrowd). The chef does deserve a lot of love though, the food was beautifully crafted...

Food was okay but the service was unfortunate. Had made a reservation for the wine cellar for a special occasion. Was emailed by the restaurant few weeks earlier to move the reservation to later so that they have time to set up everything and agreed to this. When we arrived to the restaurant they were still setting up and we waited for around 20 additional minutes until they were ready. Then they informed that the wine cellar was not available after all even though it had been agreed earlier so we were seated upstairs instead. During the dinner no one came back to ask if we wanted more drinks and had to find the drink menus ourselves during dinner. There was a long wait time between a few courses and when dessert was served no one asked if anyone wanted tea or coffee. The waitresses interrupted a gift exchange during the celebration to tell us we needed to pay quickly as the next reservation is arriving. Felt very unwelcome even though we had reserved the wine cellar a month in advance and we did not get seated there. The scheduling would have worked if we would have been seated on time and courses would have arrived quicker.

Overall felt like a restaurant that is more focused on being trendy than on quality. On the pro side the wine list is extensive and the food was alright with...

We had dinner as a group of four and went with the set menu. The vegetarian dishes felt a bit random and quite similar in flavor. The timing between courses was all over the place, and they forgot one extra dish we had ordered. When we pointed it out and that the wait for the bill was really long, they gave us one free drink.

The wines were good, but the pairings didn’t seem to make much sense. Dessert was nice, though.

Word in the city says the food quality here can vary a lot, because the kitchen has a lot of young chefs who apparently like to party.

Honestly, I’d recommend checking out other spots in this price range, like Kuurna, where you’re more likely to have a better food and experience.

Also, avoid sitting next to the kitchen—it gets...