A traditional Finnish restaurant with Karelian vibes. Lunch buffet cost 11,50 Euros here. It contains starters, salad, main courses and a soup. Coffee or tea is included too with the lunch buffet. Lunch buffet is served from 11am to 2:30pm. At first glance you might assume that this place isn't all that fancy and you would be absolutely right. I would call this place traditional which makes this place so unique among all the restaurants in Helsinki.
This restaurant isn't ideal for plant protein based dietary but lunch always contain at least one plant protein based option. Food itself is traditional Finnish food with simple basic components that Finns enjoy. For foreign people this place is a cultural and culinary experience.
This establishment is serving constantly changing à la carte choice during lunchtime too. This usually cost around 15 to 18 Euros depending various nutritional attributes but these always are traditional Finnish delicatessen.
In case you're wondering: Their beer index is 7 Euros from 0,5L Karhu lager beer. Which is a tad on the expensive side but then again this establishment isn't a pub so price is probably justified.
Interior design is simply grand. It's full of decorative things from Karelia which makes this restaurant really cozy museum like feeling. If you want to dive into Finnish culture without a lecture then this facility is a resplendent experience for you. Atmoshphere music is traditional finnish aquostic music (e.g. accordion).
Service is nice and caring. I really enjoyed the welcoming atmosphere the moment I stepped inside. This isn't all that common nowadays. I felt so welcomed here which made me really happy.
Typical Finnish customers here are older monogamy hetoronormative couples and construction yard workers who seek typical Finnish food with decent price to quality. And this restaurant is truly that. Restaurant is clearly designed for tourists because everything is also in English so no problem coming here if you don't speak or read the local language. Service is excellent in English too.
Overall I really enjoyed this place visually and mentally. If you are looking for traditional Finnish food and don't want to be center of the tourist furnaces then this is your restaurant. Really lovely cozy atmosphere and great service makes this restaurant instantly one of my favourite visits here...
Read moreVery average. We've been here before in 2019 and based on that experience we took our guest from Australia there to try out some Finnish foods. Didn't realise the ownership has changed which could explain why the restaurant went from five stars to three.
We had a group of 10 people and most of the time we spent getting food as the plates were tiny (and the plates for the cold foods were hot out of the dishwasher, what is that?) and the buffet didn't have any kind of system to it. Why was the reindeer on the other end of the table from lingonberries? Other costumers seemed to be frustrated with the lack of system too. Things really needed some labelling if this place is targeted for tourist. Also they kept running out of things and it took forever to fill the table. When one of us mentioned to the staff the table was out of salmon she got told "it's also out of Karelian pies".. helpful and not very professional.
The service wasn't great overall and you could tell they were way too busy for what they could handle. We wanted to have some sparkling before the meal and the waitress wasn't able to calculate how many glasses she gets from a bottle. Maybe she was new to the job? I had to go ask if we could order some other drinks later as no one seemed to be interested about our table. We also got told 35 minutes before our booking was ending that times is almost up which was done in a way it seemed like they wanted to get rid of us asap. So the dinner was very rushed and most of the time was spent queuing food as basically only one person could take it at the time. We had also asked if someone could come tell us about the history of the restaurant as previous time we visited with some overseas guest we got a nice little story about history and the culture of Karelia. What we got this time was a 2 minute explanation about the previous owners. Even that they seemed not happy to do as they were so busy.
The food itself wasn't anything special. Nothing really tasted like anything. Lot of things that we used to like about this place just wasn't there anymore. Not really worth it. Maybe we will give it another go in 3 years to see if...
Read moreThe atmosphere is good for tourists, the hostess was very kind and welcoming.
The food tasted very poor. I had lunch, the main dish was sour cream ox, which tasted so bad i wanted to cry. The meat was chewy and flavorless, the only thing you could taste was sour cream. (I was told once the ox stew was finished they would serve meatballs, which seemed ok. But i did not get to sample these much to my disappointment.)
The soup was asparagus soup, while i did not enjoy my friends said tasted good. So while i did not enjoy it, i think many would.
The bread tasted poor, and tasted wet. I did only try the dark bread.
The salad bar was OK as was the coffee.
I do not recommend this restaurant. If you want to eat authentic Finnish food, you will find 100 other better restaurants in Helsinki. The hostess was very kind, but as far as the food goes. It tasted so bad i wanted to puke. Which is the only reason i write this.
If this restaurant was just OK, i would not feel the need to comment. But it is the worst tasting meal i have had in the last 10 years, and after dropping close to 100 euro (66 to be exact) on a meal for 4, the only thing i...
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