Restaurant Lönkka — Restaurant in Helsinki sub-region

If the desert is the best dish of the menu in a meat restaurant, we have a problem. We had the menu, which I decided to have with dry aged meat. All the others were served tenderloin and I was asked if I want a sirloin or an entrecote. I said that oh, I'll take the sirloin then and raw please. The waitress said that they don't recommend it raw but as medium because of the fat. Well this was first of all unheard of and despite my initial though, I followed the waitress' recommendation. I received plain sirloin with fat on side that was not even close chewable and it was closer to well done than medium as there was no redness left. Waitress asked how was it and I told her that well I have no idea why I paid 10€ extra for a "dry age" meat when it was lower quality than the tenderloin that others got. Her answer was "well sirloin is just sirloin, right.." ... Aha. We were table of 6 eating the menu and to be honest, this older lady waitress was plain rude compared to the young lady who served our second table.

The starter, tar tar was good, the mushroom soup was so so with overly sweet bread on side and the chocolate fondant was the crown in this menu.

Combine this with overly expensive wine selection, with wines served by glass from Alko selection and one 16cl glass per one bottle from Alko ratio seems off.

I cannot recommend this place as there are so many better steak restaurants in Helsinki. And when you market yourself as good atmosphere and great service, maybe you want to check the experience yourself first.

Total value 92€ -...

Mix feelings about the place, atmosphere was nice and staff friendly, we had a reservation and the table wasn't ready when it was supposed to, they handled it by inviting us to a glass of sparkling wine, fine. We took the dinner menu with extra payment for dry aged meat, I think all dishes were pretty good except the meat, which was not tender at all, specially the entrecotes were really bad pieces, for a dish that costs 45 euros if bought separately it is unacceptable. Out of politeness we didn't say much to the writers when they were asking but we won't be coming back, if you present a restaurant for meat and charge those prices, you better ensure your meat is top quality,...

I have to rate this 3/5 just to give heads up to the owner, but the overall experience was "okay but maybe not again".

Service was very good and very friendly and acommodating (huge plus of this!), but kitchen was really slow (3 course dinner for 2 persons took 2.5 hrs).

But the thing you do, the meat, was a bit of an disappointment. Not bad, but expected really more. Meat cooking level was perfect vs. what was asked, but it lacked taste: somehow the "premium" meat (45€) was rather dry and tasteless.

But on plus side the sauces were totally excellent, 5/5. But for a meat oriented restaurant I expected more from the...