Restaurant Mat Distrikt — Restaurant in Helsinki sub-region

We made a new attempt to explore MatDistrikt. The last time was 2 years ago and we were going in with high expectations that were met with a completely underwhelming performance of staff, portion size, taste and general feeling. The restaurant was about 65% full. It seemed to be a popular place for batchelorette parties or similar. I am sure the Restaurant has invested more in Instagram influencer marketing than in customer care.

The menu was a bit of a mess and quite diffucult to understand.

It took 45 minutes after we sat down for us to get our cocktails and then another 30 minutes before we had the dinner menu in front of us. In all it took 1 hour and 45 min to get the first plate on the table. And almost 3 hours from start to finish. We had a starter and a main. No dessert altough it was paid and ordered as the entire company was so tired of the geriatric pace of the staff and service in restaurant that we decided to leave and skip dessert.

The food was alright, altough the portion of Gnocchi was ridiculously small. The Gnocchi and cabbage was good but 6 pretty petite Gnocchis on less than a handful of cabbage leaves was the ration. Price 26€ so it comes to 4€ and 30 cents per gnocchi. That was the main. The portion size was so small that the ladies in our party had to stop by McDonalds on our way to the next cocktail bar. We also had the Prime Rib menu and a burrata as a starter. This option was approximately 70€ for the menu with starter and dessert. The Burrata starter was at best ok. Underwhelming is probably a good description of the taste, texture and general composition. The meat (dry aged prime rib) was good. A massive portion of meat for 2 persons that was very good. The accompanying potatoes portion size was so small that even the waiters laughed when I asked "is this potatoe portion meant for 2?"

It was the size of about 1cm thick and 5cm×6cm (think of the size of a business card). Total weight probably around 75g max. Or to describe it better : 2 bites of potatoe. 1 bite per person in this scenario. We also had asparagus as a side. We received 2 Asparaguses per person. This was very well made and tasty.

The wines were good but extremely expensive for a simple eatery like this. The cheapest wine (white) was 70€ a bottle red was 55€ per bottle. Next option on the list were between 90 and a 100€ a bottle. It seems like the wine selection was overpriced and almost a scam to extract the extra € from the guests.

It was interesting to see and experience this restaurant. We laughed a lot during the evening about its shortcomings and it is good that there is a lot to improve. The place has clear ambitions but yesterday it did not live up to any of them. There are clear ambitions of the kitchen towards some type of fine dining but the execution does not meet the criteria even for average. A bit...

Unfortunately due to a late schedule change our table was next to the toilets, so I didn't really get to soak in the look of the place. On the plus side it was a bit quieter and we had a direct line to the kitchen.

The atmosphere was relaxed, modern. Very friendly staff. Serving was a bit slow, but might be it was due to us having very different orders – I went with the menu which costed 63€. Three small entrées, risotto, main and dessert. And a wine pairing to go with. The food was of good quality and unlike many places in Helsinki, the quality was steady throughout. Tasty and beautiful, but not that memorable. For the price it's difficult to argue why you would choose Mat Distrikt over the cheaper options such as Plein, Young Hearts or BasBas. Wine pairing went well with the food, with just one wine leading the pack. Their drink special was vermouth, and the house one was very good!

Overall we had a great and enjoyable visit, but not sure what would make me come by again. I didn't get to try their specialty dry aged meats, maybe they would be able to...

Birthday party of 15-20 guests including children.

We had our own pleasant corner with tables set up in a round configuration so talking to anyone was easy. Service was very fluent and kind and even took good care of the children. The food was really great! (char grilled quail, truffle risoto etc.) Wines were almost other-wordly good (eg. a Sancerre with orange hue). Be ready to spend 100-200€ per good bottle. But really - I have only seen this quality of wines in a few places in Finland! Even a French veteran citizen at our table gave some really positive feedback. Children had their own menu (quail and fries). Really nice ambience with nice view to the colorful cocktail bar.

If I had to give some constructive feedback: portion sizes could be just slightly bigger and also fries (or other condiments) could be more readily brought to the table (we had to reorder them a few times).

Overall we were really pleasantly surprised and loved our time there! Definitely a new top-tier restaurant in Helsinki for me.

Highly...