Restaurant Penélope — Restaurant in Helsinki sub-region

We went to Penelope for the first time at New Years and had a great experience! Then, once for a lunch and the food was really good but the service a bit off. But we didn't think too much of it at that time. However, this time the service was very uneven, almost lacking when it comes to a restaurant that cleary wants to be of the fancier side. At times we felt almost unwelcome to be there. Also, the food of the 5-course-menu was either bland or very one-note (the sashimi, for example, was just spicy and kept burning in my mouth for quite some time afterwards) and the wine pairings were... not that great. The waitress didn't even ask about our food even though me and my avec had both left 2/3 of one of the portions untouched. The main course was so disappointing, we just decided to pay the bill and leave early and go to another restaurant to end our dinner with a higher note. Don't think we're gonna give this place...

Good taste, agressive service. They offer as an specialty of the house a five courses menu and we went for it and asked two menus of five courses. Every thing was ok with the first two dishes, but after that we had to wait for a long time beetwen each course, in one case more than twenty minutes. Also it surprised me that in spite we had ordered two menus, some of the (small) dishes were for sharing between the two people. When we comment to them about the big delay between each dish, instead of given us a kind apolgy, we receive a very rude, unfair and arrogant answer from the staff of the restaurant: they said us that it was normal in the restaurants of Finland to make people wait a long time between each dish (!) and also they asked us about what kind of restarants we were used to go (!) (!)....

Penelope has it all: cozy atmosphere, excellent food and nice staff. We had the scallops and the cauliflower with a perfectly matched white Italian wine, and by the waitress’s recommendation, a spinach croquette appetizer which was a pleasant surprise. The restaurant has very reasonable prices given the central location and the quality of the food - not to mention the level of service. The waitress was very acknowledgeable, warm and attentive, speaking a very high level of English too. Don’t get spooked by the weird fake flowers on the patio, the place is stylish and cozy. If you’re into relaxed fine dining, this is your place. Also the cocktails are above average with a lot of thought and expertise behind the the flavor profiles of each cocktail. Highly...