Restaurant Wellamo — Restaurant in Helsinki sub-region

The food menu is very narrow and limited, there's very few options to choose from. The food is very expensive, considering the size of everything, which is very small. It felt like eating a bunch of free samples of exotic food, except, you're paying for those samples. We had all 3 (starter, main course and dessert) and we were still so hungry at the end, that we had to go somewhere else to get some more food.

Also, the waiting time was very long, and giving that it is small and expensive, I was expecting some flavors that would mesmerize me and make my jaw drop in awe, but that didn't happen. Don't get me wrong, the food isn't bad at all, the taste was very good, but nothing I hadn't tasted before.

Surprisingly, what I liked the most, was the starter (duck and leek) which was of course small, as starters usually are, no surprise there. However, the main course, (venison and beetroot) was just slightly bigger than the starter. It was a very miniscule piece of meat, with SOME (very nice) sauce on top of it, (poured directly by the chef in an unnecessarily theatrical manner), and some slices of beetroot that tasted absolutely NO different than the one my mom used to make me eat against my will when I was I kid. My fault, I guess, for ordering beetroot when I'm not a fan of it, but when the plate costs 30€, I'm expecting something really groundbreaking, which certainly wasn't. And for the dessert, I had some kind of blueberry soup, with an almost secret TOUCH of ice cream, so small that it seems it was very carefully and meticulously scooped with the absolute smallest spoon available in the kitchen. Was it a new flavor? yes. Amazing? Unfortunately not.

Besides that, even though the place is very cute and cozy and the customer service is really great, it is so small that u can hear everyone's conversations around, without even trying and hey, we're talking about finnish people here, who only whisper when they talk, and still, I could hear all of their latest gossip. In general, this whole experience was definitely far from exquisite or...

Promising but fell a bit short

Went on a dinner with my partner to celebrate. The restaurant itself is small with a nice and cozy atmosphere. Started off with cocktails and loved my P Swizzle! The passionfruit was tart and refreshing.

However, the starters we ordered came too early, only a few sips into our cocktails. I loved the tartar. It was herby and the crispy veg as garnished provided a nice crunch. The asparagus tart was nice as well. The pastry shell was crisp, and the fillings were abundant. However, the chawanmushi (steamed egg) dish was a let down. The texture was textbook but I felt that the broth that used was over reduced, making it way too salty. And thus is coming from someone who loves her salt!

The mains were good but again, there’s just something lacking? The fish dish was better than the beef. The beurre blanc was gorgeously luscious and the potato had a nice surprise filling. The meat sounded great in theory - onion, meat, mushroom, thats a winning formula right? But it somehow lack cohesiveness and balance. For a small portion of meat, you will get an equivalent of 1.5 onions. And maybe its cause each item was cooked separately, that it felt disconnected from each other.

Lastly, the desserts was nice enough. The rhubarb granita was refreshing, a balance if tart and sweet. Loved the different textures. The tosca cake was really spiced which I appreciated. Theres some herbiness from some kind of mint that I cant place? But i felt the dish would have benefitted with the addition of salt to balance the sweetness.

Over all, my experience was pleasant enough. I would maybe come back just for drinks and light bites in their terrace. Though i thought the last palate cleanser of cucumber was odd. Its just vaguely taste of compressed cucumber and something sweet? Some salt or acid again could be added. I guess they are changing the menu next week, so we’ll see what’s...

Very beautiful and great vibes. Though the menu was quite restricted and you have an option of veg/non-veg and 4/5 courses.

The starter chawamushi was very unexpected. It was lukewarm bordering cold, and the greens were very overpowering.

The service staff was very pushy asking us on several occasions whether we’d like to have wine and even though we’ve said no. At the end of the meal, they also ask for coffee/tea in a manner that was quite rude. Highlighting that we didn’t order beverages?

The chef though was very nice and friendly and sharing details about their inspiration of each dish and how it’s made. It’s very unfortunate that our experience was made sour by one individual wait staff.

When we’re being billed, the waitstaff also pre-selected a tip for us. Which was very odd, especially when tipping doesn’t seem to be standard in any other establishments we’ve visited...