The Alley — Restaurant in Helsinki sub-region

Even though we had fun, there were blunders throughout our brunch.

We reserved a table ahead of time but were seated at a counter. It's a common courtesy to check ahead if a counter is alright. A counter seat is not a table.

The restaurant was backed full of seats beyond the staff's capacity to move around the restaurant. Other customers would pass behind us and ask us to give them space even though our seats were literally pushed against the window's threshold and would not move forward. Luckily, we got another seat when the restaurant emptied a bit.

Time that took us from being seated to getting our food was 45 minutes, which was a moderately long wait for simple dishes.

Their bravure and star of the table was the complimentary sour dough bread, which deserves its good reputation. However, the onsen egg, which we thought had good reviews, was doused in way too much of flake salt (like 'every bite was crunchy' kind of amount). Other dishes didn't really live up to our expectations; the overnight oats were topped with berries that were still frozen - I wish they were maybe pureed instead.

They didn't have all the ingredients to make the drinks we ordered, and we went with their suggestion to switch out the matcha to espresso, but we were still charged the full price for the drinks, now with arguably cheaper ingredients. Technically, an ice latte with strawberry jam.

The cutlery arrived after the food arrived, and they didn't remember the mimosa we ordered before we asked for it. I want to emphasise that the staff was professional and tried to be as helpful as they could, but the restaurant being backed beyond the ability to even walk around it, I think it is unavoidable to forget a thing there and there.

I understand that a business is a business, and the rush hours are important revenue. But there should be a sweet spot there somewhere, where it won't eat away the integrity of...

in total, the food, service and the atmosphere are okay, but: waiting time was really long. we waited at least for 15 minutes to get menu, and on every stage it took quite long. the stuff is really nice though :) i had celery steak, and there was no or very little amount or protein, which left me quite hungry. i understand the concept of small dishes but still if it’s a main dish it should be more nutritious in my opinion, especially as for non-vege options are offered duck and fish complimentary bread was really good though :) in total, i think the place has a great potential for the future. hopefully i will visit again when it’s a...

Did the 3 course meal yesterday with my GF and were pretty blown away, close to best restaurants in Finland at a more reasonable price with very nice waitstaff. They will be bring back brunch which we will try next but the Dinner was wonderful. Final tally was higher due to drinks but if you do not partake in the alcohol, the price is more then reasonable.

Highlights: the Risotto was amazing and my GF pulpo (octopus) was phenomenal. All the foams and presentations were close to some low level Michelin star restaurants in...