The Souk — Restaurant in Helsinki sub-region

Having travelled in Morocco, I was especially expecting The Souk to offer traditional Moroccan mint tea – the essential part of the culture and cuisine. However, they did not have that, or did not offer it today (the response was a bit strange leaving me also wondering why a Moroccan restaurant wouldn’t always have it). Another disappointment was they did not serve the dishes from the menu on Saturday afternoon. Instead, they had a buffet with a limited dish selection. As a true friend of Moroccan food and culture, I’ve been trying to find a place from Helsinki where I could have a closer touch with Morocco than what I here did. Overall, it felt like a basic restaurant visit with a buffet, with a few distant flavors from Morocco. I wish the experience is better evening-time, but for me one...

The worst dinner I’ve ever had, really and unfortunately. We tried 2 dishes (vegetarian and fish) and there was really no taste in both of them. We couldn’t eat even a half of our dishes since the food was just bad - we went to buy protein bars afterwards for hunger. The lentil dish was literally just lentils soaked in the water - no taste and nothing else. For 22€ dish you could do million times better.

Also the wine was awful. There was no bubbles in the sparkling wine and it was served warm. I’d say a week back opened bottle from the table?

Very dissapointed and after sharing our feelings with the waitress, she was like she didn’t even notice it and didn’t try to make our dinner...

Biased review as me and the owner go back a decade. Nonetheless I keep coming back as a default option because the price vs. quality is good for Helsinki lunch options. The salad buffe has become simpler, I miss the large all you can eat type option when you really don’t feel like picking the hot meals. That’s just me.

Lunch options always come with options and super vegetarian friendly I always pick Souk when I don’t know my lunch guest diatery restrictions. Its also nice to make an impression when the owner is around and you know each other on a first name basis. Feels like home.

Try it for yourself, see if I’m biased or you simply know the people who run five star...