Vltava — Restaurant in Helsinki sub-region

This place claims to be a Czech restaurant. Yes, they serve Czech beer and the decoration is Czech-themed. They offer a few Czech dishes including Svíčková na smetaně, basically the Czech national dish. We ordered it, the waiter didn't understand my Czech accent I guess, so I had to point it out on the menu. He still didn't know what the dish was (what?) and had to ask a colleague of his. When the waiter asked how we want the steak done, I knew we were in trouble. What they brought to the table was a Svíčková from a fever dream. It kind of looked like the real thing at first glance but everything about it was wrong. Except for the cranberries, the cranberries were good. The sirloin cut is supposed to boiled. We were served a grilled steak covered with pepper. The real dish is served with white bread dumplings (houskové knedlíky), they serve fried (what?) potato dumplings with bacon. The cream sauce (arguably the best part of the original dish) tasted nothing like what it's supposed to. Instead of whipped cream they used what tasted like a cheese spread. The dish included red cabbage, very original but completely off the mark. Each and every part of the dish tasted excellent, together it was a complete mess. Please either take Svíčková off the menu or learn how to make it properly. You are giving Czech...

Slightly disappointed about food. Lacking Czech originality. Few years back you could get real Czech beer and Menu was more like Czech. Now food is adopted to Finnish taste and most likely produced in Finland or so. E.g. so called "grilled sausage" was more of smoked Finnish makkara - nothing of Czech originality. Also pork cnuckle was out of menu. Horse radish was a horrible disappointment. More Apple's than horse radish. The good stuff I can say about cooked and fried with bacon sour crout. It did tasted delicious. Maybe it's just my specific taste marginal and/or no tolerance to taste difference. My family did enjoy it so, the evening was successful. It's difficult to satisfy my kids and myself. I can say I'm partly happy even though I did not get what I was expecting. Probably I need to modify my expectations before next...

miss monika who served us our food was very kind yet professional. we ordered “smazeny syr” and the portion size of the food itself was rather small. it is also important to note that when you order through their website, this meal is listed as “lactose-free” which is misleading as it is a breaded block of cheese. if the cooks use lactose-free cheese, it should be clarified (the ingredients listed is edam cheese which, as far as i know, is not lactose-free). additionally to that, there was no salt in the cheese or the fries. it is also pity that in such old-school czech restaurant they serve their food on minuscule black plates. i think it would go very well with the overall vibe of the place if they used traditional czech china:). the decorations really tie the place together and eating in was a nice...