Great Scott's take on the best places to eat in Helsinki

[neil]

Villa Thai (Bulevardi 28 ) - nice food, mediocre service and I did find their 'Tsunami Menu' a little distasteful <- what were they thinking?!

[enk]

Satkar (and Buddha, which they also own). Never had a disappointing
meal there yet. Don't recommend take-away though, if you live far,
the naan doesn't like the trip too much.

Kabuki is ok, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's overrated.

Sante Fé is by far the worst tex-mex restaurant I've ever eaten in
in Finland.

Via is usually good, but when they change menus, it takes them a while
to get back up to their usual standard.

Belge: steeaaak. and fries. and beer.

Atabar: oh yeah!


-enk

[tuijaE]

Mai Thai: green papaya salad & red veggie curry, yum! Their cocktail menu is worth sampling too. (Annankatu 31-33)

Mandarin Court: The place to go to for dim sum in Helsinki (Lonnrotinkatu 2)

Silvoplee: excellent vegetarian food (Toinen linja 3)

Cantina West: Best Mexican food in town (Kasarmikatu 23)

New Bamboo Center: Lovely & inexpensive Malaysian curries. Decor is very casual, has a bit of a summer cottage feel to it. (Annankatu 29)

[enk]

And how could I have forgotten?

KOREA HOUSE!

Thank you to whoever stuck that one on the forum I just ate
kim chi soup for breakfast, lunch and dinner (flu coming on and those
portions are huge ).

-enk

[baris]

Meze Point: A Turkish restaurant offering food with very good quality. Most probably the same guys owned the restaurant Sofra are the ones behind this one as well.

Website, opening hours and the address are as follows:

http://www.meze.fi/

mon-thu 11-00
fri-sat 11-01
sun 13-21

Mikonkatu 8
00100 Helsinki

Halikarnas: Another Turkish restaurant located at Rouholahdenkatu 18. They have quite good food as well. Here's the website: http://www.ravintolahalikarnas.fi/

Grecia: A Greek restaurant at Katajanokanlaituri 5. I've never been there but I would like to go sometime. Its website is located at http://www.grecia.fi/ .

[toukokuu]

Hi!

I do not agree with Enk about Santa Fe. For me, with frequent visits, it is absolutely one of my favourites in Helsinki. On the other hand, Cantina West was a disappointment. Maybe the food was neutral but the service was rude.

Below is Mariaa's comment to some tourists who had been to Helsinki, on www. tripadvisor.com, Finnish pages. You guys coud also advise people planning to travel to Helsinki, the pages are too passive...


"I can easily imagine that you liked Santa Fe, it has been voted one of the best restaurants in the city. I haven't been there for ages "

Is it possible to organise a vote for the best restaurant in Helsinki in this forum? Someone would like to organise that?

[karen]

I haven't been to Santa Fe or Cantina West in years because both use too much sugar in their recipes. Cantina West does have awesome stuffed jalapenos, though. Usually, the only safe choice in those places is fajitas.

Colorado Mts. has a very good steak sandwich called a Texas Ranger. Love the name, love the sandwich. Omenapuu also has a surprisingly good BBQ steak sandwich. I think that was the Cowboy Burger. I don't often go out for Tex-Mex or American food because I can make it better at home.

[sinikala]

What about Lappi Ravintola, many years since I've been though.

Also Kasakka last went there last summer and it was still good.

Best oriental I've had in Finland is the Mongolian / Chinese restaurant opposite Kaisaniemi Metro station, is it Gengis Kahn?

Best curry is in Namaskar, it is a bit overpriced for what you get, but the competition charges similarly high prices, so fair enough, it's the going rate.

I still don't understand the fascination here with TexMex or MexItal. Pori has 76,000 inhabitants, no curry houses, two dismal chinese restaurants (I can cook better myself and I am not a great chef) but I have five pizza/kebab/mexican/whatevers within spitting distance of my front door

[toukokuu]

Hi Therese,

I am commenting some of opinions, basically I agree with many:

"Farouge - Lebanese with starched tablecloths. The food was the best Lebanese in Finland - then again, there are many places in Surry Hills or Newtown in Sydney which are just as good at 30% the price."

Never been disappointed with Farouge food, only sad about the bill!

"Raffaelo - don't do it to yourself. "

Definitely correct.

"Via, Ludwiginkatu - great wine bar, although if the nice waitress suggests something ask the price BEFORE you find out its 15€ a glass. The spaghetti and the curry are OK, but the servings are small. But hey, you are here for the noisy groups and the atmosphere."

Been there twice. It is the noise and continental atmosphere which I like. The food was pretty okay, but the last time I went there it was Saturday and the service was so slow that I thought of leaving before the starter. When I asked about this, they said that Saturdays are like that...Well, if they knew the problem, they could have tried to find a solution for that.

"Kosmos - Russian influenced. Supposed to be amazing, but I wasn't that impressed. Recognised some major business people among the diners though."

Yeah, there were some politicians, Finnish celebrities. We ate Russian Borts (?) soup. It was nothing too special that would take we back there but I like the interior. The service that night was too cool and stiff.

[deojuvame]

Far and away, the best restaurant in Helsinki (hell, Finland) is Demo. It' sthe closest I've ever come to falling out of my chair with food enjoyment. And they know their stuff when it comes to matching food and wine.

However, be prepared to pay- it's tasty and memorable, so I considered it worth it.

[ferkel]

I had the probably my most tasty dish in a helsinki resturant in farouge. Yum yum yum yum yum!

Not a budget place, but it was great and with great service too - people did say the meat dishes whilst being very good didnt quite reach the heights of the vegetables though.

http://www.farouge.fi

[snowflake]

Try the following ones if you like vegetarian food:

Smökki or Servin-Maja - it's situated in Otaniemi and offers always vegetarian alternatives, a lot of Otaniemi students of coursa

Silvoplee - Toinen Linja, Kallio. Owned by finnish actress Satu Silvo; really good dishes, I think

Zucchini- Fabianinkatu

Herne & Nauris - Munkkisaari, also music

Namaskaar- indian veg dishes

Shanghai City -they have a veg menu, too. chinese of course

All the Unicafes, that are Helsinki University eateries, available for outsiders too

Cafe Ateneum

This is not vegetarian, but worth a visit anyway: Tamminiementien Kahvila-Cafe at Tamminiementie. A wonderful old-fashioned wooden villa, where this authentic (it is) polish cafe-restaurant is situated, serving heavenly cakes, all sorts of buns, bakings, pirogs etc and good tea. A pianist. Not cheap, though.

I think the best chinese restaurant in capital city area is in Tapiola, Tung Hing. Really authentic chinese food, also schezuan and they make their own tofu.

[Shazzer]

I went to the Japanese restaurant Koto for lunch today on Kalevankatu 21. http://www.ravintola-koto.fi

Ordered from the lunch menu. Hubby had the teriyaki chicken and a sushi platter. I had the bento set which came with tempura veggies and prawns, fried salmon and eggroll, breaded pork in teriyaki sauce and raw salmon. Rice, miso soup and green tea included. The bill came up to around 30 euros.

!! This is my favourite Japanese place in town! Perhaps a bit more Zen than Kabuki, in my opinion.

Lunch hour - 12-14
Dinner - 17-22

There was a notice up on the window stating that they will be closed till Jan 30 for renovations. I think renovations start tomorrow (Jan 14) - do give them a call to confirm.

[posseidon]

Meze Point: A Turkish restaurant offering food with very good quality. Most probably the same guys owned the restaurant Sofra are the ones behind this one as well.

Website, opening hours and the address are as follows:

http://www.meze.fi/

Interesting that their English version of the menu is 2euro more
expensive than the Finnish one!

Full Meze 17,50/p.hlö. Min. 2 pers.
Yhdentoista mezen lajitelma.

Full Meze 19,50/p.p. Min. 2 pers.
Combination of 11 different mezes
Festival of flavours...

Meze lautanen 11,50
Yhdeksän mezen lasilautanen

Meze lautanen 13,50
Meze Plate Combination of 9 different mezes served on a glass plate

[AlanStormCrew]

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