Land of Thousand Sorry Restaurants

[yrse]

I've found that living here has really helped my own cooking skills since it's the only way to get reasonably priced food that you can actually enjoy.
So that's something to be thankful for.

So very true!! I really took the multicultural cuisine in my home land for granted. But I now love to wow my husband and his friends and family with food they haven't even heard of. (We live in a very small town wherein they have never even heard of things like spanakopita, pakoras, even chili as a dish and not the spice .)

[Lord of Manchester]

As an ex chef who has lived and worked in the Finnish culinary industry (large scale catering and restaurants) but now sadly retired because of ill health I am happy to put my own two cents worth here.

As a newly arrived immigrant in 1995 I was pretty much gobsmacked by Finnish food culture. I started work with a good and well appreciated catering company who had a graduate of the cordon bleu school as their Chef de cuisine.The level of presentation in this company was excellent and appreciated by someone (me) who has worked in England and also the Mediterranean.

Imagine my surprise (distress) when I was introduced to the delights of the näkki kioski !! at 02.30 on aSaturday morning, the lihapiirakka was indeed designed to teach what your digestive system was designed for.
progressing from this experience to Mammi and the even more life threatening madekeiitto over a period of time I did consider moving back to Spain.
One of my worst experiences was at a much revered watering hole in Töölö, Ravintola Elite, where, they (at that time) were unable to grasp the meaning of the phrase "customer service", of this establishment I can only say i have never returned.
However there is light at the end of the tunnel, not all restaurants in Finland are crap, indeed many, in fact very many of them are excellent.
The ones to avoid in my opinion are those who overcharge for wine (we all know what it costs in Alko moreover we all know how little time and effort it takes to open the bottle,) the ones who make very pretentious statements such as "the whitebate is doused in flour then tossed fleetingly in a pan of very hot butter resulting in a mouthwatering delicacy you will be unable to resist" , also avoid the ones who make you stand at the entrance for more than 1 minute before they decide they want your business.
Food in Finland is pretty much the same as everywhere else, you can find good and bad, on the whole you get what you pay for !!
But, what we really need here is a damn good fish'n'chip shop end of rant, sorry

[Rosamunda]

I probably agree with most of that, even the bit on "Elite" since a very close relative of mine worked there briefly in the kitchen
Not sure I agree with the "you get what you pay for" though because I have, occasionally, paid a lot for what I considered to be pretentious albeit colourful fare with too much salt and yes, I had to wait a while in the lobby, even though I had a reservation. Disappointing.
There are some good places outside Helsinki, but they don't get much press because you can't get there without driving and if you drive you can't drink, which puts most Finns off. The produce is there. The local produce is excellent and there is more and more local produce of excellent quality.

My 2 cents, don't go to an "expensive" restaurant in winter. Best time of year to eat good local food is at the end of summer or the autumn.

When I want fish and chips I go to Hesburger (5e for a box). The fish in batter is OK (it is a real piece of fish, not reconstituted fish paste - take your own Malt Vinegar) but the chips are only "French fries" not real chips which is a shame.

[tuulen]

So given the number of Brits in Finland ...

What about a small shop with a Union Jack posted out front under which a sign reads, "Fish and Chips are Here" ?

Such a small shop could be expensive to operate, and so the Fish and Chips could be expensive, too.

But could such a specialty shop have a future?

[DMC]

So given the number of Brits in Finland ...

There really aren't that many Brits in Finland, and certainly not enough concentrated in a small enough area to make a fish & chip shop viable. Any such enterprise would need to find a market among the general population, not target a specific sub-set of foreigners.

[Oombongo]

Anyone been to Raffaello in downtown? I didn't get the good vibe about that place.

[tuulen]

Any such enterprise would need to find a market among the general population ...

Yes, but Fish & Chips are sooooo good! And maybe the Finns could like proper F&C, too.

And such a shop need not be big. After all, F&C is carry-out and take-away food, to go!

[Lord of Manchester]

So given the number of Brits in Finland ...

There really aren't that many Brits in Finland, and certainly not enough concentrated in a small enough area to make a fish & chip shop viable. Any such enterprise would need to find a market among the general population, not target a specific sub-set of foreigners.

Sorry but I have to disagree, a fish and chip shop anywhere within a one kilometer radius of Molly Malones would definitely be a winner, the problem is the initial capital investment !

[DMC]

Sorry but I have to disagree, a fish and chip shop anywhere within a one kilometer radius of Molly Malones would definitely be a winner

It may be, I don't know, but my point was that it can't be a winner if its only customers were resident Brits. There simply aren't enough of them. How many Brits are in Molly Malones each night? What proportion of them would go on to buy fish & chips? How much mark-up is there per portion of fish & chips? What would be the rent on retail premises within a one kilometer radius of Molly Malones? I doubt you could make out a convincing business case on this basis.

[Pursuivant]

Anyone been to Raffaello in downtown? I didn't get the good vibe about that place.

As long as you didn't sit on the bog after them vibes, you should be allright

[tjawatts]

There was a mobile chippie for a while a couple of years back. Dont know if it is still running at all.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=44819

T

[tuulen]

Sorry but I have to disagree, a fish and chip shop anywhere within a one kilometer radius of Molly Malones would definitely be a winner

It may be, I don't know, but my point was that it can't be a winner if its only customers were resident Brits. There simply aren't enough of them. How many Brits are in Molly Malones each night? What proportion of them would go on to buy fish & chips? How much mark-up is there per portion of fish & chips? What would be the rent on retail premises within a one kilometer radius of Molly Malones? I doubt you could make out a convincing business case on this basis.

Yes, but Fish & Chips are sooooo good! And maybe the Finns could like proper F&C, too.

[Lord of Manchester]

Sorry but I have to disagree, a fish and chip shop anywhere within a one kilometer radius of Molly Malones would definitely be a winner

It may be, I don't know, but my point was that it can't be a winner if its only customers were resident Brits. There simply aren't enough of them. How many Brits are in Molly Malones each night? What proportion of them would go on to buy fish & chips? How much mark-up is there per portion of fish & chips? What would be the rent on retail premises within a one kilometer radius of Molly Malones? I doubt you could make out a convincing business case on this basis.

Sorry I don't get your post, you are apparently assuming that only expat brits eat fish and chips, where do you actually live and what kind of food do you eat ? by your logic then only Finnish people eat Graavilohi and only French people eat Bouillabaise, and only Italians eat pasta.

My suggestion is that Molly Malones is known in Helsinki as probably the best meeting place for peopel of all races and any food business in the immediate vicinity (providing it's good) will be a winner !!

[tuulen]

My suggestion is that Molly Malones is known in Helsinki as probably the best meeting place for peopel of all races and any food business in the immediate vicinity (providing it's good) will be a winner !!

British fish & chips are the best, but provided that fish & chips are made to a British standard, then a Brit, a Finn or anybody else could make them and have such a shop.

At the outset, however, genuine British taste-testers must be consulted, although that might be arranged simply by offering free samples, to be taste-tested for authenticity.

And on serving them do include malt vinegar! Glasses of a good ale might help, too.

[DMC]

you are apparently assuming that only expat brits eat fish and chips

No, not at all.
Tuulen wrote:

So given the number of Brits in Finland ...

What about a small shop with a Union Jack posted out front under which a sign reads, "Fish and Chips are Here" ?

Tuulen's suggestion here being that the number of Brits in Finland is enough to support a fish & chip shop. My response was that this is not true; there are not enough Brits to make a fish & chip shop viable so a shop must be attractive to the population at large. I made no comment at all about whether the population at large would use a fish & chip shop, only that the shop would fail if it relied on Brits for its customer base.

Edit to add: My comment about Molly Malones was that placing the fish & chip shop near Molly Malones would not change the situation. i.e. This location would not provide enough Brits as customers and the shop would still require other customers.