Galleria Keidas

Among all the places we wanted to go since a while, Galleria Keidas has been on the top of the list. Quoted by many magazines as a good organic brunch place we were excited to pay a visit, even more as it is located just on front of our old apartment.

H. had a special voucher for a brunch which gave us the perfect opportunity to visit the place.

At 10.50 on a Saturday morning we popped-in! And surprise the tiny place (only 20 seats maximum) was full. We had tried to contact them by email in advance to make a reservation, but we didn't get any answer. It seemed to be hard to get a seat. Anyway we were told to come back at 12.00 by then there would be a table waiting for us. We were informed that we could come also a bit earlier, if we wanted to come to check the situation. So we came back at 11.30 and after 10minutes we got our table.

The place has some charm. It is tiny but not too tiny and the decoration looks very friendly, but something weird make you feel that it is not as friendly place as it seems to be.

The brunch consist of a "starter", a bowl of porridge or musli with soured milk and jam. Musli was tasty enough to be a good introduction.

Then comes a plate with the main ingredient of your choice: Mozzarella, edam, eggs or tofu.

We both went for mozzarella. The brunch is served with tea or coffee plus a glass of juice. This is in theory - In practice there is a small bottom of black mud in the coffee pot, some water for the tea and after many attempt and request a small glass of juice is served to you. A buckthorn juice has a nice orange color but with an awful taste (reminds me of puke), the perfect morning drink though!

The plate is garnished with some homemade and good humus, some black beans, salad and slices of  pineapple and orange. The bread is also fresh and still warm, and actualy quite good, not homemade though.

But. A big but. There are some serious problems with managing.  The small cafe is lacking of directing. There were no organizing at all, which gives totally catastrophic feeling also for the customers. Orders were mixed, even forgotten. Some people got service twice, some none. Unfortunately lots of your energy goes to see, if the manager is surviving. It's scary.

The waitress seems to be a very kind girl but maybe a bit too much under the stress of a manager who have no organization at all (in a place of less than 20 seats, isn't difficult to give numbers to table for example?).

Never the less, the brunch is suppose to end by a royal pancake with ice-cream. The ice-cream is made in Suonenjoki, Finland. Unfortunatly there wasn't anymore blueberry when our turn came. Chocolate and lingonberry did the deal, but what a pancake! I think that with such a recipe we found the solution to build earthquake proof building in Japan! Even a steak knife would have not be enough to cut through it! A cold and hard pancake, how can you dare to serve this to your customers?

Another comment need to be added here: as for many places trying to surf on the organic wave, what is the point to propose organic products, if the products are not seasonal nor local and are coming from the other side of the world? And what about products grown in green houses, which need lots of energy (not necessarily green in a country which had a massive nuclear power plant park)? If I were vicious, I could say opportunism...

Verdict: It's not a bad place, but to really make yourself a good opinion of the place, go there when the place is not packed, it might be then more relaxing and this also effects on the food and the atmosphere!