Soppakeittiö, Hakaniemi Market Hall

If you fancy a easy, but tasty lunch, head to the Hakaniemi Market hall in Helsinki. There you can find a small place called Soppakeittiö. They are offering everyday (except on Sundays) three different soups and everyday there is their classic: French seafood soup bouillabaisse. 

Simple, tasty and good: highly recommended. 

Soppakeittiö (in Finnish only)

Hoshito

A lovely small restaurant, Hoshito, has been open in Vallila, Helsinki already some time. It's a stylish japanese restaurant with quality food, friendly service and great food experience. There you can forget about ordering sushi with Asahi. At the Hoshito you can choose three, four or five courses menus (32 euros/ 36 euros/ 39 euros). They use seasonal ingredients and that's why menus are changing time to time. Hoshito is open only for evenings and sometimes for a special occasions like First of May. 

The chef is a multi-talent. He has been working also for Marimekko and you can see his own idiom in the fabrics and the decorations on the wall. 

It's been very popular restaurant and that's why we recommend to make a table reservation also for the weekday evening. Go and see Hosihitos web page, it's as wonderful as the restaurant and its food. 

Aed - The Embassy of Pure Food

Aed is a wonderful place to have a dinner, if your wallet is not the thickets, but you want to eat well. They are serving great, simple food there and the prices are very reasonable. 

Try their cheese plate and risotto with the glass of wine. Don't forget the deserts..  

Great staff. 

Ateljé Finne

Ateljé Finne is one of the restaurants in Helsinki, which you can put on the group "a bit better ones". If you a planning to have a nice dinner with your loved one or you are wondering, where to arrange a dinner with your girlfriends, when one of you is getting married, we do recommend the Ateljé Finne. Food is excellent, service professional and the atmosphere cosy. 

These pictures are taken in one evening, when one of my friend had got married and the group of friends wanted to celebrate that. It was great. 

Tintå

Looking for a great place for lunch on Turku's riverside? Well then Tintå might be a good option.

This self proclaimed wine bar is actually a very good option for kind of tapas food (and probably also pizzas, which look amazing, but we will have to go back to Turku to talk about it).

The restaurant itself is descent size and the table plan manage to be in a same time not too packed and not too empty, which makes it feel good. Surrounded by some small nice details: old wooden made bottle racks on the wall as selfs, giant black board with the menu. I also need to mention an remarkable view on the Aura river, as well as their terrace. Tintå is a very popular place, for which you need to book a week or even two ahead, if you wish to have a table for a Saturday evening. 

How about the food. We did it simple with grilled prawns and the special Tintå bread on one side, and Lamb kofta on the other. I can already say that both were tasty. The Grilled prawns were not too dry and the marinade was excellent. The Lamb on its side was terrific and the green sauce served with it was definitely one of the best surprise of the dish. 

Tintå has a large wine menu. Lots of their wine seems to come from South America, which in our quest of ethical menu is not appreciate very high. Even if tasting wine from Bolivia was exciting, we went for an European option with a glass of French rosé.

After our nice plate, the waitress managed to convinced us to order of the dessert: Blueberry pie tiramisu.

Behind this mysterious name you'll find not really a pie, not really a tiramisu, but a very interesting mix of blueberries, walnuts and mascarpone served in a pretty small glass pot, like a mini "Parfait". The taste was surprising at first and the combination blueberry + walnut is simply brilliant.

As a conclusion I say that Tintå is an affordable place with a nice personality, atmosphere and of course the great menu. Perhaps dinner might feel a bit like a hassle, if booking is required in advance, but it is probably worth it.

www.tinta.fi

Gran Delicato Cafe

Here we are! Gran Delicato. We went couple of times in Café Delicato in the past, the italian team make some of the best espresso and cappucino in Helsinki. But since they temporary closed the place and made it bigger, explaning the "Gran" Delicato, we never took time to check it again.

The place has double size than earlier but managed to keep its very friendly and southern Europe atmosphere (but we are still in Finland, don't expect to find the same kind of café than in the middle of Emilia-Romagna). The staff is still the same very friendly, smily and joking. One appreciable thing for a café in Finland: you pay when you leave not when you make your order!

About the food. We just went there for a quick lunch on a working day, so nothing too fancy. The place offer very nice and affordable salads, and different kind of chiapatas. We went for chiapatas, and for 6,40€ you get a basic (artichoke, cheese tomatoes or chorizo, chèvre, tomatoes) but much more tasty sandwich, with an excellent bread, than other snack places around. Their speciality is the way they rap your sandwiches - you won't get a tomato on your trousers while you are trying to eat to bread. 

Of course if you are a Shrek type you'll always prefer the big sandwiches chain...but isn't it better to eat well than too much? Delicato is definitely a great place to enjoy a espresso or a cappucino and meet your friends. We love it! 

Moko market breakfast

Another brunch in Helsinki. A furniture store can also hide a much better brunch place than a well known poshy café. After last week disappointment, this appears to be a nice Saturday morning brunch place. 10,90€ with normal Finnish coffee or Tea, or 12,90€ with a fancier espresso/Cappuccino/Latte, Moko's brunch buffet is an affordable place in the South of Helsinki city centre. The café itself is cosy, surrounded by the retro furnitures of the store, you can choose to seat on table or then for the early birds sofas and armchairs are also available.

Let's talk about the food! 

A buffet table proposing the basics and a bit more that what you can expect from a finnish brunch. The different kind of breads, white, dark, focaccia were very good, and often still warm and crusty. Only the focaccia was maybe a bit too salty...

Anyway from what looked first a very simple choice of ingredients came out a very nice breakfast: with the regular tomatoes and cucumber slices Moko is proposing spanish goat and 3 milks cheeses. Very tasty and much more original than the regular finnish cheese.

Fruits assortment wasn't large (watermelon, cantaloupe, bananas) but fruits were tasty. 

If you wish something sweet after your bread, you can opt for fresh yogurt with blueberries and strawberries, and of course muesli. Want more sweets? Then you will be delighted by Moko cheese cake and apple-pulla cake.

As we said nothing very exceptional, not millions of things to choose between but quality products!

Cappuccino is particularly good there, as the Latte and espresso. One of the only bad point might be that the juice is straight from the bottle, not freshly home made. So our verdict is pretty optimistic, you will get a simple but quality breakfast for a decent price, more than enough to not feel depressed on a rainy weekend.

Fresh bread.

Cheeses were organic, BUT not from Finland. Cheese was imported from Spain. Good cheese, but a big minus for imported cheese. Would be better to offer some Finnish organic cheese. 

Finnish berries on the top of the yogurt. 

In the end: cheesecake! 

Moko market  is here: 

Perämiehenkatu 10, Helsinki, Finland.