Restaurants

Kynsilaukka (‘garlic’ in English) is a cosy, some might say a bit shabby, restaurant that specializes in everything with garlic. When you sit down, you can start by nibbling on marinated garlic cloves and everything on the menu has garlic in it. You can even finish your dinner with garlic ice cream.

Kynsilaukka has been in Punavuori on the same spot, in the corner of Fredikinkatu and Uudenmaankatu since 1987. The best thing about Kynsilaukka is, that it’s always open, 365 days a year. When most of the other restaurants close for Christmas Eve or Midsummer, which can come as a surprise for a tourist, this is the one place that you can always rely on to be open!

Kynsilaukka is not a gourmet restaurant, but most of their dishes, like for example the lamb casserole, are actually quite good and reliable. To finish the meal they bring you a shot of garlic and herb digestive. The service is usually very friendly, but sometimes a bit slow.

If you are feeling very adventurous try the garlic ice cream or their garlic beer. Personally, I think that’s taking it a bit too far, but I know people who strongly disagree with me. And after this dinner you at least won’t have to worry about vampires for a while!

Kuurna is a tiny little gourmet restaurant that, in my opinion, should have had it’s Michelin star long ago. But to be honest, I hope they will never get it, as it’s just perfect the way it is! I have had some of my best dinners here, thanks to the two young chefs, Heikki Purhonen and Antto Melasniemi who are both very creative, ambitious and innovative. And they haven’t failed me yet.

The place reminds me of some small, romantic place in Paris, quite bohemian but in an elegant way. The main thing here, however, is food, which is just fabulous. Uncomplicated, prepared from the best ingredients with love. The menu is quite limited, you can choose from three starters, three main courses and three desserts. In my book this means that they really concentrate on each and every thing they serve.

The menu changes weekly, sometimes new things are also added daily. They bake their own bread, and it’s gooood! They also know their wines very well, and I like to let them recommend me what to drink. No misses there either!

Be sure to book in advance, because the space is so limited and the place is quite popular. You can make your reservation for either between 18:00 and 20:00 or from 20:00 onwards. Service is extremely friendly but sometimes understandably a bit rushed. For the quality of the food, I think this place gives really good value for your money.

Kuurna is closed for the summer holidays in July.

Restaurant Elite was founded in 1932 by a famous Finnish artist, Ernst Mattas and has been on this spot since 1938. It quickly became a popular “living room” of the art crowd, painters, writers, movie stars etc. And they have kept coming here ever since. One of the reasons must be that the Lallukka Artists’ Home is right next door, with 50 apartments for resident artists.

Elite has been an all time favourite of mine, too, for more than 30 years now. This is where we used to come with my friends every Saturday when I lived next door, not in Lallukka, though. On Sundays we would return and eat a long, ‘restorative’ lunch together. I still like to come here quite often, because the place has not lost any of it’s charm over the years. Even the food is rather nice these days, modern, Finnish-Italian-Russian (try the vorschmack) but it’s not, and never has been, the most important thing here. Elite’s charm is, well, that it’s Elite!

In the summer it’s very popular to sit outside, but the best about Elite is the old fashioned atmosphere of a real old fashioned restaurant. So you should absolutely check the charming art deco interior with the walls covered with valuable paintings from the founders private collections. See if you can spot the painting of the world map. Abstract, but very clear when you get the idea!

Elite has a separate, and quite elegant room for those who still smoke.

Despite the idiotic name (French for ‘eat the south’, which is completely impossible for a Finn to pronounce) and somewhat ‘challenging’ location in the end of Tehtaankatu this is a place well worth visiting. We locals usually skip the “sud” and call it just Mange, pronounced the Finnish way.

Even if the location is a bit challenging, it’s very easy to get here by bus nr 16, which stops right outside their door, or bus nr 14 which stops just around the corner.

The interior is a sight for sore eyes, light and elegant with an open fire on the wall and Frank Sinatra softly singing in the background. The service is very friendly and professional. The food is modern and traditional Mediterranean, with a local twist. One of Mange’s special signature foods is a traditional bouillabaisse with all the proper trimmings. My absolute favorites are their salads, big and tasty with lovely fresh ingredients!

They also have several fixed menu’s, ‘Maison’, ‘Paysan’, ‘Bourgeois’ and also one called ‘Theatre’ as they have a lot of different happenings going on. Sometimes it’s a theatre performance, sometimes a chamber music concert or a wine tasting evening. Check the web page for what’s going on.

You can also just pop in and have a glass of wine and a little snack in their wine corner, all the wines can be bought by the glass.

Lupolo is a nice, laid back gastropub in Punavuori, owned by the gourmet chef Patrick Lindström, which became an overnight hit as soon as it opened. The food is fabulous, everything made in their own kitchen, no half measures here.

You can also just pop in for a drink or a cup of coffee and sample the small but absolutely delicious appetizers. Or, just have some bread with something delicious on top of it. But be prepared, it might be difficult to get a table, so a table reservation is a good idea.

The service is as superb as ever, wines are well chosen and their coffee is excellent. Also, the beer selection has been upgraded so all the beer enthusiasts can feel more at home now. I have eaten in Lupolo several times, and they haven’t failed me yet!

The place doesn’t look like much from the outside and the interior is a mishmash of all sorts of things, but once you get to the food, all that becomes quite irrelevant. It’s not easy to describe the ‘genre’ of the food, maybe Finnish-French-Italian, occasionally with a twist of the orient, but always with a special Lupolo touch!

Lupolo is open Mondays to Saturdays from 17:00 until midnight, but check their Facebook page to be sure.