Woolshed

Premium gastro bar with excellent pub food and special beers. Low-priced, Burger meal & bottle of red wine ~33€.

I wasn't exactly sure if I should review Woolshed at all, it being "a sports pub" and all. But considering the establishment in comparison to standard pubs there are so many good elements at this Australian premium gastro bar that I believe a review is in order.

For saturday night there was a plan of going out with a couple of friends and my idea of getting some good bar food at the same time was accepted for execution.  I had visited Woolshed three times before and already knew they offered really good burgers, lobsters and steaks.
Woolshed is situated really close to the central railway station, still fortunately on the "quieter" side, at Töölönlahdenkatu.  They have a buzzing (and extremely hot & windless) terrace with quite a lot of space, about 120 seats inside and they have 50% reservation policy that gave us the possibility to get a table without reservation, even on saturday evening.

This time the place was rather empty inside which was a big surprise.  Obviously we didn't mind and took ourselves good seats after getting our drinks (lagers called Fuckin' hell) and started eyeing the menu.  There's lobsters, steaks, steak & lobster -combos and of course burgers on it.
I chose to take the easy way and just went for the Aussie burger.  Only thing that's not for my liking (that much) on the dish was the sweet caramelised onion.  Mayonnaise, beef and everything else included on the burger were really good.  Even the fries that were served on the side were pretty good.

There are couple of things you should know about Woolshed besides their special beers and premium bar food.  
First of all, you should get their membership card (Boomerang card) that costs five(5) euros.  You'll get 10% off from all the draft beers, meals and a big discounts on wine bottles.  10€ off from a red wine bottle is a deal-maker for me.
Secondly, even though I like the place and will visit there quite regularly, I'll have to say they have a lot to learn in terms of customer service.  They have gotten better at it every visit, but there's room for more improvement.  If you're on the counter ready to make an order and you're the only customer at the moment, I believe it's rather rude from the bartenders to talk to each other for a long time about something even if they know there's a customer waiting.  Also the general attitude seems to be pretty much "take your beer and go."  I'm well aware that customer service is not always fun and you don't have to smile all the time but still...

On the right there's an introductory video showing you (mostly) some burger-making action at Woolshed bar & kitchen. 
As said before Woolshed's menu consists of a lot more than just burgers so don't let all the minced meat on the video fool you. 
 
If you're looking for premium pub food and want to enjoy a bunch of special beers, I recommend checking out Woolshed.  Just make sure you're not going there during match evenings IF you're not into all that fan shouting.




Woolshed Bar & Kitchen
www.woolshed.eu
Töölönlahdenkatu 3 B 1, 00100 Helsinki

Domo

Plain-looking Japanese restaurant that offers various kinds of dishes in addition to delicious sushis. Low-priced, two courses & beer ~25€.

Pretty much at the center of Helsinki, just two blocks from both Stockmann and Kamppi shopping centre, sits a homely japanese restaurant Domo.  Even though I'm not a huge fan of sushi I found Domo's menu otherwise quite appealing and decided to take my significant other there.

On late friday evening we could just stroll there without a reservation and find only a couple of the restaurant's about ten tables in use.  After a narrow entrance we were quickly greeted by a brisk waiter who showed us our table and, with fluent English I might add, took care of us decisively and politely and I had my Sapporo beer in front of me in no time.  If you come across impolite service in a Japanese restaurant, there's definitely something wrong with the place. 

"Pork filled dumplings with a soy-vinegar and chili oil sauce"

This time I took pictures of my two courses though I should've pictured my companion's dishes which were a lot better looking.

For starters I took pork filled dumplings with soy-chili sauce.  Quite tasty, yet I believe the sausage-like pork filling is not a big hit in general.
This well-sized dish suited me quite well but in retrospect I'd probably go for the beautiful "Rainbow" sushi.  Still, considering standard Scandinavian customers, I believe these kind of dishes fit well to the menu in addition to the big variety of sushis.


My main course was a plate of really tasty and crispy chicken marinated in ginger soy, and some grated daikon.  I ordered rice to accompany the dish but that's not a necessity, at least not with this dish.

"Ginger soy marinated crispy chicken, citrus soy and grated daikon"

As said, the chicken (and daikon) was really tasty.  It did leave me wanting for more but at the same time it didn't feel like "a proper warm dinner", more like exceptionally good nuggets.

Overall experience at Domo was pleasant.  Service was good, prices were reasonable, settling in somewhere between low-priced & mid-priced, and quality of food was good, particularly when looking at all the nice sushi dishes.  Everyone who enjoys Japanese cuisine should check out Domo, especially if you like your Japanese food with a hint of Scandinavian flavour.


Ravintola Domo
www.domoravintola.fi
Kalevankatu 21, 00100 Helsinki

Gastone

An easily located Italian restaurant with warm yet a bit loud atmosphere, good service and tasty food.  Mid-priced, a 4-dish menu & glass of wine ~60€.

Ristorante gastone is located at Kaartinkaupunki, an easily accessible area really close to the center of Helsinki.  From central railwaystation you just have to walk straight forward via Mikonkatu and there it is, next to Dong Bei Hu (I'm pretty sure I'll review this really fine chinese restaurant also at some point).

Walking on an oddly silent Korkeavuorenkatu and in to the restaurant from a bit chilly Helsinki saturday evening it was a small shock to find the restaurant totally booked (we'd reserved a table for two fortunately) and full of just a bit too loud chatter.  A warm welcome and an authentic looking smile from the headwaiter who led us to our table was enough to brush that aside as well as our dislike of crowded places.

We had pretty much decided that we'd get one of the two menus available and eventually we both went for the same menu that consisted of four dishes.  Along with the menus we only took glasses of mellow, yet tense, red wine (Vietti Barbera d´alba tre vigne doc 2013) and that took it's place rather well.

While waiting for the first dish, mildly-flavoured salmon and avocado salad, we were served with warm and tasty focaccia with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Nothing out of ordinary but still really nice.  I'd like to mention our attentive waitress who kept our glasses full and served us more bread when we had gorged the first plate of them.  Seems odd but that kind of service is not found everywhere.
After the nice salmon dish we got organic rigati pasta that sat really well to the whole menu being probably the most italian part of it.
As the main course there was (a rather big serving I might say) bacon-covered deer and some side vegetables.  Really tasty and while it did raise my eyebrow to get "bacon-covered" main course, it didn't fail to deliver.  
Obviously we were full already but there's always room for dessert.  This time it was chocolate cheese cake with some raspberry melba.  Tasty, oh so tasty.
Lastly there were small shots of limoncello as "Chef's greetings" (please someone tell me what's the correct english proverb for that).  Limoncello became familiar to me about ten years ago while visiting Capri in Italy, a place I can easily recommend everyone to visit.  Anacapri at least.  I hadn't forgotten the taste, probably because I bought enough to last couple of years after my visit there.

If I sum up the evening there's very little I can complain about.  The loud environment can easily be forgotten.  The price of dining at Gastone was decent.  Our total bill was about 120€.  Really good service, warm atmosphere and tasty food (although nothing REALLY spectacular).  What else should I demand from a good restaurant visit?

ristorante gastone
www.gastone.fi
Korkeavuorenkatu 45, 00130 Helsinki

Prologue

On this blog I'll give you MY opinions and recommendations on restaurants in Helsinki.
I'm not a professional cook nor have I any experience (other than through others) on working in a restaurant or running one.  This blog is about food and about overall experience while eating it.

I might point out finnish customs (like tipping,ordering etc.) for travellers and of course everyone is free to share their pointers and opinions about a restaurant I've just tested.

I'll try to use tags to make it easier to find suitable reviews for YOU.  And even though this blog is not made for restaurants, I will put a link to every reviewed restaurant and possibly even directions how to get there.
There probably won't be an excessive amount of photos (I'll try to get some shots and deal with the "it's so douche" -feeling). 

There it goes, from now on it's mostly reviews only.  I hope you'll get something out of reading HRT, I'm sure as hell having a good time eating in Helsinki's restaurants.