Culinary Digest: Juuri, Helsinki, Finland

Sapas, the Finnish take on tapas Juuri restaurant specialises in. Photo by Flickr user Caliparisien

What the experts say

Lorraine Elliot, author of Not Quite Nigella: Juuri Sapas is a not quite Michelin starred newbie on the Helsinki scene. Popular and recommended by some of my husband’s gourmand cousins, we were eager to try it. Sapas is like tapas, albeit slightly smaller, small plates of food. The menu is contemporary Finnish cuisine with a lot of local ingredients and native foods which makes it rather exciting.

The lingonberry-marinated salmon on maltbread with tarragon garlic oil is gorgeous, lightly sweetened with the lingonberries perched on top of the maltbread which soaks up the tarragon and garlic oil nicely. It’s much better than regular marinated salmon.

The slender slice of raspberry marinated arctic char with radish sauce resembles salmon in texture but is a whitefish. I’m not usually a fan of radishes but the sauce is creamy enough but still retains the radish flavour. As for the mains, my Wild boar ribs with apple puree, dutch carrots and other vegetables are absolutely divine, sticky sweet and soft they completely conquer regular pork ribs or any other ribs I’ve had. I almost sob that I know that I can’t get them in Australia.

What the diners say

Tripadvisor senior contributor ArtmaninToronto: Who knew Finnish food was so quirky and so good? We booked a table here upon arrival in Helsinki, not too hard to get a reservation. We split 4 sapas and each had a main course: started with the Finnish potato bread with garlic and lovage butter. Quite good. Then segued to the egg cheese spiced with oregano. Egg cheese seems to be Finnish delicacy, a nice, subtle taste. Then on to the Finnish fish pasty with radish salad and the fresh sausage with vodka mustard. Both were excellent. For mains, we had the perch “en papillote” and the organic lambkin sirloin. Both were prepared seemingly with very fresh local ingredients. The room was small, relatively quiet and charming. The service attentive without being claustrophobic. A nice wine list, too. All in all, a very nice, very Finnish experience.

Juuri sausage with vodka mustard. Photo by Cynthia Wamwayi

What Luxury Travel Beat Says: I visit Juuri, which is located on a little side street in downtown Helsinki ,on a Friday night not really sure what to expect. I have been told to anticipate small samples of Finnish cuisine but this being my first time in the country, and Finnish food not being that internationally renown, I am none the wiser. It turns out the restaurant is a small, quirky affair but totally worth the hour and a half I spent there.

The first sign that a restaurant is approved by the locals – especially one purpoting to serve authentic Finnish food – is simply the number of locals in it. I am surrounded by Finns left, right and center and later, I’m told the proportion of locals to tourists is usually 7:3. I order two sapas, which are the Finnish take on spanish tapas (the S comes from the Finnish word for their country, Suomi), as well as a main course of entrecote and artichokes. The mains menu is consists of only four dishes: A beef, pork, fish and vegetarian option. My sapas arrive first, leading me into a curious culinary world. Who knew reindeer tongue was edible, leave alone delicious? And although the Juuri sausage is not as novel a dining experience as the reindeer tongue, the restaurant’s own vodka mustard, which accompanied the dish, still manages to lift the experience to great heights.

By the time my main arrives, I’m wondering what else is in store for me by way of palate-expanding experiences. So when the pretty regular-looking entrecote and artichokes arrive, I’m not sure whether I’m disappointed or just happy to be having a hearty meal among locals at the start of a superb weekend.

Juuri, Helsinki: Korkeavuorenkatu 27, 00130 Helsinki Tel. +358 9 635732 Reservations: ravintola@juuri.fi Seats: 34+6 Open: Mon-Fri 11–24, Sat 12–24, Sun 14–20