Eating at the Palace - Palace Ravintola, Helsinki

As I mentioned at the end of the last post tonight is one of our three posh (or as Drew says - Poncy) dinners planned for the holiday. It is at Palace Ravintola on the 10th floor of a modernist building on Etheleranta. Unbeknown to us we had taken a photograph of the building while on our walk this morning. You can see the big Palace sign on the left.

We leave the hotel at 6.30pm and walk to the tram stop at the front of the railway station. We catch the number 2 tram to Etheleranta and walk a few feet to the Restaurant - a 2 starred Michelin Restaurant. The tram stops right outside the building so, we arrive at 6.45pm for our 7pm meal.

I mentioned above that the restaurant is on the 10th floor, so after entering we are shown to the lift, which only has two options floor five and floor ten - I never discovered what was at floor five, I hope you recognise how hard it was not to push that button by mistake 😉

We were shown to our seats and had this wonderful view of the preparation team in the kitchen - behind them is the large window which allows us to see the whole kitchen.

It appears the restaurant is proud of its Michelin stars which are emblazoned on its preparation station. It turns out that the chef in the centre would serve us three of our courses - he is Benjam Papp a former figure skater who trained in the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts, Vancouver before starting his career in Canada and then moving to Helsinki. 

We were served a scented hot towel; I'd used it before I photographed it. At the time I thought the wood plate it was served on was worth photographing, though wood became the theme of all the plates - still it is pretty well done. The person who served us said that these and the plates were all made by an individual craftsman in the city. 

We were next introduced to Olli Nurmilahti, the Head Sommelier at the restaurant, who discussed with us the options for the non-alcoholic drinks options. He introduced us to the non-alcoholic sparkling wine - Sparkling zero% Wine made from Red and White Currents and their leaves.  It was fizzy and tangy, a great combination to begin.

We then had two little bites to start, the first was Vendace Roe with potato, chillies and dill flower (at 9 and 3 in the picture), light and fragrant. Vendace is not a fish I'd come across before coming to Finland, but it seems to be quite dominant here. We had it as part of dinner last night, saw vendace burgers on sale at the market and here it is again. 

The other little bite was Lobster, Pumpkin and Red Kosho (at 12 and 6) the kosho, with its chilli richness brought the flavour of the lobster and pumpkin to the fore, absolutely delicious. 

The third bite, served at the same time, but suggested to be eaten last of the three, was Finnish Goose Liver, caramelised onion and thyme, as you can see the team had designed it to look like oreos, part of the game of confusing the eyes and the tongue in the way the food is presented. The foie gras was gentle and creamy and the onion and thyme bring the flavours that remind me of my childhood, when my mother would prefer parsley, onion and thyme over sage and onion in her chicken stuffing, so they felt both innovative and homely at the same time.  

I mentioned the quality of wood plates before and took a photo of the base of this one which shows the quality of the pine work. I can't find the makers mark online - anyone else able to identify the source? 

Olli appeared with our next drink, I don't know what shoes Olli wears, but his gentle reappearance beside the table evidences some sort of soft shoe as he seems to appear beside you with a drink, rather than clatter towards you. This time Olli arrived with Tomato Water. This is light tomato juice filtered with lemon verbena and basil salt. It smells like lemon, tastes like a very sharp tomato and is delicious - its ability to match the next two courses of food proved perfect, Olli clearly is clever, not just soft-shoed. 

The next dish is Danish hiramasa, wasabi and white currant. The Sashimi style hiramasa combines with wasabi in a long-standing flavour in the Japanese tradition, the local white currant brings this dish from Japan to Finland with the sharp balance to the rich fish and zingy wasabi. I was so eager to taste it following its introduction that I'd got half-way through before remembering to take a photo - sorry.

The next dish was presented to us by chef Jonathan Slotte, Jonathan won the Chef of the Year 2022 competition and a little taste of his food and you know why. This dish was Norwegian King Crab, spiced tomatoes and basil. The cold water crab was beautiful and refreshing, sitting in a gazpacho style cold soup with fennel and flowering coriander and oregano, what a combination of mind bending flavours! 

Olli being busy with other guests our next drink was introduced and presented by the Restaurant Manager, Liam Fahy I'd spoken to Liam yesterday when they had rung to confirm the booking, so he asked where in Wales we were from. He grew up in Worcester and is a rugby fan, so has visited the Millenium Stadium on many occasions. 

The drink was a sparkling combination of green tea, white tea and jasmine tea from the Copenhagen Sparkling Tea Company, Copenhagen – so bright and refreshing. The colour is light green with a delicate hint of yellow - delicious.

The next dish was again presented by Benjam, it was Palace Reserve Caviar with Sweet Corn and Dashi Butter. What a flavour, the corn was done in three ways and the dashi broth was tangy, but the salty, immersive caviar stole the show, as was intended. No strong flavours, but delightful ones both alone and in combination. [Co-pilot's note: This really was delightful - some say having a dish done with corn in three ways would be a bit silly, but it works!!]

Olli was back to present us with the Null Alcohol Frei Riesling 2021 from the Moselle it is made traditionally then the alcohol is slow cooked away, the effect is a wine like taste, but as it is the sugar which turns to alchol in fermentation this drink is probably sweeter than my taste preference. However, it worked so well with the food I didn't notice the sugariness at the time. 

Jonathan again presented the next course which was a chanterelle mushroom foam with organic eggs and fresh black winter truffle from Australia (where it is winter at present - doh!!) grated over it and the addition of Enoki mushrooms. A dream set of flavours - chanterelles are one of my favourite mushrooms and they are so rich in this foam, the little enokis on the bottom give a salty kick and the egg and truffle get the palette singing with delight. I don't think I have tasted anything as intense as this, simple, fresh ingredients, but combined in a creative, unimaginable way, until they imagined it here!!

The next dish is served by Jonathan, it is Norwegian Hand Dived Scallops, Mangalitza pork, Japanese fermented chili and "Sweet&Sour" scallop sauce, the plumb scallop is fantastic, the little bits of salty pork act as a seasoning and the chilli, while mild to our regular chilli eating tastebuds, is a clear flavour which brings out the seafood delight of the scallop - I don't know what heaven is going to be like, but if it includes food like this I want to make sure I get there!  

Liam turns up with our next drink a Winter Apple and Oak drink which is designed to take one to Northern Finland where the apples grow slow, so are small and acidy. They are then sugared and squished through oak chips in a method which is used for making Chardonnay in Australia, it is like eating in a forest, though is sugar rich. 

Benjam serves us the next dish which is an amazing piece of Norwegian Halibut served with Rossini black caviar, foamed buckwheat and mixed herbs. Halibut, a strong fish anyway, carries the buckwheat flavour so well and the combinations are perfect for my palette, as I'm confident to expect from this amazing place and great young chef. 

The next course is again from Jonathan, this is Norwegian Langoustine cooked over wood chip with a Saffron and Citrus "Sabayon". I know how prized langoustines are for their slightly sweet, lobsteresque flavour. I always think they taste more like lobster than the prawns for which they are so often confused. The rich and creamy sabayon is sweeter than I would normally eat, but the hint of bitterness which saffron brings worked with the sabayon to draw out the deliciousness of the langoustine.

Olli was back to present us with the black cherry and chokeberry with black tea and cinnamon notes which was to go with our main course. Chokeberry, is an American berry, which isn't used very commonly in the UK, sometimes called aronia, it has a sharp, bitter flavour caused by the polypheonals which give it its dark colour. Along with the dark black cherry this is so tangy, it could only be used as an accompaniment to a meat dish. 

This course, at the heart of the meal, is presented to us by the boss himself - Eero Vottonen, he is not only head of this wonderful brigade of chefs but is the owner of the restaurant. 

He presented us with the Duck from Challans À La Palace - Challans is the home of the best of French ducks here it is served with an onion sauce and a separate mushroom sauce which both enhanced and celebrated the flavour of the lightly cooked duck. I'm afraid my photography is not as good as Eero's cooking.

The duck dish was served with Lapis potato bread - this is Lapis as in Lapland, and they use the only potatoes which grow north of the artic circle to make these breads which are made with mashed potatoes

these were served with a delicate Duck liver butter which had an amazing flavour, the rich liver with a tangy set of microherbs and microflowers - even if I didn't like the bread (which I loved) I'd have eaten it all as an excuse to use all the duck liver butter - wow, wow, wow my tastebuds are on overdrive.

Benjam returned to service the honey dessert, this was called a Celebration of Honey, which had a honey cream, a honey crumb and then if you hadn't had enough honey yet it was completed, in a way that made it look like angel wings with more honey in the form of honey ice cream!

I already felt I'd done a little overdosed on sugar with the amount of sweetness in the drinks, so I avoided this dish. Drew, being a hero, managed to eat mine and his own. So, I'll leave him tell you about this [Co-pilot's note: There were three or four different flavours of honey in this dessert, including a small trickle of honey in its own right. It was the nicest honey I have ever had. The foam tasted like honey, the ice cream like honey, the mousse like honey - but all had subtly different flavours and textures - it was delightful and I'd have it again.]

I was pleased to see that the restaurant offered a cheese course. we had three perfect cheeses to bring the meal (for me) to an end. The cheese was perfect a Blu di Capra, Goat’s blue cheese from northern Italy, a Tete De Moine, a delicious Swiss cow's cheese shaped like flowers and a Gruyere, a matured dark nutty sharp cows' cheese also from Switzerland. I could go into ecstasy about each of these cheeses, together they made a wonderful conclusion to the meal.

The person who served the cheese introduced the add-ons, thankfully they kept them free from the cheese, so I could eat what I wanted and leave the trimmings - there are clearly people in the world who want sweet flavours to mess with their cheese, not me!

Benjam returned with the desserts, asking which were our favourite courses. He noted that the two courses I'd chosen were both ones he had delivered and asked if it was the food of the chef that made them best - cheek! 😂🤣 

What he had come to serve was the amazing petit-fours that went with the espressos at the end of the meal. These were all sweets made from Passionfruit and Darjeeling Tea, Cep and Dark Chocolate Red Currant and Pine, Citrus and Sansho, Raspberry and Pistachio "Choux" and the house speciality a "Forest Cookie” Drew again, in hero made, ate all of them, so over to him [Co-pilot's note: At this point dear readers, even I was feeling a little over-sugared - yes it does happen. But you'll be glad to know I accepted the challenge and won - what did they taste like - sugar!!! To be honest they were distinctive, the little tart was delicious it had a very light pastry, the choux was incredibly delicate, filled with air and a light mousse on top.]

We had entered at 7pm and it was 11pm when we left, the time had gone by quickly without either of us noticing it,  The direct contact with the chefs, the amazing service from the rest of the team, all combined to feel like being hugged and cared for, more as friends than customers, what an amazing delight of an evening, a joyful and delicious meal.

We planned to catch the Metro back, as the trams weren't running this late, but after all that sugar (in the drinks for me and in the double desserts for Drew) we both felt we would be better walking back. We arrived at the Holiday Inn at 11.30pm and were soon in bed.