Visit Helsinki: Pastis

New post in the series of “Visit Helsinki” posts is here and I’m happy to present you with the finest and most traditional french restaurant in Helsinki, Pastis.

Upon entering PASTIS, even though it just opened it’s doors for the evening shift, I got great feeling from the vibe and interior that this restaurant welcomed me with. Sweet host, Camilla was very friendly and talkative, so without much fuss we got to pick our table as well as our food for the presenting and have found ourselves sitting in a cozy and romantic corner with the dimmed lights. Miss Camilla has explained to us that the lamps on the wall were all designed by the owners’ mother and they’re DIY Ikea bulbs inside a painted salad bowl. That added a special touch to an already wonderfully layed out dining space.

Our starters were veal tartar wit quail egg, pickles and truffle cream and snails in roquefort cheese and Pastis butter. When I was little, I used to eat snails all the time because they were the specialty dish of my grandma and she made them in a special way which I have never tasted or seen anywhere else in the world whenever there were snails served somewhere. Snails – the Pastis way were something completely different from my grandma’s snails, but I did like the “new” approach by pairing them with Roquefort cheese. Add some slices of baguette and great red wine and voila!

Tartar was one of the best my companion has ever tried anywhere! I have tasted the truffle cream and it was simply divine.

As main courses, black angus flank steak in red wine sauce with greens and french fries with truffles and catch of the day fish with roasted endive. Fish was very tasty and grilled to perfection with a touch of fresh thyme and lemon juice was just what I wanted. Flank steak was super tender, medium rare and went perfectly with the truffled fries. There was also a Béarnaise sauce as another option to the red wine sauce, but it wasn’t as great match with the meat and fries.

Dessert was so incredible that it went to the top 3 desserts we’ve ever tasted in our lives! Delicious creme caramel with granola and passion fruit was the cherry on top of the cake to our Parisienne dinner and made Pastis experience a very pleasant one. All that we were missing was a view at Eiffel’s tower and I would totally think that we were somewhere in Paris. 🙂

Friend of mine told me once that I’m “Bon Vivant” and I totally am, because places like PASTIS make my little foodie heart very happy and I find the best joys in life are to travel and experience as much as you can, so if you can’t be in Paris today, bring it to yourself by visiting a fine french restaurant like Pastis!

*Thank you Camilla for everything and for making this collaboration possible!

*This post was made in collaboration with Pastis. All of the opinions are my own.

*Photography by Natali K.photography