Visit Helsinki: Dinner at Bronda

There are some places in Helsinki to which I always gladly return to.If they happen to have great service, are in the city center and are serving a delicious food, most likely you’ll find me sitting at those places while satisfying my inner hedonist which never sleeps. 

Bronda perfectly falls into this “category” and has been for years one of my favourite places in town. Be it a good lunch you are in for, a business meeting over a fancy dinner or just a hang out at the bar with your friends, Bronda is definitely going to accommodate all of those.

First thing that always “gets me” upon coming to Bronda is how grandiose and glamorous is the interior. High ceiling, big windows, brightness, open kitchen, huge wine bottle cellar and hip vibe are all competing with some of my favourite places across the Europe.

As I have previously mentioned, Bronda was not a new culinary experience to me as I’ve already been aware of their cuisine for a while, but still, each time, I get pleasantly surprised of how it’s pretty much the only proper Mediterranean restaurant in Helsinki and all of the seafood is so fresh, I feel like it could have been caught that very morning in Spain or Italy and brought to the table for the dinner service in the middle of Finland.

If you are interested to check out my two previous posts about Bronda, you can find them HERE .

This time around, I had a chance to test the new A la carte menu, kicking it off with two cocktails. Just like in the rest of the BW restaurants, cocktails are always masterfully made by the baristas and the taste (as well as presentation) definitely compete highly with all the other restaurants and cocktail bars in Helsinki.

For the starters we have opted to try out buckwheat blini with the fish roe and Smetana.

As a true Russian soul, I can never pass on blini option, but this time I must say I was bit disappointed. I should have known that blini at a Mediterranean cuisine restaurant won’t deliver as much as my favorite Russian restaurants or my mom’s homemade ones will. I believe that somebody else might find it a satisfying starter but for me it was too plain.

Next up we were served with fennel cured salmon, prawns and dill creme fraiche. This was on contrary from the blini a score! Simple, unpretentious dish yet so delicious. Fatty chunks of super fresh and tasty salmon always scores high with me.

Another starter came, vegetarian portion of roasted carrots with goat’s cheese and walnuts. I must say that after all of the travels and foodie expeditions I’ve been to in States and throughout the Europe, it is hard to satisfy my high expectations and refined taste, but this was one of the most simplest, yet most delicious vegetarian dishes I have ever tasted somewhere.

You can always get me sold on roasted root vegetables and when they are paired with creamy goat’s cheese, crunchy walnuts and sweet sprinkles of honey. A+! 🙂

Out of all of the amazing sounding and tempting choices from the mains, we have decided on getting grilled tiger prawns and smokey halibut.

Grilled tiger prawns gave me a feeling as if I would be sitting somewhere by the beach in Barcelona, eating the best of seafood and hedonizing life to the bits. This dish is supposed to be eaten by fingers to get the best out of it and enjoy it properly. Crunchy and roasted almonds as well as tons of chopped up parsley, dense hand peeled shrimps and freshly squeezed lemon juice made for a perfect marriage of tastes which have caused foodie fireworks in my mouth! 🙂

Smokey halibut, made the Sicilian way with crispy pork cheek, calamari rings, sun-dried tomatoes and brown butter shallot dressing… Yes, let that sink in my dear fish lovers, let that sink in. How amazing does this combination sound to you? This is what I was waiting for to find somewhere, someday in any of Helsinki restaurants and so far, this is the first time I find it and I was so happy that it was on Bronda’s menu so that I could taste it and present it to you as part of this post. Prime fish fillets made and presented masterfully! I love how in all of BW restaurants, dishes have so many layers, there is always a taste party going on and everything always pairs perfectly together. I loved this dish and would highlight it as the best of the whole dinner.

Why would anybody ever want to skip a dessert if you can have one? So we did and I must say that BBB, Bronda’s Bluberry Pie was TO DIE FOR! Imagine grandma style, traditional blueberry pie but presented in the most creative, modern way = that is what BBB is! Bomb dot com! 😀

*Thank you Bronda, BW restaurants and Ms. Elina for making this collaboration possible!

*All of the opinions are my own!

*Photography by: Natali K. photography