Food, Lifestyle, My Work

Visit Helsinki: Fisken på disken

December 29, 2016

In the beginning of this month a long awaited 5th floor in Kamppi shopping mall got a huge facelift or shall I say a complete makeover?! Everybody was waiting for many months to see the final reveal of “Kortteli”. After years of having a dull, not well used space with a ton of potential it finally got completely redesigned and the space got filled with a so called food block.

All of the 9 restaurants, hairdresser and a spa were all welcomed with standing ovations. Helsinki gastronomic scene just keeps on growing and people seem to be more eager than ever to visit newly opened restaurants and dine out more often. Add a breathtaking view over the city centre and you’re def. gonna want to come back to Kortteli numerous times.

Ever since the opening, I must admit that Kortelli was on my radar quite a lot and so far, I’ve been pretty much to all of the restaurants in there and some of them have returned to couple of times.

I have been to Fisken på disken twice prior to going there again for this review. I must admit that we didn’t “start off” on the right foot, but third time is the charm… Was it really? Read on the review to find out. 🙂

Fisken på disken would translate to “Fish on the desk”. Very promising and rarely found fish restaurant in the heart of Helsinki pulled my fish lover’s heart strings into visiting it but as mentioned above, it didn’t deliver what I’ve expected from it. I guess that I went too enthusiastically after their “Fresh seafood bar” and wanted all of the seafood/ produce to be some of the best ones I’ve had chance to eat in Croatia, London and LA for instance. Blue Plate Oysterette was an outstanding experience, just like did multiple, “no name” places on Croatian coast or Polpo in London.

I have decided to return this third time and test their set tasting menu with one extra addition as greetings from the kitchen.

First of the dinner started with some homemade sourdough and white bread and two different spreads: tuna and butter. I must say that the sourdough bread and tuna spread were SO delicious that I have wished to have them this morning for my breakfast. 😀 I don’t really eat bread, but when I do, then it must be a homemade one and usually I always grab the sourdough or rye one.

First starter was seared salmon on avocado puree with tapioca seeds, dried lotus root and pickled cucumber. I have truly enjoyed this dish, it was a light, refreshing starter and absolutely wonderful combination of tastes, crunch and it left me wanting to have more of it. Tapioca seeds are unusual “agent” in dishes prepped around Helsinki so it was something refreshing to taste and see how it works in combination with salmon.

Next up were mussles… Yeah… That’s a very tricky dish to impress me with because: A) I totally do make the best mussles there are 😀 and B) I do come from the country where I have fished those mussles as child and cooked them for numerous family lunches with my dad and uncle so the dish really needs to be prepared so well to meet the expectations.

Mussles were cooked in white wine and cream sauce with lemongrass, herbs and a squeeze of lime. They arrived with a side of french fries and miso mayo. It wasn’t a bad dish by any means, but the sauce was too bland for my taste and pretty basic one. It’s good for Finnish standards but sorry to say, it’s not meeting the “world traveler” ones…

Next up was the beef tartar. You read it right – beef, not fish. 😀 I guess that in every restaurant you must have at least one meat option in starters and one in mains in order to have at least that for somebody who just loves their meat too much. 🙂

I would recommend the chefs that when serving a tasting menu of the fish restaurant to go with their whitefish ceviche which I haven’t tried but they have on the A – la -carte menu as that would fit way better into the “tasting” than the beef tar-tar. The beef meat is freshly cut every day before the service and it’s a local, Finnish beef so 100 points for that to the restaurant!

Main course was something I knew was going to be the highlight of the dinner since it had one of my top 3 favourite fishes – Artic char. Grilled artic char with pike croquette in garlic and parsley sauce with artichoke pure and fried artichokes. I’m not the biggest lover of fish skin, so I always, in any restaurant take it off and then I eat the fish. So after this small adjustment, I have just blended everything together and the dish was wonderful. Artichoke pure gave such a deep and rich taste to the fish that I was loving the taste of those two combined, but when added the lightness of garlic and herb sauce with crunchiness and citrusy taste of pike croquette ( which btw totally tricked me because at first I had the impression that it was a potato one ) it was a dish which def. made up for all of the “mishaps”. Well done!

Final, but not least important dish was the dessert; almond cake with salty caramel ice cream, cranberry sauce and dried cranberry flakes with cinnamon sauce. I have tried this dessert before and yes, I liked it a lot. If I admit my sweet tooth problem then I’d say that it was my favourite course of the whole dinner, but since it’s sweets and I was testing the fish restaurant… I’d give them 3 out of 5 stars and say that thumbs are def. !UP! but with a lot of room left for improvement and creativity.

Fisken på disken is on the right path and is slowly charting it’s way up on the gastro scene but a fine tuning is mandatory in order to stand next to the “big players” of the same scene.

*All of the opinions are my own.

*Thank you Fisken på disken for this experience and my “beard guy” buddy aka the coolest server in town. 😀

*Photography by Natali K.

You Might Also Like

15 Comments

  • Reply MELODY JACOB December 29, 2016 at 9:55 AM

    Keep rocking my dear.
    Thanks for being a part of my blog this year.
    Happy new year.
    http://www.melodyjacob.com/

  • Reply jo December 29, 2016 at 10:57 AM

    Oh wow .. Looks so delicious 🙂 Nice post friend! Happy New Year. Kisses.
    rampdiary
    Bridal blog

  • Reply Victoria December 29, 2016 at 5:52 PM

    I love trying out new restaurants! It’s probably one of my favourite “past times” although coffee shops are up there as well. All this food looks so delicious!

    xx Victoria
    http://www.strungingold.com

  • Reply Nada December 29, 2016 at 7:05 PM

    Looks so so yummy!
    NEW POST : THE COLORFUL THOUGHTS

  • Reply Sia Foch December 29, 2016 at 7:29 PM

    Such a wonderful post, love it!

    -xx, Sia
    http://www.siafoch.com

  • Reply Kathrin December 29, 2016 at 9:55 PM

    Ugh, I just LOVE your photography! Glad you enjoyed the visit in the end – the guys are great and I believe they have a lot of potential! Also, I feel like you have to make me those mussels some time! See you soon! x Kathrin

  • Reply Milex December 30, 2016 at 4:47 AM

  • Reply Shannon Jenkins December 30, 2016 at 5:24 AM

    You had me with all of the ginormous crab legs! Everything looks amazing!

    <3 Shannon
    Upbeat Soles

  • Reply Matea December 30, 2016 at 12:44 PM

    Ovi tvoji postovi s hranom me uvijek totalno unište haha
    Sve mi izgleda fino, posebno školjke jer ih obožavam i sad bi rado smazala jedan tanjur 🙂
    Uživaj mi, draga moja i hvala ti na lijepim riječima na mom zadnjem postu! <3

  • Reply ivana split December 30, 2016 at 9:17 PM

    Divne su ti fotografije, a i recenzija je super, baš imam dojam da sam sam dobila pravi dojam o ovim jelima. Što se tiče “morske” hrane tu je i mene najteže impresionirati jer sam ribarila kao dijete i znam što je prava ‘friška’ riba i kako se sprema, tako da sam stroga kada je u pitanju priprema ribe ili bilo kakvih morskih plodova….što se mesa tiče, tu priznajem da slabo stojim, nikad neću biti neki stručnjak. Od ovih svih jela nekako mi je desert ipak najviše zapao za oko, valjda zato što sam i ja slatkoljubac. Želim ti sve najbolje u 2017!

  • Reply Eleanor December 30, 2016 at 11:06 PM

    Everything looks delicious! I love that place!

  • Reply Toks December 31, 2016 at 12:46 AM

    Yep! Helsinki is definately going to have to go to the top of the list of places to visit a.s.a.p. Have a happy new year Natali. Love Amy xoxoxo

    http://www.toksblog.com

  • Reply Kelly January 2, 2017 at 6:16 AM

    This place looks incredibly delicious!

    xx Kelly
    Sparkles and Shoes

  • Reply Tania Sarin January 12, 2017 at 1:03 AM

    yumm looks amazing! xx

  • Reply sophie January 22, 2017 at 1:53 PM

    Looks so good, the atmosphere is really amazing <3

    xoxo, Cool men fashion

  • Leave a Reply