Visit Helsinki: The Tray

The Tray – place where the good vibes and delicious food are bottomless! 🙂 If you’re visiting Helsinki or live here, you should definitely check out The Tray – a restaurant which is much more than your “regular” hotel restaurant experience. 

It’s a concept restaurant set up by one of my favourite chefs in town and co-executed by one of the best Asian cuisine makers who used to be the main chef at my all time favourite restaurants Yume which unfortunately closed it’s doors for good about a year ago. One of the most legendary dishes from Yume can be still found at The Tray – sticky Thai pork ribs and I’m sure that it’s brought many people over to start with, but what has kept them coming back is the uniqueness of this “world kitchen”.

Both chefs have brought the best of their culture, backgrounds and vision to The Tray and made it a unique experience which caters to everybody, from the meat lovers to the “tree huggers”! 😀

I love the funky names of the dishes on the menu. This just shows how much GLO hotels have believed in this restaurant and it’s concept. The concept has proved to be working rather well and The Tray has been getting only the best of reviews from the customers as well as from the professionals.

I was lucky to have a chance to test just freshly updated menu of The Tray. My companion for the night was a dear friend and fellow blogger Veera . Dinner started off with some cocktails but we couldn’t wait for the starters which were few and all “finger licking”. 😀

We’ve been teased by goat cheese and strawberry focaccia, tiger prawns skewer with muhammara sauce, wasabi lamb and of course sticky ribs! Very “simple” dishes, all beautifully presented but full of taste and wonderful mix of different cuisines in one serving. I’d say that if we don’t count sticky ribs, strawberry and goat cheese focaccia is a must try from the starters!

Main courses were a very unique avocado burger which was actually inspired by my friend Veera who gave a small clue to the executive chef about a year ago and he listened obviously because she could fully enjoy it during our dinner. 😀 Avocado burger comes without the regular bread buns as the “buns” are actually avocado halves. Chickpea patty is “acting” as a burger meat and it comes with the side of mixed fries and lemon mayo. Very unique and a great option to have for any vegetarian/ vegan eater.

Another main course was “Sumatra bowl” aka one of the best chicken and veggie curries you can taste at the moment in Helsinki! Usually all the curries I’ve tried in Helsinki aren’t worth mentioning besides maybe curry at my fave Thai place Aahan Thai but otherwise… Yea, well, The Tray’s Sumatra bowl is fabulous, full of exotic and refreshing flavours which were perfectly combined in this bowl of deliciousness.

For the desserts we had to order a sampler plate of all 3 desserts! Salted caramel Pannacotta, Bowl of Passion and Summer nest were feast for our eyes but also the best sugary bomb in our mouth. I’m a sweet tooth girl as much as I’m a salty lover so I was excited to try a spoonful of all three of TheTray desserts and I just have to say that it turned out to be the best dessert tray in town! Seriously! The salty caramel pannacotta was nutty, rich in flavour yet light. Bowl of passion will possibly be my favourite Summertime treat as the passion fruit cream, fresh berries and meringue chunks were so refreshing. Final one and the most favourite of all the three desserts was Summer nest made of layered crispy filo dough, mascarpone cheese and pistachios! YUM! Almost too good to be true. 🙂

No need to mention that we have finished our dinner happily rolling out of TheTray and promising ourselves (and to the chefs) that we will be back for sure!

TheTray also serves you great lunch and weekend brunch with different options that suit everybody, even the pickiest of eaters will be happy with the choices at a very reasonable and respectively competitive prices. 1st of May celebrations are just around the corner and TheTray will keep their doors open to serve you one of the best and most festive lunches or dinners so if you’re without a table reservation or plans for 30.4./1.5. you still have time to secure yourselves a table at TheTray.

*This post has been made in collaboration with TheTray but all of the opinions and photos are my own.