Visit Helsinki : Tokyo55

This Sunday is a perfect day to continue with my “Visit Helsinki” series of posts in which I recommend you the places of my choice which you could visit when in Helsinki, from places to dine at to places to shop at, hotels to stay at, etc. After many amazing restaurants which I have presented you so far, which many of them were Asian, I simply had to present you Tokyo55. Japanese restaurant, catering and a sushi academy were opened back in 2009 and up until this day, it stayed one of the locals’ favourite place to go and enjoy, for example, fresh and delicious Tokyo55’s signature sushi rolls.

Last year, Tokyo55 got accompanied by it’s “little brother” Tokyo55 Izakaya. While Tokyo55 has bigger a-la-carte selection, set menu options and is more concentrated on sushi rolls and nigiris, Izakaya part of it is more based on Japanese style “fast food”, meaning, it’s all about small portions, finger food and is usually recommended as a spot to stop by after the work or in the evenings to just sip on some cocktail, enjoy the small bites in a laid-back environment.

Once again, we were overwhelmed with the choices on the menu ( both sushi side and Izakaya ) but at the end of the evening we knew that we chose the right dishes for our tastebuds! The sweetest part of the evening was that we could watch the sushi chefs (which work in an open kitchen which is not so usual for Helsinki’s sushi/ Japanese restaurants ) prep a mini nigiri set for my daughter. “Adult” sized nigiris were perfectly made, fresh and full of flavour. I loved that they have put the wasabi between the rice and the fish, which is once again not a common custom in other similar places in Helsinki.

Sushi rolls were divine and our favourite was Geisha roll. Salmon on the top of it was to die for delicious, thick, juicy and worked perfectly with the rest of the roll’s ingredients.

From the Izakaya part, we have decided to test out beef bun ( tender meat, pastry like bun and tasty dressing ), scampi tempura with chilli mayo dip ( my daughter’s favourite ) and my favourite – tuna tar-tar with avocado in sesame oil – so good!

Main courses and the final dishes of the evening were : Sesame coated tuna steak in ginger-sake sauce and beef sirloin with teriyaki sauce and wasabi mayonnaise. Tuna was delicious and worked perfectly with the sauce and stir fried veggies that it was served with. Beef sirloin was absolutely prepped to perfection, thin, tender, full of flavour but the only “remark” about this dish is that the beef works better with either of the sauces, but not with both of them at the same time.

Lounge like vibe, great service, open kitchen and of course great food are enough of reasons to def. pay a visit to Tokyo55.

*This post was made in collaboration with Tokyo55 restaurant, all of the opinions are my own.

*Thank you Mr.Mika for making this collaboration happen!

*Photography by: Natali K. photography