Vltava & Grande Grill

As I somehow recently ended up visiting a couple new restaurants, here’s a short review on both.

The first was Vltava, a new Czech-style restaurant in downtown Helsinki. On early Wednesday evening, the place was surprisingly crowded and the four of us had to wait for about an hour to get a table. (They don’t take reservations.) Waiting was not as bad as it sounded as there was room in the comfortable second-floor bar and time went by relatively quickly aided by good Magners cider. Despite people around smoking, the air conditioning was more effective than average and we didn’t have to suffer from the smoke too much.

When we did get our table from the restaurant on the third floor, another reason for the long wait became apparent: compared to the area of the bars, the food-side was tiny! Only a dozen tables or so. Quite nice busy downtown views, however. What comes to the menu, the selection is quite limited but adequate. Some Czech features such as sausages, plenty of meat and sauerkraut were plentiful. I settled for grilled chicken at €13 with plenty of garlic in the form of sauce and potatoes – the portion wasn’t as big as I expected (as they specifically advertise hearty portions), but big enough. A very nice dish anyway with the most important thing – taste – right on the mark.

Overall it turned out to be quite a positive first impression. Nothing spectacular, but a good casual place with decent prices. Perhaps 3.5 out of 5 points.

The other place, Grande Grill, has been around for some years. Somehow I don’t recall ever making it there until this weekend with some friends – maybe because it’s right next to Santa Fe, which is always a safe choice for good food.

The drink selection here wasn’t anything spectacular; no specialties. For the main course, I went with Mixed Grill with couple different kinds of meat, grilled corn and other stuff. Overall I was satisfied but a little disappointed considering expectations (which were probably set along the lines of the neighbor, Santa Fe). The chicken was good, but then again, it takes talent to ruin a chicken The meat wasn’t anything special – not bad, but not great either. Also, the corn was not really too good – which was expected in Finland, but anyway.

The dessert, however, was another story. Hot chocolate-nut fudge brownie with vanilla ice cream. This was great, really mouthwatering stuff. Definately one of the best brownies I’ve eaten in Finland. There wasn’t quite enough ice cream, but a great dessert anyway.

I’ll give Grande Grill a 3 out of 5. The price-quality ratio for the main courses at Grande Grill was noticeably lower than in Vltava, but the brownie was really good.. I’ll probably go back just for that someday.