It was pretty empty as we walked it at 7 PM on a Friday night. There was some misunderstanding if we wanted to sit in the smoking or non-smoking but finally we were shown to a table by party with two kids, small kids. I asked to be seated with less juvenile accompany and finally we got a table.
We were given menus that looked like they have been looking the same fore a while. Some corrections and additions had been done, with different font of course. What the menu was missing in the informative side you were able to get from the waitress. Should I ad the humming waitress. I really could not catch it. Was it a x-mas song she was humming? I sure was happy she was not into Lord or similar bands.
We ordered selection of Tapas for two people to begin with. From my seat there was a glimpse from kitchen to be seen and I did not like what I saw. A young (younger than me= young) girl with RED hair (under scarf) messing up with the food. Fortunately there was an older man (older than Palle) w/ gray hair to be seen as well). It made me to relax, a bit.
It was 20€ for the appetizers so I do not know what I was expecting but sure I was disappointed as the plate arrived. I was shocked. I thought "for this we are paying 20€!?!?!?" I admit it was pretty premature thought by me as the looks were luckily bluffing. Those delicacies pretty much blew my brain away as there was so much more to taste than you were assuming to get by the looks. Palle had similar view on everything else but not on the meatballs. I liked those as well.
The waitress kept humming and the chef was whistling. I was not extremely concerned anymore even though we had ordered grilled fillet beef-steak with salmon for Palle and grilled fillet beef-steak "Parrilla Española" for me. The course named by the restaurant was a perfectly grilled excellent beef with mushrooms, garlic and BANANA on top of it. Palle's food was like a Swiss roll made out of beef and lax. I liked my food a lot and Palle's mix was ok with an excellent sauce. The vegetables were amazing al dente minus cooked pieces of cauliflower, zucchini and something. To ensure the caloric intake I ordered an extra aioli for our deep fried potatoes.
All this was served on environment from 70's. Plastered walls that had their share of soot, benches covered w/ leather that were bit torn and at least well-worn. And souvenirs with black bulls and red bolero skirts. This was from time before kymppimatkat, more likely seuramatkat with Tarvajärvi (?) when olives (his) banana (hers) and garlic (his and hers) were rare in Finnish cuisine.
The bill was 78€ and we were happy as we recovered from the shock from the beginning. We would go back, not immediately but in matter of time. I already called my cousins man about the place (Pasi likes good food and has been born in the late 70's). We were amazed about the age distribution of clientele. All the people to arrive after us were younger than us. We thougt it would have been patronized by people in Lauri's age and style (Palles uncle, 61 y).
