Despite such gastronomic diversity, there are restaurants in the Finnish capital that are particularly popular with local gourmets. Foreign tourists are recommended to visit these spots to enjoy the spicy taste sensations that Asian cuisine has brought with its sauces and exotic combinations of ingredients.
Fast food Fafa’s
Fafa’s is an extremely trendy and stylish fast food that revealed to Finns the secret of proper falafel (deep-fried balls of chickpeas with spices). The owner, Israeli Doron Karavani, has already become famous for his homemade pitas with fried halloumi cheese far beyond Greater Helsinki. As a result, there are almost never free seats in the bistro.
• Address: Helsinki, Iso Roobertinkatu 2 and Viihonvuorenkatu 10
Nepalese cuisine restaurant Himalaya
Himalaya among the three pillars of the capital’s Nepalese cuisine (restaurants ‘Mount Everest’, ‘Everest’ and ‘Himalaya’) – the latter is the oldest. It opened back in 1993, becoming the first Nepalese restaurant both in Helsinki and in Finland. Over the years, its owner, Manyu Sharma, has almost ‘accustomed’ the capital’s residents to spicy chutney sauces.
• Address: Helsinki, Ratakatu 1b
Tiny Thai cuisine restaurant Maithai
Maithai is a very small and very popular Thai restaurant with several types of appetizing noodles and fiery spices. The owner named Malee (who is also sometimes a waitress, but most often a chef) is a rather stern but extraordinarily tasty cooking resident of Bangkok, who opened the restaurant fifteen years ago together with her Finnish husband Petri.
• Address: Helsinki, Annankatu 31-33
Ethiopian cuisine restaurant Kuningatar Saba
Kuningatar Saba (‘Queen of Sheba’) – modest both outside and inside (as are most restaurants in Finland), but well-known to gourmets as an Ethiopian cuisine restaurant. The owners, a charming couple Samuel and Helena, have presented in the menu all the most precious from their national cuisine. But they seem still not accustomed to the popularity of injera flatbreads and the most tender tibs (fried beef in a spicy sauce). So it is worth being patient – they cook for a long time.
• Address: Helsinki, Mechelininkatu 8
Chinese restaurant Dong Bei Hu
It seems that Chinese restaurants can no longer surprise, and their menu has only three basic flavors. But at Dong Bei Hu, which has existed since 2006, they try to avoid clichés in cooking. The owners – a Chinese-Finnish couple – consider authenticity at least a matter of honor, so even the standard sweet and sour sauce here seems a little different.
• Address: Helsinki, Korkeavuorenkatu 47