Ravintola Perho - Helsinki culinary school restaurant

[cerealjoe]

Last Wednesday, on our yearly summer work outing we went to eat at Perho which is the restaurant of the Helsinki culinary school. It's on Mechelininkatu 7 if you're ever tempted and you happen to be in Helsinki... but I think you probably need to call beforehand to know how it all works. What can I say about that experience? Well, it's a culinary school so obviously the same service as at a restaurant shouldn't be expected, they were just learning how to serve wine and there were some spills and some broken glass but I didn't master the art of derivation on the first try either back in school either and serving wine with one hand without spilling a drop will probably be forever out of my reach. The food... hum. If you want my honest opinion, the starters were rather good, they were the usual buffet starters, fish, some exotic pork meat (I think it was the neck), salads, bread, etc. Apparently the salmon wasn't regular salmon but for me it didn't taste that different. The ham was pretty good. The main courses rather surprised me because it was just either fish or meat (alas way undercooked and chewy) with mashed potatoes or roasted potatoes. I don't know what I expected but perhaps something more extravagant because it's a culinary school after all. It shouldn't surprise me though, I also was at a buffet lunch at Hanasaari for a seminar the other day and there the main course was meat balls or herring in tomato sauce. I think for buffets, those kinds of foods are easier so they stick to them. The photo didn't turn out that good so I won't post it in big but if you want to see it, click here. We had rather heated discussions about wine because some people still believe that white wine is for "sissies" and it should only be drunk with fish! The dessert was functional, berry pie and vanilla sauce. Conclusion: remember my little thing about the cupcake in Cafe Carusel representing the Finnish mentality for me? I could say the same about this meal. No frills but satisfying. A bit like pea soup when you're freezing your butt off at the Christmas market. The lighting wasn't exceptional (and I was seated in the corner furthest away from the windows) so the photos ended up rather funky. I should learn to stick to one setting because it seems that every single photo is in a different shade of yellow or green, ah well.