Helsinki Eats: Loft restaurant
We had been walking around rainy Helsinki for a while, looking for a place to eat lunch. Restaurant after restaurant we passed up, because either the food was too boring (Westernized Chinese food or kebap), or expensive (€20+ for a main). Finally, we came upon a restaurant called Loft, with a selection of three lunch entrees for €9.20 each including salad, bread and coffee.
The two choices left by the time we arrived were "meat and rice" and "bacon mushroom pasta." I had the meat and rice, which turned out to be a tomato-based stewed beef over rice. We could help ourselves to a green salad, a tuna pasta salad, and two types of bread. And there was tea and coffee at the end of the meal (also self-service), and I was grateful that they leave a bottle of tap water on every table as standard.
The "meat and rice" wasn't a mind-blowing meal, but it was just so nice to have whole food, a balanced meal, and in really beautiful surroundings. I had a hunch that I had seen a picture of this restaurant before because those sheer curtains looked so familiar; lo and behold, it was featured in a NY Times article about Helsinki's growing food scene (article here). Loft is a "modern Scandinavian" restaurant specializing in locally produced foods. And the dinner prices are quite high - €52 for a tasting menu. What serendipity!
