Named as the best restaurant of the year by Finnish Gastronomy Society in 2017 and N°1 in “50 Best Restaurants in Finland” in 2018 and 2019, restaurant Grön is a modern and inspiring cuisine with an emphasis on extra-quality natural ingredients.
Grön’s main award is a Michelin Star received in 2018, which it rightly holds over the past years.
Small, with only 24 seats, but very cozy and conceptual, Grön is located in one of the central districts of Helsinki Kamppi.
The restaurant was opened by Toni Kostian, the current chef of the restaurant and the best chef of Finland in 2016, and Lauri Kähkönen — both are also Grön owners.
Connoisseurs of high gastronomy appreciated the style of the restaurant based on pure Finnish nature and its cuisine as amazing, teasing with their novelty and mysteriously revealing traditional tastes and aromas.
The restaurant offers two types of menus: Grön Menu and Grön Vegan Menu, consisting of 6 main courses as well as three Extra courses, each of which can be ordered along with the main course for an additional price.
The food is seasonal and organic, made with the most of the wild products from Nordic countries. Everything that nature gives at certain time of year determines the restaurant’s menu.
In the photo: Head Chef Toni Kostian
“When Lauri and I decided to open a restaurant five years ago, we understood that our concept would be inclined towards everything natural” — says Toni Kostian, “with the maximum use of the highest quality– and environmentally friendly products”.
Dried flowers and herbs on the shelves and hanging from the ceiling are collected and dried by Toni Kostian’s mother especially for Grön: being also an unusual decoration, these items completely fit the style of the restaurant. You can also notice a large rack with glass jars with canned berries, mushrooms, roots and vegetables.
“This collection is the our team work”, — continues Toni Kostian, “we have our own garden, where we grow all the herbs, vegetables and fruits we need for the kitchen. Then we ferment and preserve them. Of course, all of this is used in our dishes”.
In the photo: sommelier Toni Feri
Wine accompaniment is created by sommelier Toni Feri, who, in addition to alcoholic pairing, has also developed a non-alcoholic one, which is very popular among lovers of juicy berry and fruit compositions.
In the photo: Clos Lentiscus Cric Cric Blanc
“I’ve been working in gastronomic field for 15 years, and 10 years ago I became interested in winemaking. I am constantly studying the history of wines in order to better understand which taste and variety is most compatible with a particular ingredient, — says Toni Feri, — I pay great attention to eco-wines. For each seasonal menu I try to choose wines that match the given theme. Summer is lighter and more mineralized, autumn-winter requires more intense and flavored items”.
The gastronomic experience begins with a fancy and original bread serving.
Sourdough Bread — served with churned butter, roasted Hokkaido pumpkin with fermented white asparagus juice and pumpkin seeds, tomato oil, rose salt.
In addition to offered dips, you may take the first course from the Extra — King Crab — king crab meat with creamed eggs and crab oil (12 €).
Cold appetizer Tomato — fresh and semi dried tomatoes with fennel juice and herb oil. As a wine pair recommended by sommelier — Spanish dry white wine Clos Lentiscus Cric Cric Blanc.
Next serving Meat is flatbread topped with smoked beef, lovage, cabbage flowers and kale leaves seasoned with mustard.
Accompanied by an orange wine from Piemonte — Demua Gavi 2016.
Before the main serving, you have a chance to try one more delicacy from Extra courses — Caviar — Finnish caviar, roasted Brussel sprouts chive flowers, smoked reindeer broth (16 €) with a glass of Fernando de Castilla Classic Dry Fino Sherry Spain.
“All the main ingredients — meat, poultry, fish — are from Finland, we also order some from Sweden. Seafood comes from Norway”, — continues Toni Kostian.
Chicken serving consists of two parts: Part 1 — Grilled chicken wing, deboned and filled with chicken and cep mushroom, apple vinegar tare, fermented gooseberry, fennel seeds;
Part 2 — Jerusalem artichoke and fall cabbage “Rosette” with roasted chicken fat, preserved white asparagus, Beurre Blanc seasoned with roasted yeast and ramson.
An excellent addition to this dish is red wine Domaine Mylene Bru Les Moulin De Mon Coeur 2018, Languedoc, France.
Before the desserts, you should definitely order the most extravagant dish from the Extras — Pine Bark — pine bark ice cream with blueberries, pine cone syrup, tarragon oil and wood ants (8 €). And a glass of Cerruti Sol Desser from Piemonte will enhance the experience of this unusual dessert.
“We picked these ants ourselves,” — says Toni Kostian, “there are a lot of them in the forests of Finland.”
Berries and Marigold dessert also has two parts: Part 1 — Cloudberries with marigold granita and marigold oil;
Part 2 — Gooseberry sorbet with gooseberry marshmallow ice cream, sunflower seeds, whipped marigold cream.
Toni Feri chose the vintage dessert wine Weingut Schmelzer Welschriesling Spätlese from Burgenland, Austria for this sweet course.
At the end of the dinner an original presentation of the “gifts of nature” Berries and Fruit is waiting for the guest — blackberry, sea buckthorn, Victoria plum with reduced lilac syrup on dried grass.
Toni Kostian: “The whole our team strives through the dishes to introduce guests to the rich variety of Northern nature and its blessed gifts, and of course, we strongly believe we succeed with that”.
In addition to all the existing awards, another one was received in October 2019: Grön was awarded the best bistro / casual dining in the world by The True Foodies Restaurant Awards.
Options: Grön menu 68 €; Grön menu with wine package 122 €
Restaurant Grön
Address: Albertinkatu 36, 00180 Helsinki
Opening hours: wed – sat 17.00 – 24.00
Contacts: info@restaurantgron.com; +358 (0) 50 328 9181
Instagram: @restaurantgron
Editor-in-chief: Patricia Kolari
Text Writer: Marina Timoshevskaya
Technical Director: Evgeny Fedorov Photos: EATWEEK
