blackdragone

Great potential but bad performance.
The place has great potential 'cause the pizza dough and the ingredients are of good quality, but the cook makes a too big step and goes from originality to pretentiousness. For instance I took a "formaggio" pizza: there was some good cheese, tomato sauce and figs... and then a ball of ICE CREAM in the middle of my pizza. WHAT?! It was spoiling the whole pizza! Who wants to taste a sweet cold thing in the middle of a warm delicious pizza? There was the same problem with my friends' pizzas: basically there was one ingredient that was "stepping too far" and spoling the whole course.
I think the cook should reconsider his style because there's great potential in his cooking (we were all Italian today and we know a thing or two about pizzas...) and good original ideas.

(also a couple of desserts on the menu would be appreciated instead of only one :) ).

The restaurant unfortunately recently changed owners. Now it is a sort of Italian kitchen restaurant. A sort of because the only Italian thing they have there is names on the menu. What they call Tiramisu is definitely not such!
Food was okay, not particularly good but okay.
Service was simply AWFUL. The waiters NEVER looked if someone needed something and were very slow. After literally 10 minutes of hand waving while they were looking very interested at their own shoes I had to stand up and go to them to order.
Also, no kids option in the menu.

Great place, excellent food. The restaurant is close to the railway station, so very easy to reach also by foot. The view on the wood while eating was spectacular and the food amazing. Everything is organic and local, the cooking is simply perfect, the portions big and the price not high compared to Helsinki. I tasted the mixed appetizer and it was delicious!!
One of the best places I've eaten in here in Finland!

Only place in Helsinki that makes proper pizza, so far.
I'm so fed up with so-called restaurants that put bolognese or kebab on pizza.It's disgusting.
This won't happen at Il Duetto, pizza is made according to the Italian tradition, with fresh mozzarella and good typical ingredients. Excellent!
I tasted also cannelloni once and they were very good. Ice cream is great, also! Made in the Italian style, one of the rare places you can get such ice cream in Helsinki.
There are some minor problems with the place in my opinion, though. They should advertise it more, it's really hidden and if I wasn't suggested by a friend I would have never found it. Also, they should take more care of the atmosphere and I noticed the personnel barely speak English or Finnish. This makes the service slower sometime.

Good food, awful service.
The food is tasty and good (although the options are very limited) but the service was too slow and approximative. I ordered a glass of wine that never made it to our table (but it did on the check). We had to give up dessert 'cause we spent 1 hour and a half there just for the main course! We saw two families sitting down, waiting half an hour and being ignored for the whole time and finally going away mad and without eating. They served people who got there after us when we were still waiting for our food. Many times we tried to catch the attention of some waiter by waving our hands in the air...in vain. I had to get up a couple of times to ask for things we needed.
Next time we'll go somewhere else.

You don't call yourself italian restaurant and then serve carbonara with cream. It's called FRAUD, you know?

Are you looking for the perfect dinner experience? This is the place in Helsinki.
The atmosphere is refined but cosy; the place is small so it's essential to book in advance (they're always full, no wonder why!).
The staff (also the chef himself) explains every single course in detail, not only where the ingredients (local and organic) come from but also the process that led them to originate the course, how they experimented and how they got there. I never saw such deep passion in cooking and exalting food in my all life...and I'm Italian! The chef and his staff have a remarkably deep knowledge of the ingredients and how to take out the best of them. Portions are small but prices are balanced, so you get to taste a lot of different things without paying a fortune.
The service was perfect, especially the waiting times. The kitchen served us some small "surprise smaples" once in a while to break our wait.
This was for sure our best dinner in Helsinki and I really do not have ANY negative observation at all.
If you're living in Helsinki or visiting the town and want to try what Finland has to offer in terms of food and tastes, THIS IS THE PLACE.

They claim they have the best espresso in Helsinki and they actually do! Excellent italian espresso and cheaper than usual (2 euros). The café is really nice but very small, so big groups shouldn't go. They have a lot of high quality Italian food on sale, I tried few things and they were even better than in Italy itself! Much suggested.

A nice place where to taste traditional Finnish cuisine. The restaurant is very old (it was opened in the 1930s), the atmosphere is simple but cosy. The quality of food is very good, especially the herrings. Desserts are also worth trying! The staff is very professional and kind.
The price is definitely a very good deal considering Helsinki's average!
Hint: book a table in advance, because the place isn't huge and it was fully booked on a simple Thursday night.

This is not pizza, although Finns seem convinced it is. They don't put any mozzarella, but a strange cheese mixture instead. The "salami pizza" is the only eatable here... and sometime they also put creepy garlic (?!) sauces on pizza.
I don't know where they find the courage to show Italy pictures on the wall, because they have NOTHING to do with Italy.