jwoods

A very comfortable trendy local bar.

They seem to have got away with the arrogance of giving the bar no name, and having no signage outside whatsoever; the place always has people in it and gets very busy at peak times.

The place has a very homely feel to it, warm colour-scheme, thick carpets, chilled music, comfortable seats.

When I first moved to the neighbouring street and had no furniture, it was great to be able to spend every evening here. And I still think it's cool to have such a 'trendy' place as my local bar.

The prices are slightly higher than average, which I believe is intentional to keep the degenerates out. Which seems to work, although occasionally one or two do slip in.

Staff seem to change fairly regularly, but seem nice enough. Some of them are a little bit too-cool-for-school though and look down their nose at you.

A fairly good collection of magazines and games to keep you entertained - I just only wish they'd get that Pacman table console working :)

No food except toasted sandwiches, peanuts and biscuits.

I can't praise this place highly enough. The lunchtime food is bordering on fine-dining.

They are responsible for making me part with far too much of my money :)

I occasionally go elsewhere for lunch, but always regret it. I'm a very fussy eater, but I can say the food quality here is absolutely superb. I even eat things here that I wouldn't normally eat.

The superb food quality, comfortable atmosphere, music and beautiful unobstructed views of the park are all genuinely invigorating and is just what I need before going back to work in the afternoon.

The regular staff are really cool and fun, and always stop and say hi when I bump into them around town. The temporary staff are a bit typically Finnish and stroppy though.

The Ikea furnishing and modern art might not appeal to everyone - but I think they have got the whole formula just right, and I'm surprised they don't open up in new locations.

Very occasionally I've found the food to be not quite hot enough, but I'm sure that problem could be easily corrected with some heat-lamps in the kitchen.

Other minor irritations are more related to the place being a victim to it's own success: sometimes it's hard to find a place to sit - and quite often the majority of tables are reserved, or the place is closed for private functions.

They used to do food in the evenings too, but now they don't for some reason - except toasted sandwiches.

It would also be nice if they had some loyalty-card or something, for us regulars :)

aaah I love this place! It's a bit out of my way, but it's always worth the effort.

There's often a long queue, and only ever 1-2 cashiers serving, which can be a bit of a pain. But at least the queue seems to move fast.

I believe most the food is made from scratch on the premises, and the pastries have that lovely warm freshly baked taste.

The brunch may seem expensive but it's good value for money and all made with amazingly fresh and high-quality ingredients. You certainly don't need to eat for a while after that. You really do get a massive plate of quality food.

The pizzas are a great snack too, and have a gourmet quality to them.

The staff are a little quiet and in the background but generally pleasant and helpful. They always notice and mention to me when I haven't popped in for a week or so.

Because it is mostly just 1 large room at busy periods it can get quite noisy and with screaming babies and kids running around the place. Or even worse; Americans loudly "Skyping" into their laptops *cringe*.

But there are a few smaller areas where you can go to take refuge if you want to read a book.

It's very easy to spend hours and hours here as it's very comfortable, and peaceful - watching the yachts sail by.

In the summer their terrace really is the place to be.

Ample parking for cyclists too, which is a bonus. Not really served by public transport.

Somehow the place is very popular with foreigners/tourists. Not quite sure how they've managed to find it, but it's great the way everything is always translated to English - and the place is always open on public holidays and other days when most the local population is out of town and every other shop/cafe is shut.

(PS: I think you can disregard the old negative reviews of this place. I've been there far too many times over the last 2 years and have never encountered such problems. Once my pizza was going to be 20 mins late, but they found my table, apologised, explained the situation and offered me a free drink).

The food quality here is very high. It is (as far as I know) one of the only Chinese restaurants in Finland that hasn't been 'adapted to local taste'. It is certainly comparable to Chinese food bought in the UK (which has a much larger Chinese population). Even the chilli oil on the table is just perfect.

The price is also very low. One of the cheapest restaurant lunches in Helsinki.

Another reason I love this place, is because unlike every other ethnic food restaurant in Finland, they serve you food on real plates. Not those awful prison-style metal ones with sections organising your food for you that the Finns seem to love.

The staff seem very efficient. Food arrives quickly, water is continually topped up.

My wishlist: put chopsticks on the table & translate the lunch menu into English.

If anyone is interested in the meaning, 'Nanking' is an old, mostly disused Romanisation of the name of city of Nanjing.

It's a pretty good cafe food-wise. Seating is a bit poor and it gets very busy.

Salads are very fresh and delicious and look beautiful on the plate.

The cakes always look delicious but I've never eaten one in the 5 years I've been going to this place as they are insanely expensive.

The sandwiches look a bit too Finnish and tasteless (e.g. heavy rye bread with lettuce).

There always appears to be more staff than customers; yet you still have to queue up for ages. The staff can also be a bit rude and obnoxious, but this may be because of the location of the cafe they have to deal with so many dozy tourists.

Not particularly comfortable, or much of an atmosphere. It's the kind of place you meet people for a coffee or salad, then get the hell out of there.

Being a semi-regular, I once begged them to give me 1 small piece of sun-dried tomato with my €9 salad (to cut-through the creaminess of the mozzarella caesar chicken) - but they declined and said it was absolutely impossible. Utterly cretinous.

a fun place to go to when you're hungry and fancy a burger.

This is one of my favourite places in Turku. I always make sure to stop by at least once when I am in town.

You always get plenty of food for your money. Menu is burgers/steaks/pasta, but all prepared very well.

My personal favourite is the BLT. You don't see these sandwiches, or bacon in general so much in Finland. So I often treat myself when I'm there :)

Informal atmosphere. Nice staff.

It would be nice if it opened earlier on Saturdays, and at all on Sunday.

Nice place, good selection of beers.

I was very impressed by this place, especially as it's in the same building as me!

I think the bar is trying to position itself as a beer restaurant, and does seem to have a good selection of foreign beers, a lot of them also on tap. They only sell 1 domestic beer.

I hope it will be a success, but it looks like they are struggling with low customer numbers, which is a real shame as you can tell that someone has gone to a lot of trouble in setting this place up. Lots of details and decorations.

Very homely feel to it. Almost feels like your in a village pub in UK, France, Belgium etc. All that's missing is a roaring fireplace.

The booths are very inviting and just the place to go for a private conversation or to start an affair.

I'm not sure this place will ever be that popular because of it's location. There's only one apartment block immediately near it. Opposite are the railway yards, and the street is generally very quiet.

The bar has a pool table at the back too, which was a welcomed surprise (you don't see too many of them in Finland).

No food as far as I can tell.

This is one of my local places, but I've always been a bit disappointed.

It seems to change ownership on a fairly regular basis, which is never a good sign. But no one seems to get the formula right.

Admittedly, recently - they have made some effort to make the place less cold and Soviet-feeling, but this place has so much potential to be so much better.

I think the main problem is identity. Even after regularly visiting for 2 years, I'm still not quite sure what it is:

Is it a bar? Not really, they don't play music.
Is it a restaurant? Not really, just some salads or cold weekend brunch.
Is it a coffee shop? Not really. They do make great coffee, but the pastries are appalling. You get a choice of partially thawed rhubarb cake, or low-quality korvapuusti which is normally burnt/dried-out on the outside, and raw dough in the middle.

The staff are typically Finnish and unwelcoming .

They really need to go back to basics on some things. The first thing you'll notice when you visit is the piles of used plates and cups on the tables and the crumbs and other filth on the floor.

I'll continue to pop in for a coffee every now and then, as I said before - the coffee is great, and it's very spacious and comfortable seating.