Year 2013 ended up too soon. Did not have time to visit all those restaurants had planned. Anyway, breakthrough of “gourmet” bistros highlighted the year.
Bistros are relaxed, unformal dining spots with decent service and food.
In Helsinki, there has been established during couple of last years “gourmet” bistros, which compete with unique decoration, good service and well designed, delicious dishes. They also have short a la carte list and one or to menu alternatives. We could call some of these bistros restaurants, but part of them do not use that naming.
Example of “gourmet” food can be found from picture below which is taken at Spis. Whole portion consists of fresh vegetables but also of fish, which is uniquely prepared.
As we were not able to visit all “gourmet” bistros in Helsinki, results were as follows:
1. Spis 13,50
2. Gastrobar Emo and Grotesk Winebar 13,25
3. Glogatan 4, Meche and Muru 13,00
4. Farang 12,75
From these restaurants I would say Spis, Gastrobar Emo, Grotesk Winebar, Meche and Muru are so called “gourmet” bistros. Add also PureBistro which got 12,50 points and we can really call year 2013 “year of bistros”. 4 of the restaurants above have link to Michelin star restaurants, can you guess how?
Glogatan 4 is more restaurant than bistro and Farang serves asian gourmet kitchen, which you can not miss.
How Spis differs from other “gourmet” bistros? It serves greetings from kitchen between courses which others do not. That is one reason why it took the first place this year. It also has longer menus than others (full review at reijosfood.com)
Why Grotesk Winebar succeeded although it is quite new? It serves rare delicacies which you do not get in other bistros. It also provides professional wine pairings with dishes (full review at reijosfood.com)
Why Gastrobar Emo earned 2nd place although it is one of the newest restaurants in Helsinki? It is partly owned by Pekka Terävä who owns Michelin star restaurant Olo. Olo might be the next 2 Michelin star restaurant as Chez Dominique closed down it’ doors. (full review of Emo at reijosfood.com)
Year 2012 results can be found from blog page Restaurant reviews – rankings.
Year 2014 will continue with review of “gourmet” bistro or tapas bar Goce which was opened in November 2013. We also might visit some of the most prestigious restaurants although “gourmet” bistros have modified restaurant field a lot.
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Reijosfood 
I would have needed this information by the end of December, when I was in Helsinki, but I will know for sure next time 🙂
Now we have snow, -10C degrees and rivers are almost freezed. Thanks for reading post!
I was hopping for snow and frozen rivers, when I was there, instead it was just gray 😦
Read your post, we really had grey winter until 10th January
Is it Danish or Norwegian? Spis and grotesk are both Danish/Norwegian words, so I got curious:)
Spis is Scandinavian restaurant, which explains the name. Grotesk Winebar serves tapas type of dishes, så det låter inte så Skandinaviska.