Restaurant Sue Ellen was opened in November 2017 and it replaced Bystro, which was also owned by the same chef’s familiar from Demo and Muru. Bystro served Russian food, but Sue Ellen has quite different cuisine. It comes from Southern coast of America like Savannah, South Carolina and Charleston. Sue Ellen is good example of new “pop-up” trend in restaurant scene. Instead of fine tuning decoration and menu, close old concept and open new one.
Sue Ellen is located in former colonial merchant’s house by the sea, opposite to Old Market Hall. Hotel Haven is behind or around the restaurant and many guests of course use the opportunity to dine without need to walk far.
The name of the restaurant presumably raises eye brows of those who remember old TV series called Dallas. If you go to wash your hands, you can even see pictures of main characters.
There is one special dish restaurant offers. You can order whole Piglet 3-4 days beforehand. Of course there are shellfishes, oysters and some other meat dishes available, but piglet is quite extraordinary.
Decided to order 4 course menu, which cost 55€, as waitress told that it was also available as vegan. Also ordered wines suggested for the dishes.
Vegan starter was GREEN TOMATOES Fresh salad and Louisiana remoulade and standard CAROLINA CRABCAKE & OKRA SALAD Romesco paste, lemon curd.
Tomatoes were the best part of vegan dinner. Because of those, expectations were quite high for next dishes.
Crabcake was tasty, one could really find the taste of juicy crabs. Paste made the dish even more delicious.
Wine served for both starters was Pinot Noir from Robert Mondavi. Fruity and almost full-bodied wine paired perfectly with starters.
Second dish on the menu was SPICY MANGO Baby gem, fried shallot, pimento.
Vegan dish did not include biscuits on the top of the food. Mango was not so sweet because it travels quite long time from country of origin before fruits end up to Finland. As being used for enjoying often spicy food, dish was slight disappointment.
Wine served was German Riesling from Böcking. Dry, crispy and fresh wine comes from Mosel area and for mango, it matched perfectly.
Next and last salty dishes were Asparagus based vegan dish and SLIGHTLY SMOKED BRISKET Brisket ”Au Jus”, roasted cauliflower purée and broccoli
Second vegan main course was combination of different vegetables and roots. The idea came from dish called FROM THE SEA, which includes asparagus and sweet potato chips. However, typically restaurants provide tofu or some other protein product like Härkis or Nyhtökaura replacing meat of fish. In this case restaurant did not have those.
Brisket was excellent, tender (au jus means juicy) and fumigating was made with skill. Was just hoping for the third slice as was still hungry. Tiny side dish was also perfect match when it comes to taste: but again, double the amount and this dish would have been bull’s eye.
Both wines come from Charles Smith Wines. Boom Boom Syrah for meat and Eve Chardonnay for vegan dish. Waitress actually chose white wine as it paired better with asparagus and other veggies.
Dessert / Sweet of the Day on the menu was Chocolate cake, which was delicious with all add-on’s. Sorbet was included in both dishes and as it is prepared at restaurant, it was also very tasty.
Desset wine from Bigaro, Piemonte, Italy is produced with two different grapes, one white (Muscat) and a black (Brachetto). Amount of alcohol is only 5%, which makes this perfect summer wine.
Sue Ellen wanted to provide vegan dishes for 4 course menu, but that seemed to be quite difficult. Standard menu was delicious and worth to order, although portions are not that big. As many restaurants provide also vegan version of their menu, grade is compared to those.
Service was casual but professional, the contents of dishes were explained well and the pace of serving food was well planned. Waitress also changed the champagne aperitif as she saw that there were not enough bubbles.
Same owners have also new interesting experimental restaurant Ultima in the same building. Part of the ingredients are grown in the restaurant and 90% come anyway from Finland.
REVIEW: FOOD Vegan 2,5/5 Standard 4-/5 – SERVICE 4,5/5 – OVERALL GRADE 4-/5
Reijosfood 
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