Fazer café is the Finnish equivalent of an afternoon tea salon. Started by Karl Fazer (pronounced “Fahtzer”) in 1891, it is said to be the place where “the female population of the city would spend time, taking certain pleasure in using up the last pennies of their fathers, brothers, fiancees and admirers for indulging in huge amounts of sweet delicacies” and indeed looking around there are ladies lunching on salads, sandwiches or divine little cakes and chocolates. Beautifully merchandised, the windows beckon with tantalising colours and delicate morsels. When we had walked past on the Sunday when they were closed, I practically drooled in front of the window so the next day a plan was made to come here. And if anyone should derail these plans, they will incur my wrath!
The shop is broken down into two areas, on the left are the cakes and savouries and on the right are the chocolates and jellies. There is an area towards the rear of each in which to eat. It reminds my sister of the Wolseley although curiously they have self service which is apparently quite a Scandinavian thing. You take a tray, select your food from behind the glass cabinet and they pass the food to you and you then pay at the front, much like the nicest cafeteria you’ll ever come across. My sister and I select some open face sandwiches to share and my husband chooses to partake in the lunch soup buffet €8 for a choice of three soups: a vegetable one, a meat soup and a seafood soup with bread and butter. There are also a selection of salads and of course the gorgeous cakes to choose from.
We choose a Russian open faced sandwich with fish paste and eggs €8.20 (Voileipa Sill ala Russia), a chicken sandwich €7.30 (Resissumies Kana) and a prawn and egg sandwich €7.70 (Voileipa Katkarapu).
Voileipa Sill ala Russia €8.20
The Voileipa Sill ala Russia is fairly bland and needs a little salt and pepper. It’s certainly creamy and piled high with toppings though and tastes mostly of eggs.
Resissumies Kana €7.30
The Resissumies Kana E7.30 is delicious, the chicken moist and sweet and the topping perfectly balanced. It’s my favourite of the lot although it sounded less exotic.
Voileipa Katkarapu €7.70
The Voileipa Katkarapu is packed with small fresh prawns which sit on top of a cloud of thousand island dressing. It’s piled high with prawns and great value.
Meat soup (part of soup buffet) €8
I try some of my husband’s soups, the vegetable one is a creamy potato and leek soup, the meat one is particularly good with halved meatballs amongst vegetables whilst the seafood is a little disappointing, tasting mostly of celery and carrot with some tiny prawns scattered throughout it.
Berry cake €5.40
Savouries savoured, we move onto the sweets. I choose the perfect dome of berries with the delicate sprig of gold leaf redcurrants on top. I also select a slice of traditional Finnish caramel cake and a section of apple slice and a sweet roll to takeaway for our drive to the countryside.
The Berry cake is divine, filled with white chocolate with a sweet berry jam centre it is the perfect level of sweetness. The fine covering of sweet jellied berry is divine against the rich white chocolate centre. It is topped with redcurrants flecked with gold leaf. Simple perfection.
Traditional Finnish Caramel Cake €5.30
The Finnish caramel cake is coated in a thick icing of caramel, the centre sponge slices filled with caramel too. The sponge itself is a bit dry and tastes a little stale but the caramel helps somewhat.
Reinen Omenapiirakka €3.20
Later we try the apple slice, it’s fairly light on apples but tastes richly of custard powder.
Voisilmapulla €2.50
The sweet roll is topped with a sweet cheese and sugar and then baked to produce a crispy sugar crust. It is also strongly flavoured with cardamom which gives it an interesting touch.
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On our drive to the Finnish country home, I lie back and think of the other cakes that I didn’t try. Yes I will be back for them…
Fazer Café
Kluuvikatu 3, 00100 Helsinki
Tel +358 20 729 6702 Fax +358 20 729 6700
E-mail: fazer.cafe@fazer.fi
http://www.ravintolaopas.net/fazerkluuvi
Mon-Fri 7:30-22, Sat 09-22
7 Comments | Add your own
Woohoo did someone say Smörgåsbord? Love that large light fixture thingy in the first picture. It looks like a giant flaming meatball about to crush the man sitting underneath.
HEAVEN! I want to grab a fork a sample all the goodies in that display window! Too bad its on the other side of the world.. lucky u! That’s ok, one day…
Wow, they look amazing!!! But …wait till you go to Pierre Herme in Paris. I would have had my breakfast, lunch and dinner there for the entire trip if my husband had let me!
heaven, i’m in heaven…just looking at those cakes…it would be highly dangerous for me to enter such an establishment…what absolutely delightful cakes!
Recently when my husband and I had the Melbourne getaway, every eatery we went to, I kid you not, had ‘orb-like’ light fixtures. Most quite beautiful actually. I figured it must be a current trend in lighting!
I used to live near and have quite a few Russian friends..and aahh I kind of miss their open sandwiches on dark rye. I loved the look of these photographed ones.
Does gold leaf taste like anything?
The Finnish caramel cake kind-of reminded me of a simplified Hungarian dobos torta.
I liked the look of the apple slice, I initially thought it was a rice pudding treat or something!
wow. talk about beautiful presentation! it all looks amazing, especially berry and caramel cakes. man, i love dessert.
Hi Y-I knew there was a reason why I was drawn to it. The only thing better than a meatball is a giant meatball!
Hi Maria-I know, I couldn’t choose what to order! I felt comforted that there was something like this in Finland
At least you know that if you ever do go to Finland, the cake situation would definitely be sorted 
Hi KCL-Yes indeed! I did visit Pierre Herme when we were in Paris (story to come soon). It was definitely the place to go for sweets in Paris! My husband had to drag me out of there too
Hi airy fairy-Dangerous and addictive indeed! We ate so much and came away with so much too
Hi Maria-Aha, ok perhaps it is a trend! Although the Fazer one is enormous and probably has been there quite a while!
I also had some Russian friends and loved the food-the caviar especially.
Gold leaf doesn’t actually taste like much to me, I think it looks good though
I haven’t tried a Dobos torte but have certainly drooled over them (I love the way they’re decorated). And I agree, the apple slice does look very rice pudding like, especially with the cinnamon!
Hi grace-Me too, I get so excited when I see desserts as they’re often the prettiest. Some might say too excited
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