One of the most irresistible things to do for some people in Helsinki is apparently to sun yourself outside of a cafe, Parisian style, watching the passing traffic, face upturned to the sun as if watching a giant movie screen. My husband thought that the sight of it was so hilarious that he took pictures of them. It’s where Helskinki goes to pose and posture.
Hotel Kämp is Helsinki’s premier hotel, built in 1887 by Carl Kämp and then rebuilt in 1965. It is the place for the wealthy, social elite (rooms start at €500). It is steeped in history {http://www.cosmopolis.ch/travel/helsinki/hotel_kamp_111.htm} with its rich and sumptuous surroundings, after a hard day pounding the cobblestones touristing, we enter the hotel, delighted that the serenity.
The menu is surprisingly reasonable given the surroundings. I am itching for some seafood so my husband and I share the Royal Seafood platter €39.80, the crayfish soup €9.80 and my sister has a burger craving so she orders the €21.
The soup arrives first and is spooned from a small silver tureen into a chic patterned rim bowl. The soup is richly and deeply flavoured, an ode to the crayfish. A definite winner.
It takes a while before the seafood platter and burger arrives, we’re not sure why as we are eating early and it’s relatively empty. We take some time to peruse our opulent surroundings, oddly there are huge shag pile rugs under the tables, we can only think what kind of cleaning nightmare they would be should a diner spill something on them or drop crumbs.
The bread given to us is lovely and fresh, the butter simply gorgeous as Finnish butter is uniformly.
Our platter and burger finally arrives, the platter piled high with prawns (smoked and unsmoked), oysters, 1/2 a small lobster (and we mean small) and mussels. We dig into the platter, the 2 precious oysters are large and creamy, the mussels sweet albeit small, the lobster doesn’t have a great deal of lobster meat so we savour what is there and the prawns are unusual-the smoked version being extremely smoked (we find that Finnish smoked items are very smokey in flavour) and the natural prawns sweet with soft shells.
What is interesting is the amount of tiny sweet roe clinging to each prawn, it’s very sweet and delicious. The 4 sauces are: Aioli, a runny thousand island, a red onion vinaigrette and a blood orange sauce. The aioli is my favourite although the red onion vinaigrette is a natural for the oysters.
The burger is actually not made up with a burger patty, it’s thin slices of rareish beef. Blythe finds it strange and not quite burger like enough. Also the chips are very dry and usually a chip lover, she leaves most behind.
The restaurant starts to fill, with elegantly dressed people seeking a drink or a meal outside of the brief rain shower outside. And of coursethere are still people outside watching the crowd scuttle past with umbrellas, like watching a movie.
Kämp Café & Bar
OPENING HOURS
Mon - Fri 11.30 - 24.00 a la carte menu
Sat - Sun 12.00 - 24.00 a la carte menu
BAR OPENING HOURS
Mon-Wed 10.00-01.00
Thu-Fri 10.00-02.00
Sat 11.00-02.00
Sun 11.00-01.00
HOTEL KÄMP
Kämp Café & Bar
Pohjoisesplanadi 29
00100 Helsinki, Finland
Tel. +358 9 5840 9530
Fax. +358 9 5761 1925
e-mail: sales@hotelkamp.fi
6 Comments | Add your own
What a pile of seafood! How did you find they compared to what we get here, in terms of flavour etc?
The prawns with the roe seemed very interesting (and pretty). Other than that..for me..nothing else much remarkable, I mean overly ‘wow’ I mean. I love a good, creamy lobster bisque though.. was your soup like that?
Very curious about those shag pile rugs. Aside from aesthetically pleasing? I feel like asking the owners “Whhhy?”
I feel so sorry for Blythe.. not getting a good burger and chips fix!
A local butcher (near me) does great smoked eels, but sometimes they are so overly smoked, I feel nauseous eating them. So maybe I wouldn’t be a fan of Finnish smoked goods?
I see some ‘orb’ shaped lighting here too
A good tip to learn that Finnish butter is good. Thanks!
Thank ya for sharing Lorraine! 
i’ve gotta say–if i were expecting a big juicy hamburger, i would’ve been terribly disappointed if i’d been served what was given to your sister. bummer.
Hi Y-The smoked prawns were way too smoked for me I’m afraid but the mussels were nice and sweet (albeit small) and the lobster was very small. So compared to Australian not as great but still not an entire waste of time either!
Hi Maria-It was different from a creamy lobster bisque, it had a more heady crayfish flavour to it, very intense but nice. I know, I can’t figure out the shag pile rugs, surely bread crumbs are a nightmare to vacuum out of it?
Perhaps it’s the wood or what tehy smoke it with. I don’t know but I just know that although I love smoked goods but I didn’t love these as much.
Yes, Finnish butter was good everywhere we went which was great! You’re welcome!
Hi grace-Yes she was very disappointed in that
When I lived in Finland through the long rainy autumn and and the even longer freezing winter, the return of spring and summer was such a miracle that I just could’t stay inside and had an obsession to go outside and face the sun as long as it was shining, so no wonder that Finnish city people love to sit in outside cafes and worship the sun to get strength and courage to endure the long winter months…
Hi Tuulikki -Odd but my husband thought it was more posing than sunning oneself!
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