Ravintolapäivä against wasting food

Today is Ravintolapäivä again. Did you already pick your favorite spots and food stands to go to? As always you can find a list of everything there is at the official website.

Restaurant Day is always special. But this time the people from Froodly have taken the event as an oportunity to do something against wasting food. The food from supermarkets that would otherwise been thrown away the day later and handed them to cooks of the pop-up restaurants for free.

The otherwise wasted food now makes for all kinds of great meals. For more information on the project check out their blog and their website.

Tasty Saturday

Not just the Street Food Carnival takes place in Helsinki today. It's also Restaurant Day again. For the last time this year you can again visit hundreds of pop-up restaurants, cafés and bars around the city and whole Finland.

So don't worry about cooking today. The streets are literally full of delicious food on this Saturday. Find your favorite pop-up restaurants on the offial Restaurant Day website.

Enjoy!

Summer Restaurant Day

Today the Restaurant Day is held again. Hundreds of small pop-ups can be found in and around Helsinki again offering a huge variety of all kinds of food. 

And today should be the perfect day for the Restaurant to take place since according to the weather forecast it is the last day with temperatures over 20 degrees for a while.

As always you can find all participating restaurants on the official website or on the Restaurant Day app. Have a great weekend!

First food carnival 2014

Tomorrow is Restaurant Day. The first one in 2014. Again hundreds of pop-up restaurants will open in and around Helsinki. So forget your lunch and dinner plans and eat out.

The mild temperatures should make the waiting and eating outside much more barable than normally around this time of year.

To find out what delicacies you can get where tomorrow check out the Ravintolapäivä website as always or install their app.

Pop-up restaurants and chocolate

Today is the last Restaurant Day of this year. Hundreds of small restaurants, cafes, bars and food stands pop up everywhere in the world again. And as always the highest density and variety of pop-ups can be found in Helsinki with over 200 participating restaurants just in the center and over 400 in the whole capital region. To find what you are looking for visit the Restaurant Day website and make a list of your favorites. Or download the app to your smartphone and find the restaurants on the move.

But for the chocolate lovers among you there is another event that you shouldn't miss for the world. At Wanha Satama in Katajanokka it's all about chocolate today at the Suklaafestivaalit. For the fourth time chocolate vendors from around Finland come here to present their products. For 13 Euro entrance fee you can learn more about chocolate and of course taste it.

Whatever you decide to do today, have a great weekend and enjoy!

Restaurants popping up again

Today is Restaurant Day again. Hundreds of pop-up restaurants, cafés and bars will open in Helsinki and worldwide for just one day.

Among them are again lots of exciting and interesting places. In the center of Helsinki you will find everything from exotic African food, Thai chicken and North Corean specialities to Swedish herring, German cake and of course Finnish delights like mustikkapiirakka and lettu.

A map and further details to all restaurants can be found from the Restaurant Day website or through their app (scroll down on their website).

This was the first Restaurant Day in 2013

Did you enjoy yesterday’s Restaurant Day? Again over 200 restaurants opened in and around Helsinki. Here are some pictures of the first Restaurant Day in 2013.

Borg at Katajanokka offered traditional Italian food.

Normally this is a recording studio.

Blini&Caviar at Kaivopuisto

Delicious blinis with smetana, onions and two different kinds of fish roe

Traditional French Crêpes at La Crêperie in Kapteeninkatu

An art gallery in Punavuori turned into Potjack Juice Bar.

A street soup kitchen in Punavuori

Cafe&Bakery Lisbon at Kamppi Kauppakeskus served Portuguese pastries.

You could enjoy your waffles while listening to the choir Lyran at Laulavat Vohvelinpaistajat.

Even a trip to the outskirts of Helsinki can be worth it.

The Heavenly Scent Cellar Cafe offered jams and jellies on fresh bread and pastries.

Soup and burgers at an apartment in Arabia.

Pop-up restaurants in the snow

The first restaurant day in 2013 will take place on Sunday. Everyone can again open their own restaurant for a day. And there will again be a huge variety of food from all over the world.  Over 200 restaurants participate just in Helsinki. 

You can find all the restaurants and their description on restaurantday.org or download their app  to your smart phone (availible for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Symbian) and always be up to date tomorrow.

The food carnival is back

This Saturday staying at home alone for cooking is out of question.  It’s Ravintolapäivä again. The whole city turns into a giant food mall. Whoever wants can open his or her own restaurant for a day and serve whatever they like.

Over 100 restaurants alone in Helsinki registered over their website. Here you can find a great overview over everything that is served that day. Plan your own route through the city and try amazing dishes from all over the world. Or just stroll through the streets and get amazed by let's say Belgalicious Waffles with Bananas, chocolat and peanut butter at Malminkatu. But keep in mind that some really popular places might run out of food pretty soon. So don’t start your tour too late.

Enjoy!

Restaurant Day is coming to town

Sunday is Restaurant Day. This weekend hundreds of pop up restaurants in Finland and the whole world will open their doors again for one day. For the third time this year the Restaurant Day (Ravintola Päivä) is organized. Everyone can open their own restaurant on that day.

a gallery becomes a restaurant for one day

Living rooms, galleries, shops, garages, terraces and lots of other places turn in to cafés and restaurants on Sunday. The variety will be huge again. Just in Helsinki over 300 pop up restaurants will participate. Before you go on Sunday you should really check the website. There you find all the places that are going to be open. Try to make a plan where you want to go and what you want to try. Also download their app to your smartphone to have an overview over all the places also on the go. You should have some cash with you though. Since this is organized by private people you won’t be able to pay by card.

Restaurant Day is always a great experience. You get to try new food and get to meet a lot of new interesting people. Go there!

4. Ravintolapäivä in Helsinki

Johannes Wienss und Kojo Owusu (v.l.) servieren Spezialitäten aus Ghana

Karneval des guten Geschmacks

Nicht einmal ein Jahr alt, ist der Ravintolapäivä schon zu einer guten finnischen Tradition geworden. Letzten Samstag war es wieder so weit. Weltweit luden rund 300 Restaurants zum vierten Restauranttag ein.

Mit exotischen Gerüchen, bunten Farben und afrikanischem Flair begrüßt das Paloni seine Gäste. Aus dem Designgeschäft ist für einen Tag in das Restaurant Piknik Ghanassa geworden. Koch Kojo Owusu hat für die Gäste Spezialitäten aus seinem Heimatland Ghana zubereitet. Zusammen mit dem Deutschen Johannes Wienss hat er ein Menü aus Bohnensalsa, Couscous und frittierten Bananen kreiert. Dazu gibt es ein erfrischendes Ingwergetränk.

Das Piknik Ghanassa war eines von 131 Restaurants in Helsinki, die anlässlich des Ravintolapäivä am vergangenen Samstag ihre Türen für Gäste öffneten.

Original Berliner Currywurst bei -17 Grad.

Das Konzept ist ausgefallen und einfach zugleich. Am Ravintolapäivä kann jede und jeder für einen Tag ein Restaurant, ein Café oder eine Bar eröffnen. Wer Lust hat, für einen Tag Gäste im eigenen Restaurant zu bewirten, meldet sich einfach auf der Webseite www.restaurantday.org an. Name und Gestaltung der so genannten Pop-up-Restaurants ebenso wie Auswahl und Preise der Speisen und Getränke stehen den Teilnehmern dabei vollkommen frei.

„Nur heute geöffnet“

Der Kreativität sind keine Grenzen gesetzt. Und genau das wurde auch beim vierten Ravintolapäivä wieder deutlich. Die Auswahl war riesig. Und so verwunderte es auch nicht, dass es sich trotz eisiger Kälte hunderte Interessierte nicht nehmen ließen, auf kulinarische Entdeckungsreise zu gehen. Von amerikanischen Cupcakes, über finnische Spezialitäten wie Lihapulla oder Korvapuusti bis hin zu französischer Bouillabaisse, iranischem Naan-Brot und deutscher Currywurst wurde den Besuchern einiges geboten. Kaum ein Wunsch blieb da offen.

Auch das Cupcake Corner hat für die Besucher geöffnet.

Hunderte Pop-up-Restaurants weltweit

Doch längt nicht nur in Helsinki konnte am vergangenen Samstag ausgiebig geschlemmt werden. In vielen anderen finnischen Städten öffneten Pop-up-Restaurants für ihre Besucher. Selbst im Ausland fand der Ravintolapäivä viele Freunde. Und so verwandelten sich weltweit in elf verschiedenen Ländern Hinterhöfen, Wohnzimmern, Boutiquen und Galerien für einen Tag in Restaurants.

„Das ist ein tolles Konzept. Schade, dass das in Deutschland noch keiner aufgegriffen hat.“ findet der aus Düsseldorf stammende Koch Johannes Wienss. Doch das kann sich schon zum nächsten Ravintolapäivä ändern. Den haben die Veranstalter auch schon bekanntgegeben. Am 19. Mai soll es wieder soweit sein. Und den sollte man sich bereits jetzt rot im Kalender anstreichen.