Bronda

Back when I worked on the other side of the venue on Korkeavuorenkatu, I opted for this place for my lunch meeting and catch ups with friends. I went here for lunch a few times and ordered the hamburger from their menu. It was well made with fresh ingredients. The meat was well cooked an the fries were just perfectly roasted. Their signature ketchup and sauce was well made and all the flavours went all well together. One time i went here for dinner with my mother and had a pleasant dining experience. The champagne selection was great. Alongside with the peculiar apertizers and well presented main courses, I would say this venue is perfect for a person who’s taste buds are met by traditional western cuisine with an experimental twist. My squid ink dyed rye bread cracker with spicy tomato salsa and caviar was perfectly light to open up for more savoury dishes. The scampi mushroom sautéed scoops served in a bed of sea salt was my absolute favourite. The vintage rosé champagne complimented all of these. The mains were a bot standard to my opinion, in comparison to the ‘wow’ starters. The dessert was delicious but standard high end in terms of selection and presentation. I suppose it has become a norm now to scoop ice cream with a table spoon on top of a petite pastry and pour some crumble on top with exotic sauce. Unfortunately for me the crowd was the biggest turn off. Seeing at times what an uptight place Helsinki is, once when you fin a fine high end dining venue as this, the crowd in particular is not discreet about putting themselves out there that they are dining there and ‘splurging’ a little more on a night out. The pretentiousness only works in Mayfair or Chelsea in London. Otherwise a great place to dine.

Was here on a Thursday night for dinner. Everything was great, but the food wasn’t as spectacular as the space itself.

A light, open dining atmosphere. The 3-​course lunch menu was well presented and delicious; and the burger was tremendous. Although Bronda is a bit pricy, we were not disappointed.

Modern Upscale European restaurant of Tomi Björk (Farang, Gaijin, Bulevard Social) on the Esplanadi. Great location, Great ambience, Great décor.
Upon entering you are in the bar area which is warm inviting yet modern and looked fun. But our group had gone for dinner so we walked right back to our table. As a vegetarian dining with meat eaters I wasn’t sure how their concept was going to work for us as they encourage a tasting menu for everyone the table to share. They had a vegetarian tasting menu and made sure to accommodate me into their concept very easily that I hardly noticed.
The food was delicious. We also chose the accompanying wine tasting, and as a table we found it less delicious, especially the first two wines. The first was a dry port, which was different and I thought didn’t go well with our food. But the cocktails were great. We had a double dessert (I love this new trend in tasting menus!) which were also both amazing.

My friend and I walked in and was greeted by a friendly hostess who found us seats immediately. Then we waited 10 minutes before someone dropped off the drinks menu. We weren’t big drinkers and were really hungry and after 15 minutes failing to get attention of the seemingly too-​busy-​to-​care waiters and waitresses, we walked out. We were tourists. So much for Finnish hospitality.

Had the «Menu Esplanad» for lunch and it was delicious! To my understanding almost all of the dishes served here are meant to be shared with people you are dining with. This takes formalness and stiffness out from most of the occasions, which is really nice feature! Place is a bit pricey (54 € for the lunch menu) but taste and the location makes up for it. Also you can just drop in for a drink since the bar is really nice!

Nice bar with good music and delicious drinks, if you can’t find what you want on the menu just ask them to make you something special! I particularly liked the gin based drinks.

This place know their drinks. I only had drinks, because when we finally were hungry the kitchen had closed. (it closes at 22).
But god, they know their drinks. If you like gin drinks or doesn’t do them too often, try them here. They actually can make something else than gin & tonic. Every drink they served was presented with the content in a nice way. The price compared to stockholm was really good as well.

I had very high expectations for Tomi Björck’s and Matti Wiberg’s relatively new brasserie, but was slightly disappointed. Pluses: The ambience was fine with high walls and pretty décor. The concept is quite nice, you can order many dishes and share them with the table company. Minuses: THE FOOD! This is a classy restaurant and you expect something surprisingly good. I was gob-​struck to find that he food was ordinary European food that you make in your own kitchen during weekends. Everything tasted OK, but there was nothing extremely good or special. I recommend this restaurant to someone who likes very traditional food and who doesn’t like surprises :)

Are you up for something a bit out of the ordinary for today’s lunch? Then an excellent choice would be Bronda, the new restaurant of Tomi Björk (Farang, Gaijin, Bulevard Social).
The modern European restaurant on Esplanadi is already design wise worth the visit. Bronda has a timeless yet welcoming and cozy interior and a very surprising architecture. In difference to the neighboring Kasarmikatu that ascends towards Kasarmitori the restaurants stays on an even level which gives it a unique look. But Bronda is of course mainly about the food and not the look.
And that is, as expected from BW restaurants, exquisite. For lunch you can go with a single main dish (around 18 to 20 €) or chose a two (25 €) or three (29 €) course menu. You can choose from three starters, three mains and two deserts. The lunch offers are changing constantly. They give a good first impression of what Bronda has to offer also for later visits for dinner.
As Bulevard Social also Bronda is oriented mainly towards the Southern European kitchen. Bronda impressed with fresh and pure ingredients and a very skilled way of both preparing and presenting the dishes.
The lunch menu is highly recommendable and especially the desserts are amazing. But come hungry. The portions are surprisingly big and size wise one main dish would probably be enough.
All together Bronda offers an outstanding quality. It lacks the surprise aspect of Farang and Gaijin though. For a wonderful lunch or dinner experience it is definitely a save bet though.
By the way you can also just come to Bronda for drinks. A big part in the front of the restaurant is reserved for the bar.