I had one of the best tasting menus I had ever had at the HOTEL NESTOR & RESTAURANT BACK POCKET , in Korpo. We took a bus from Turku, where a friend and I stayed previous day, to Korpo. The bus was full, but most passengers got off at Nagu. We found our bus stop as soon as we got to the island of Korpo. On the way, we took ferries while we were still on the bus, and it felt special.
We checked in the Hotel Nestor and waited for the dinner time enjoying the calmness of the hotel. Service of the hotel staff was great! Our room was specious as we booked a room for four people. This was the only available room when we made a reservation in June.
18:00, we went down to the restaurant.
The tasting menu started with wonderful drink. I asked for mocktail and got alcohol-free sparkling wine with elderberry syrup and a slice of lime. It was fresh and lovely!
Appetizer was green carpaccio: cucumber noodle, olive oil, herbal oil, yogurt ice cream, matcha and lemon sorbet
When the friendly waitress explained about this dish and told us it’s consist of cucumbers and so on, I was a bit skeptical. I don’t like cucumbers in general and would leave them in the plate if cucumbers were in the dish. But this time, I told the waitress only food I can’t eat was tomatoes. I am glad that I didn’t say that I can’t eat cucumbers when I tasted it. I would have missed the point of the tasting menu if I had told them that I couldn’t eat cucumbers. I didn’t feel I was eating cucumbers while I was tasting the dish. I was delighted when the waitress told us that the white stuff is yogurt ice cream and on top of it is matcha and lemon sorbet. I like yogurt ice cream, and anything made of matcha. I think the point of this dish was yogurt ice cream. It made this dish special. It upgraded the flavor of this dish.
The second dish was Nestor Pea Soup: peas, horseradish, cream fresh, onion, herbal oil, and spring onion. It’s hard to say which dish was my most favorite but Nestor pea soup could be the one. Horseradish created the fresh taste and made the flavor amazing; I think.
The third dish was scallops and scrambled eggs. Truffle, truffle juice, breadcrumbs, tapioca pearl, soy sauce and balsamic are other ingredients. I love both scallops and eggs. A dish which includes both was amazing especially when it was decorated with truffle. The harmony which all the ingredients created together was exquisite.
The first main dish was whitefish, siika (in Finnish), with new potatoes, champagne and mustard sauce, fried seaweed.
The second main dish was Finnish beef tenderloin cooked with dry yeast, pickles, brown butter cream, herb purée, and malt cracker. On the side, there was baked carrot and Béarnaise sauce.
Both main dishes were marvelous! Harmonies created by all the ingredients gave us joy.
And finally, dessert! A friend and I had different dessert as the original dessert in the menu included vodka and I can’t torelate alcohol at all. My dessert was homemade vanilla ice cream with blueberries, goat cheese mousse and marshmallow. The original one was blueberry sorbet with vodka and honeycomb. (Looking at the photos, I am not sure if I got the ingredients right though). Sometimes, dessert could be overwhelming after already eating a lot, but their dessert was light and tasty, and we were happy about it.
What a lovely dinner we had! Everything was perfect including friendly and professional stuff! The restaurant will be closed for autumn/winter season from September, but they will serve tasting menu to the hotel guests even in the off season. And I think it’s worth visiting there even only to eat!
We went for a walk in the surrounding after dinner and went to bed early as I had to leave the hotel early in the next morning for work. The hotel prepared breakfast already in the evening and delivered it to the room so that I could eat something before taking a bus at 6:30AM. Thank you, HOTEL NESTOR & RESTAURANT BACK POCKET . You are the best! I will be back.
HOTEL NESTOR & RESTAURANT BACK POCKET
Österretaisvägen 45
21710 Korpo