Last Saturday, I had an opportunity to visit a lovely restaurant, Villa Lilla, which is located in Leppävaara, Espoo. All the dishes we had were delicious and it’s one of the best restaurants I have ever dined.
“Would you like to go to Villa Lilla this Saturday?” I received a message from a close friend. I didn’t have a plan on the Saturday and said “Yes!” immediately. I looked at the reservation page of the restaurant’s website to see how busy it could be and if we would need a reservation. And I realized that only 11:30 seating was available. (Maybe only one table!) I informed it to the friend, and we quickly decided to make a reservation. After making a reservation, I thought that they might offer brunch on Saturday and looked at the detail. And yes, it is brunch time and only brunch menu is served.
Fresh foccacia: It was warm and soft. We usually try to avoid bread but couldn’t help eating at least two pieces each though I don’t remember how many pieces we had.
Starter: It was beautifully presented! We loved every single flavor. The ingredients were fresh and tasted pure. The smoked salmon had appropriate amount of salt while it tends to be salty at other restaurants or when I buy it from the shops. The dill in the crayfish skagen was fresh and provided lovely flavor. I usually don’t appreciate dill very much, but I loved it here. Pork (I guess) was marinated with basil and flavor of basil was beautiful. Gooseberry chutney tasted fresh with a bit of sourness. Vegetables were marinated very well, thus I could eat peppers joyfully though it’s not my favorite vegetable
Main：Beluga lentils & basil mayonnaise with roasted beef fillet. There were three choices, meat, fish or vegetable to be served with lentils and basil mayonnaise. A friend and I both felt like meat. The taste and texture of the beef fillet and other stuff delighted us. It was perfect.
Cranberry financier & salted caramel made our experience much more delightful. Financier is one of my most favorite sweets. I loved the contrast of the flavors, sweetness of caramel and sourness of cranberry. Simple filtered coffee, of course, worked very well with the dessert.
What a lovely Saturday brunch! The lovely brunch course was only 33€, reasonable in Finland. Service and atmosphere were also great. It worth visiting, all the way, Leppävaara to dine at Villa Lilla. It’s within walking distance from the train station and there are parking spaces in front of the villa. Villa Lilla opened the door about two years ago, still during so-called corona time, by the successful owner who also owns Muru, Pastis, Fiasco?, Finnjävel and Sue Ellen in Helsinki. The restaurants that the head chef Perttu Paulasto create amazing flavors is busy with a lot of customers. I am thinking of trying lunch next time!
Last month, I had a great lunch at a restaurant in Kadriorg district in Tallinn. I told about it to a friend back in Helsinki. He told me there is another lovely restaurant in the same area. As he is such a foodie, I trust his recommendations! I wanted to go the restaurant he told me about as soon as possible.
Mantel & Koraten
As soon as a friend and I saw the cute house, we were so excited! What a cute restaurant!
Inside was lovely as well. I liked their choice of colors a lot.
And I loved that we got the table with a wall decorated with rose wallpaper. Roses are one of my most favorite colors.
Not only the cuet appearance of the restaurant, but also food was amazing there.
Ice cream
Linguine pasta, chanterelle and oyster mushroom, truffle sauce, goat cheese
Linguine pasta, walnuts, Kalamata olives, capers and fresh herbs
Tuna tartare, tzatziki, sunchoke chips, passion fruit sauce
Tiger prawns, spicy tomato and chilli-butter sauce, grilled focaccia
Fresh pasta was great! Both starters were very nice but I will try tiger prawns which a friend of mine had as they taseted “wow” next time. Piña Colada sorbet was refreshing!
All in all, our experience at Mantel & Korsten was superb and we are already wondering when we should go there again! By the way, the name, Mantel & Korsten, means “jacket & chimney”. Mantel is not “almond” which people who know Finnish might think of.
