Umeshu Helsinki - The quest for great food at an affordable price

As me and my friends somewhat reluctantly have transferred into working fulltime, we have realized that we spend less and less time with eachother. In college we would always meet, everywhere and at least for lunch. Now we have to take the trouble of picking up a phone and making a call. One of my friends had a brilliant idea, let's automatically meet every other Tuesday for afterwork/dinner. This was our first Tuesday, and since we all love sushi, Umeshu was our restaurant of choice.

The best way, and really the only way to eat Sushi, is to get several items on the menu and share with your friends. My absolute favorite Maki at Umeshu is the Yaki Shake (slightly grilled salmon) and Shiromasu (smoked white fish). Ebifurai (fried prawns) is amazing, but they use breadcrumbs so it's not a gluten free option.

These are also good Sushi to start with if you've never had Sushi before, because they are cooked. It's easier to transition into raw fish once you know what to expect. Personally I love raw fish, so adding Spicy Shake (spicy raw salmon) and any other Maki is not a problem for me.

 

One of my friends is on a low carb diet, and even though rice is not as bad as wheat, she's trying to stay away from all of that. That's another good thing about Umeshu, it's not just sushi, they have other japanese style foods as well. 

 She opted for a salad and some lightly grilled salmon with apple and fennel.I guess the only negative thing was that her food didn't come at the same time as the rest of our sushi, so we had to wait a fairly long time.

 

I've been to Umeshu several times, and new to their menu is the dumplings. Their dumplings are incredible, full of flavor. Traditional dumplings are often made with rice flour, but I believe these had wheat in them, so if you're gluten free - double check! 

All in all I would argue that Umeshu has the best sushi in Helsinki. I feel their price range is pretty good, a bottle of wine for 32€, Maki rolls for around 6-8,5€ (there's 8pieces in each) and I get full for about 2 - 2 ½ rolls. We had somewhat an OD on Sushi this time, but you can easily get away with around 30€ (including wine). 

The only downside is the service. I don't think I saw the server smile once, and we litterary waved for 10min without anyone looking our way. This restaurant is tiny by the way... Finally we had to raise our voices and say excuse me. I feel that's so humiliating to do, and I didn't appreciate being put in a situation where you have no choice. I can't blame this restaurant alone, ususally this is the standard still wherever you go. It is assumed you as a patron, want to be left alone.

All in all, great food, pretty good price, but horrible service :) I will be going back though, for the food, and just hope for better service..