Clarion Helsinki and “the friendly Russian” Troikka

Last weekend we finally got around to spending a night at Clarion Helsinki. The views were stunning and the heated rooftop pool was nice but other than that there was not much to impress me. They need to pay far more attention to detail for me to consider staying there again.
The whole thing went slightly pear-shaped right from the start. The check-in desks are arranged in a very peculiar manner which causes chaos and unclarity as soon as more people are waiting to check in than there are available receptionist. A more traditional set-up with one long desk would work much better. When we got to our room we could not find the robes that were supposed to be in the room but a phone call to the front desk fixed this in no time. The bathroom had a flickering light, which was quite annoying and the hallway lamp outside our door was not working. These are some of the details I would hope a hotel that apparently is classified as a four-star hotel would pay more attention to. I also found it interesting that the room had no place to put your clothes (no wardrobe or dresser, just a place to hang your coat). During a one-night stay this was not a problem but if I was staying even for just two nights I would prefer to unpack my things. The actual room was nicely decorated and had lovely views over the sea and part of the city.


Only place for your clothes in the room
 



After we got the robes and the pool opened we headed up to the 16th floor for a plunge in the rooftop pool. The pool has an open roof and glass walls so it is practically an outdoor pool. The water was warm enough that you could enjoy a dip even in below zero weather. The pool was really nice, the views amazing and taking a swim in the cold weather was invigorating. What I found strange was that the pool was only open in the morning and late afternoon. In my opinion, this is a very Finnish approach to pools that somehow is connected to the saunas that are kept heated only a few hours per day. In my opinion, hotels could keep the pools open even if the sauna is not heated and some hotels in Finland do offer all-day access to their pool. 


Picture from Nordic Choice Hotels site
I had made a reservation for us at a traditional Russian restaurant located in Töölö called Troikka. The restaurant has been operating since the 1920s and I have been visiting it for around 30 years. We started with aperitifs: I had a house-version of a Kir Royale with homemade strawberry juice, citrus liquor and bubbles, and hubby had a classic Bloody Mary. As it is blini season we opted for the blini palette. After we had placed our order we were served a small greeting from the kitchen – a lovely Crème Ninon soup. The blini palette consisted of vendace and burbot roe, onion, sour cream, cold-smoked salmon, tartar of cold-smoked horsemeat, mushroom salad, hardboiled egg whites and yolks, and as many buckwheat blinis as you could eat. We accompanied the meal with a bottle of French sparkling wine. These were by far the best blinis I’ve had and the fillings were delicious. I could only manage to eat two blinis but hubby polished off three. As I still had some room left I decided to have dessert; Strawberries Romanov.



A perfect blini
The roes and salmon, onion & sour cream
Horse tartar, mushroom salad and egg whites & yolks

The following morning we had breakfast in a very busy hotel restaurant.The breakfast was pretty standard with some specialties like over-night oats and a mango smoothie. All in all a nice break, but in future I will continue to prefer the boutique-style hotels in Helsinki.

Found this guy outside the hotel restaurant

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