Restaurant Rating | The restaurant, partly owned by Ville Haapasalo, offers spectacular dishes but a lot of mocha

Davai The Davai Restaurant serves dishes from the very hand-controlled states of the Soviet Union, led by the Communist Party.

The idea for the restaurant might have sounded fun before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but the outbreak of war in the former Soviet state took away all the jokes about the subject.

The Soviet Union was certainly not known for good food. The state closely monitored citizens and access to raw materials. The same state-approved Soviet food was to be offered everywhere. I remember, among other things, the so-called multi-purpose steaks, which I did not want to cut with normal cutlery.

However, the fine machinery of many Soviet states was not allowed to be destroyed by the Soviet machinery, and it is these that Davai Davai presents extensively.

Davai Located in the vaulted cellar, Davai is decorated in warm dark colors with Soviet posters and pictures. Ville from Haapasalo.

Actress-entrepreneur Haapasalo, who introduced the former Soviet countries to his programs, is one of the owners and developers of Davai Davai, but the main owner is the large restaurant group Noho Partners.

Food arrives at the tables almost every time after a long wait. However, the waiters are natural and friendly creators of the atmosphere.

For the first test, I’ll just take the sakuska appetizers (23e), which are served beautifully in a three-layer dish. The best serving is a salmon goblet pie with puff pastry. The salmon filling is fresh and succulent.

In the second during the test we take as a starter blinis with salmon roe (16 e). Russian-style small pancakes are perfectly crunchy and buckwheat. There are quite a few eggs.

We share with my guest the Assortment of the Best in Davai (69 e for two).

We put Kiev chicken in our mouths first. It’s cooled to cool, so the garlic butter sauce inside is not a pleasure to eat. The frosting has remained crisp.

The Armenian grilled lamb, which has remained almost raw, is served in red wine sauce, which is so low that it makes no sense. The lamb fillet pieces, on the other hand, are nicely placed on the skewers, but the lamb fat is not at room temperature at best.

All meats are so stubbornly salted that we are only able to eat some of them.

The Adjika sauce is intriguing, as I’ve eaten great versions of this usually fiery sauce that tastes like clover and celery seeds, among other things.

The disappointment is great because Davai Davai’s version lacks all the excitement and fireworks. The end result is like eating a little chilly-flavored children’s canned food.

Fresh sea buckthorn ice cream (7 e) will be needed to relieve our mouths that are swollen with salt and cold fat.

On the third on a visit I take dumplings (14 e). The thin-shelled dumplings have a bitter taste of woody mushrooms.

There is a degree of creaminess in the mushroom delivery (10 e) and the mushrooms are not mushrooms but mushrooms, but where has the chef hidden the characteristic features of this pot, such as seductive acidity and outrageous sweet lushness?

In Ville Haapasalo’s vorschmack (15 e) separates herring and other nuclear ingredients, but fullness and strength are also missing from this dose.

“Davai reminds me of Finnish Chinese restaurants, where the flavors of food have been diluted to suit the mouths of Finns,” says a guest who has lived in Russia for a long time and has been touring the former Soviet Union extensively.

Davai’s cabbage rolls (22e) are also a sterile disappointment. It is as if the cabbage and the inside have been prepared separately and the taste of the cabbage rolls has not been created.

As a main course, I take overcooked beef breast stroganoff (27 e). The beef breast, flavored with spice broth for a long time, has an enchanting multidimensionality brought by roots and herbs. Davai Davain’s best dose.

Finally, we order an idiot-proof portion, or borscht (14 e), and it is wonderfully sour and sweet. And even hot.

Davai Davai is a beautiful restaurant where it is fun to spend an evening admiring spectacular dishes, as long as you don’t let your mind focus too much on the flavors of the dishes. The basic recipes and ingredients of the food are good, so with small changes, the restaurant can develop very well.