The fairly minimalistic interior design of Sushibar has been admired by Finns and Japanese alike.

In the heart of the Design District Helsinki lies Sushibar, a chic little restaurant bringing together Finnish design and Japanese food.

SUSHIBAR is a fairly new entity to the Design District Helsinki scene. It opened in December after a month of renovation, transforming the corner space from an interior shop into a restaurant. Within only a few months of existence, Sushibar has already witnessed a growing amount of customers and loyal regulars.

The restaurant is the brainchild of Matti Sarkkinen and Anders Westerholm, two young entrepreneurs who are also the owners of a popular Japanese restaurant Raku Ya. “The idea for Sushibar actually started from Raku Ya. We know many people who love the food there and who hoped there would be something similar open also during the day. Sushibar is really the answer to a demand. There was nothing like it around in the Punavuori area and we knew people were longing for a restaurant like it,” explains Sarkkinen.

Collaboration of designers

Created together with some of the young vanguard of Finnish design, the restaurant fits its surroundings like a glove. Johannes Ekholm created the graphic designs for Sushibar and Pietari Posti, a Barcelona-based Finnish designer, crafted the illustrations.

Both designers have received acclaim the world over, and most of us have bumped into their creations. Ekholm is the man behind the branding of Helsinki Design Week and the Finnish Museum of Photography to name a few. Posti’s illustrations are on display, among numerous advertisements and magazines, in the cover of a new book on graphic design, Naïve - Modernism and Folklore in Contemporary Graphic Design.

The somewhat minimalistic interior design is the handiwork of Eliisa Korpijärvi. With clean, black and white shades, the tables are arranged neatly round the large windows and a few open shelves on the back wall, the restaurant space has been stripped of everything unnecessary.

“That was precisely the idea; to strip away all of the mysticism of Japanese food and create a space where Finns feel at ease,” Sarkkinen adds. The simple beauty of the space does work wonders and has been admired by Finns and Japanese alike.

On top of being a creation by cutting-edge Finnish designers, Sushibar enjoys the partnership of such big names as Marimekko and Artek. All the chairs in the restaurant are old Artek designs, collected by the owners and restored to their full glory. The cups, bowls and plates used are those of Marimekko’s latest design Siirtolapuutarha. Sushibar also sells the Marimekko tableware as the first restaurant in the world. Sarkkinen points out that people may feel disconnected from the products in the sense of everyday use, seeing them only as high-quality design, yet by using them at the restaurant the gap between design and everyday product diminishes.

Food for all occasions

Sushibar is open seven days a week and offers lunch, dinner and take-away food. The restaurant also takes larger take-away orders on request, which Sarkkinen says have been very popular. “People have realised that sushi is great entertainment food and we have a lot of orders, especially during the weekend for bigger parties.”

The lunch changes daily and consists of two potions: a 10- or 15-piece sushi selection at the reasonable price of 10 and 14.90 euros respectively. The lunch also includes miso soup, and the lunchtime wine at 3.50 euros for a 12cl glass is such a temptation and so easy on the pocket that it is hard to resist.

The dinner menu comprises of a selection of traditional Japanese food and a few of the more contemporary kind. To my satisfaction, the menu offers the simple side dish of green soybeans flavoured with marine salt, a scrumptious treat in its simplicity. On offer are also sashimi, fresh bite-size fish or seafood served on a bed of ice; nigiri sushi – varying toppings on a bed of rice; maki sushi –varying fillings rolled in seaweed with rice; special maki – similar to maki but with more exotic fillings such as fish roe; and temaki – a hand rolled seaweed cone with rice and varying fillings.

The restaurant does not take reservations but Sarkkinen does not believe in turning customers away. “We believe in the philosophy of ‘room for all at a pinch’. If, for example, there is a party of two at a table for four and we are otherwise out of room, we seat another two next to them and there has been no problems with this,” he says with a smile that would be hard to argue with.

PETRA NYMAN - HT
KARI SARKKINEN