28.8.15

SicaPelle and really bad good service

Considering my last post about Essi and Pesä, I wanted to express my thoughts about the dinner experience in one of the best restaurants in Porvoo - SicaPelle.

First I have to share the adorable story of this funny name. Sika Pelle means "Pig Pelle" (Pelle is a male name) and is a tribute to a pet pig of a famous Finnish sculptor Ville Vallgren who lived in Porvoo. As you can read the full back round story from restaurants' home page, they say:

"SicaPelle Wining & Dining is our tribute to life’s joys and eccentricities, laughter, pleasure-seeking, exceptional food and wine, art and, most of all, Ville’s dear pet pig, SikaPelle."

The restaurant is located on the ground floor of Boutique Hotel Onni, on the hillside of Old Porvoo, almost behind the medieval church. It is very nice and stylish, bohemian-sophisticated and a must go place to eat for those who love local gourmet. The menu is adventurous, modernism combined with history, including large variety of local ingredients and wine list impressive.

I truly admire and enjoy these kind of restaurants who do their thing with love and spirit. Except, I did not experience this spirit at their service and that's why I had to write this post. We went to the restaurant without reservation and were accommodated in the nice table at the terrace and the waiter said we will get the table inside in half an hour.

Even if the evening got more chilly, I have to say I enjoyed the food and company, so I forgot about going inside, until was so dark that you did not see anything on the plate. So, it was okay to be outside, but I find it unprofessional in this level of places if the staff forgets these kind of things.

After ordering drinks, which was a very pleasant experience, we were approached by another waitress who started to read the menu we are going to have this evening. ONLY because I had shortly visited their website before, I recognised from her text, that there is a set menu for dining. And only because I had looked, I also remembered you can choose among 3-7 courses. She was telling us, we are going to eat 6. To be honest, I found it really annoying, that guest are not introduced of the "options" and it is assumed by default, what I want.

Because my friend does not eat fish or seafood, I first asked if it is possible to replace the dishes with something else. The waitress declared, she has to skip these 3 courses then (later when I went to see their web page, there is also a vegetarian option available). She also was surprised, when I wanted to skip some courses as well in order to have the equal dining cycle with my company.

The waitress was young, very pretty girl, definitely not unexperienced. In fact, she was perfect at everything she did. But there was no shade of smile on her face and no ray of friendliness nor empathy. I actually felt sorry for her. She was giving astonishingly professional bad good service!

Despite that, I strongly recommend to eat at SicaPelle, food and wine are delicious.
Other must go places in Porvoo are for breakfast Cafe Rongo and lunch/dinner Bistro Sinne.

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