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![\"Vanha](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1788184868_99_image.webp\")
\nAntti HelinMeilahden kartanon kahvila <\/p>\n
Chef and restaurateur Sirly Yll\u00e4sj\u00e4rvi, who has made a name for herself with restaurant Elsa in Yll\u00e4s, is moving to Helsinki for the month of October to open a pop-up at the historic Meilahti Manor. Marje borrows its concept from Elsa: the restaurant has just one large table, shared by all its guests.<\/p>\n
Yll\u00e4sj\u00e4rvi will personally oversee every dinner. The experience costs \u20ac150 per person.<\/p>\n
From strangers to friends around one table
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\nAntti HelinMeilahden kartanon kahvila
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We had the chance to try a similar concept at Restaurant Nolla, where we were seated next to complete strangers at a candlelit dinner \u2013 and it worked. There are few better ways to spend an evening than getting to know new people over good food and wine.<\/p>\n
Yll\u00e4sj\u00e4rvi\u2019s idea is likewise to bring strangers together around a communal table to enjoy a surprise menu and an unhurried evening in one another\u2019s company. By the end of the night, the guests should no longer feel like strangers.<\/p>\n
The restaurant is named after Yll\u00e4sj\u00e4rvi\u2019s Estonian grandmother. Marje raised six children in modest circumstances and taught her granddaughter the true meaning of hospitality: serving and sharing food is not about the size of your budget, but about care and love.<\/p>\n
Meilahti Manor makes an atmospheric setting for the restaurant: it is pleasingly timeworn and full of character. Its grounds were already drawing Helsinki residents in the nineteenth century, when the estate was home to a restaurant, a dance pavilion and a pier for steamships.<\/p>\n