Demo

A fixed meal held in sequence

Tommi Tuominen sets the fixed six-course meal at Demo in Helsinki as owner and chef, with snacks at the edge of the sequence and room for a few additional dishes when the kitchen wants to widen the pass. Tommi Tuominen has held Demo as his base since 2003, after training at Espa, and the length of that station matters here. The restaurant began in Punavuori and later moved to Itämerenkatu 25, on the 14th floor, but the meal still reads as a controlled progression rather than a display case. Demo holds 1 Michelin star, retained since 2007. Tuominen’s part in Finnish dining also extends beyond this room: since 2023, he has served as president and judge of the Finland Bocuse d’Or team, work that keeps assessment, discipline, and standards close to the hand. Heikki Kivimäki is the current head chef and owner, and his calm, ingredient-led execution keeps that progression consistent from one service to the next.

The surprise menu and the cellar

The method at Demo is a tasting menu without à la carte drift. Courses change with the season and with what the kitchen can use well that day; the room receives the work as a surprise structure, not as a list of choices. The known signatures are precise enough to place the kitchen: Demo sourdough served in a pot with whipped lovage butter, sour milk brioche glazed in honey butter, dark malt bread with a canelé-like edge, mussel cream soup, Arctic char, braised burbot, Finnish mangalitza pork with mushroom polenta, roasted kale and dark white wine sauce, aged duck with 50-year balsamic, and gorgonzola ice cream. The cooking leans on Scandinavian produce and French technique, especially in saucing, temperature control, and the pacing of richer elements against acidity. Bread is not a courtesy here. It is part of the program. The cellar gives the kitchen another register, with more than 400 old-continent selections and pairings built around the daily menu. By-glass Champagne has appeared at the beginning of the meal, and named bottles in the program include Schloss Gobelsburg Riesling Kamptal 2018 alongside wines from Brandelina.

Glass walls above the pass

The room now sits high above Kampinmalmi, with large glass walls opening toward the city and port. It is spacious and open rather than hushed by heaviness; white linen, candlelight, and a visible kitchen give the service its frame. The pass can be read from the dining room, which suits a restaurant built on sequence, adjustment, and control. Guests do not need the theatre of a closed door when the work is happening in sight. On the table, the contrast is deliberate: a modern office tower around the room, a pot of Demo sourdough at the center of it.