Tiny Food

This place feels a bit like Narnia. You don’t step through a wardrobe, admittedly, but the secret menu at this tiny Chinese restaurant tucked into Itäkeskus bus station opens a portal to another world entirely.

My first visit to Tiny Food was disappointing. The small dining room, all red velvet and red lanterns, seemed to suffer from the same problem as countless Chinese restaurants in Finland. The menu was huge, the prices were low and the food arrived suspiciously fast. Worse still, much of it tasted broadly the same.

Then I heard rumours of a secret menu.

Apparently, hidden away somewhere in the restaurant was a selection of authentic Chinese dishes that regular customers quietly ordered while everyone else tucked into sweet-and-sour mediocrity.

I returned.

And sure enough, tucked away at the end of the menu was a QR code leading to a Chinese-language menu. Reading it required two phones: one displaying the menu, the other translating it through Google Translate. It felt less like ordering dinner and more like deciphering an ancient manuscript.

The secret menu changed everything.

Prices immediately jumped, preparation times stretched dramatically and the flavours were, quite literally, from another country.

'Because we make everything from scratch,' explained the wonderfully warm Nettie, who runs front of house while her husband Ma works in the kitchen. Together, the pair run the entire restaurant.

The food justified every minute of the wait. Chairman Mao's Red Pork was good enough to forgive a surprising number of historical misdemeanours, while aubergine with salted fish bordered on genius. The flavours were rich, confident and, frankly, better than many Chinese restaurants I've visited in China itself.

A small disclaimer is required here. Since that visit, I've returned several times and the consistency can vary slightly. Usually the food is outstanding. Occasionally it's merely delicious. Either way, I've yet to leave unhappy.

The happiness tends to continue into the following day, too.

Asian-style dining encourages ordering several dishes for the table and, as usual, I erred on the side of excess. The mains cost around €20 but are enormous, and at that size they're actually remarkably good value. Every visit has produced enough leftovers for at least one additional meal, sometimes two. The flavours only deepen overnight.

Tiny Food has quietly become one of those restaurants I find myself returning to again and again.

I've even grown strangely fond of its bleak location beside Itäkeskus bus station. It somehow adds to the authenticity. Step through the door and you're no longer in East Helsinki. You're somewhere in China. The tiny dining room glows with red velvet and lantern light while Chinese families and homesick students tuck into dishes from the secret menu.

It's also worth chatting to Nettie, who speaks excellent Finnish and happily shares stories about the food. One conversation drifted onto Hunan-style bacon, which they import directly from China.

'My mother used to make it at home after moving to Finland,' she told us. 'But it has to dry beside a radiator all winter and the smell takes over the entire flat.'

When the food is this good, even a rainy bus station starts to look romantic. Suddenly you're not staring at concrete and commuter traffic anymore. You're somewhere closer to the misty peaks of Huangshan or a scene from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Vibe: Small, intimate and wonderfully unpretentious. It's impossible not to overhear delighted exclamations from neighbouring tables. A surprising number of Helsinki's Chinese community seem to eat here too, which feels like a promising sign.

Drink: Water, beer and soft drinks are your friends here. The food does the heavy lifting.

Food: Dishes arrive when they're ready rather than all at once. Order several plates to share. Chinese food is at its best when you're constantly moving between different flavours and textures.

Time Out tip: Discovering the secret menu in person is half the fun, but the dishes can take a while to prepare. Many regulars seem to order in advance. Check the QR code in the photos accompanying this review and start planning early.