Helsinki

Kapteeninkatu 11, 00140 Helsinki

Sea Horse opened in 1934 and has spent the following ninety years declining to become a Nordic restaurant concept. The room in Ullanlinna still operates with the confidence of somewhere that expects people to know what a restaurant is for: fried Baltic herring, meatballs, onion steak, potatoes, beer, conversation. Artists, sailors, students, politicians and generations of Helsinki regulars have passed through without persuading the place that beige ceramics and fermented pine oil were necessary for Finnish food to remain relevant. Helsinki does minimalism extremely well. Sea Horse remembers that Finland also contains gravy. Nothing here feels preserved for inspection; it is simply old, busy and still doing its job.

Eteläesplanadi 22, 00130 Helsinki

Alexanderplats sits by Helsinki's South Harbour, where ferries, market stalls, government buildings, trams and the Baltic all compete for the same extremely composed piece of city. Inside is a proper brasserie: seafood, meat, wine, long lunches and a polished room that handles business tables with ease. The harbour does much of the decoration. Get a table where the city remains visible and let civic order, cold water and a glass of wine become the same idea.