Best Boat Dinners In Helsinki Near Me

4worldlovers: Flying Dutch is my drug of choice. Without immersing myself in the active life of this ship, I might just become an old hippie man doll. Flying Dutch keeps me sane, and for that, I am thankful.

Hannu Haarala, the founder and the creative architect of Flying Dutch Restaurant

Flying Dutch, two stories, 31 meter long, originally built in Netherlands in 1897 and eventually settling in Finland in 1973, is one of the most renowned ship for its beauty and charm. The ship derived inspiration, both its name and its decoration, from “Flying Dutchman”—a fictional ship in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean.

Falling in love with the ocean set me on a lifelong passion of pursuing beautiful ships. When I saw Flying Dutch my mind instantly burst with myriad of intriguing ideas. My imagination leapt from attractive colors to antique furniture. I lost my hold on reality ...

When the haggard ship tremendously destroyed by a fire accidentally fell into my sight in 2002, I knew that I finally found out the missing piece of my life I would have been long searching for. I decided to spend all my time to save the ship alive—and save me too. As a father, I meticulously nurtured my brainchild, painting the whole ship inch by inch and carefully choosing furniture. Ropes, fishing nets, chains, globes, models of ship, bottles, lamps and bombs were delicately arranged and coordinated to create an ancient pirate space like the original. I had no ideas since I became a reluctant architecture. In one year, my perspiration together with my tears healed and cured my child’s wound. The ship revived with a new, charming appearance. And the old hippie man revived with the life turning over new leaf. Flying Dutch, the restaurant or my house was a part of my flesh and blood. Everytime, I looked at my spiritual son, waves of feeling reverberated throughout my body. I felt my senses expand and sharpen. But I still carved something more. For few years later, Flying Dutch docked in a beautiful Salo. But I had a plan to move to Helsinki. There is no reasons why I left my child alone.

However, to bring my giant child along to another city was a tough problem. On a Sunday trip driving around the beach in Helsinki, I suddenly caught a sight on a place near the park to dock the ship, which is ideal to enjoy the summer. I made a decision, and turns out that is one of the most right thing I have done in my life. After a lot of attempt and effort to dismantle the ship to be able to go through the bridge, Flying Dutch has rested at the present place with a rebuilt upper body. Sitting on board, sipping a glass of craft beer, nibbling a bite of grilling meat embalmed with coastal wind and gentle North European sunlight, beholding streams’ people of all ages strolling on the bridge, saying “Moi” with coming-across visitors on small boats, you can find small-but-invaluable happiness of your life and must-have equanimity in your mind after brain-damaging working hours. Especially, drinking beer in rainy evening in the colorfully, sophisticatedly decorated downstairs inundated with light from antique lamps while raindrops are thrumming on the roof in harmony with funky symphonies will be definitely an unforgettable experience.

Cuisine appears to be absolutely extraordinary in my mind since I was a child having a chance to see how a street hawker prepare a dried beef salad dish on Hanoi' scorching Sunday – a background made up by the white of scraped kohlrabi and the orange of scraped carrots, the dark red of dried beef is outstanding in the centre of the dish, surrounded by the green of raw vegetables and the light yellow of ground peanuts. Only with such simple ingredients, she created a unique taste, light, plain but extremely sophisticated just as people’s traits. From that moment, food is my passion ...

The longer you go, the less money matters. The food does not taste as delicious. The car is not fast enough. The condo is not spectacular anymore. After all, everything you want to enjoy is Peace-in-soul ... We are dedicated to Flying Dutch's philosophy to bring an emotionally astounding bar and restaurant, in which prioritizing the feelings of the people above any other concerns.

We are not the team because we work together, we are the team because we respect, trust, and care for each other

In Flying Dutch, we inhale sea breeze right in the middle of Helsinki.

In Flying Dutch, we serve inviting guests who free themselves in the darkness…