Watch out for Ravintola Lehtovaara

Don't you just get mad after bad service at restaurants? I don't mind if the service is bad at lunch cafeteria. But in a gourmet restaurant one part of the high price eating is service. Watch out for Ravintola Lehtovaara in Helsinki. I had my worst restaurant experience at Lehtovaara and decided to write to management. After 6 months they haven't responded to my letter. Although it has had good reputation, lately I have heard of many disappointed customers. Let's see if they react after reading their reviews at Internet. Please share your experiences.

Comments

[noname]

simply untrue! this is possibly the nicest restaurant in town. if you want text-book etiquette, then dig deeper and go to savoy or palace...

[noname]

also, your letter to the restaurant apperared juvenile. i thus don't blame the restaurant for not responding to it. try focusing your energy on something that has a purpose...

[Nostradamus]

I have had similiar experiences at the Lehtovaara. It appears that they like their regular clients and serve them well. I brought my French business contacts for a dinner and decided never to go again. Food wasn't wort it but the service was just awfull.

[dda]

Could it be that noname is the restaurant's owner or manager? :-) Sounds a little bit defensive...

[Kalle]

I agree. Service is nowadays usually very bad.

Lehtovaara has been good restaurant. I think they should remember that customers again.

[Tommi]

Here in the Netherlands one individual started several years ago a service, where anyone can post their comments on any restaurent presented, see www.iens.nl. This service is nowadays among the most used restaurant portals in the whole country. This site works and allows really to see what people really think about certain place.

I just do not get, that how on earth Lehtovaara can file a 80 000 euro complaint on you on posting comments online. Freedom of expression should prevail and one cannot control online... or can we? Lehtovaara's approach seems to come straight from the past.

[Kristian]

Yes, I do get mad when I get bad service at restaurants. I've never been to Lehtovaara but probably never will either, as foodie friends have been warning me lately that the service has dropped since the restaurant's heyday and is bordering on the atrocious. Your story confirms this and, if anything, their lawsuit demonstrates how insecure they are about their reputation. Lehtovaara, concentrate on getting your service back to where it should be instead of wasting money on litigation. Instead of suing rightfully outraged customers, you should listen to their complaints and respond to them - this guy's giving you valuable info that some restaurants would be paying expensive consultants to generate for them. It ain't the '50s anymore.

[executive]

I'm glad Lehtovaara filed that 80k EUR complaint because otherwise I might not have heard about this case at all. Now I know to avoid that place like plague.

They will never win that case.

[Sami]

This is so sad. Lehtovaara would have had a perfect opportunity to turn the whole thing upside-down, I'm pretty sure Herkko would have wrote about it, had he received apologies from Lehtovaara as well. Apologize for the bad service, some basic compensation at least but this, pathetic. People do spread the word in good and bad — and they should. When I get a bad service or bad food, I tell my friends about and vice verse - when I get good food, I definitely recommend the place for everyone I know. I hope I won't get sued for this, but I once got some not-so-good-pasta in Restaurant Spirito, I told the waitress about it and she was kind enough to offer some dessert for the compensation. I didn't want any dessert but I was more than happy to accept the apologies and I've no hard feelings about it, I have eaten a jolly good lamb pasta there as well!

Excellent PR, Lehtovaara!

[Lauri]

Lehtovaara's reputation is really going to rise up to a new level now. I've never heard about the place before, but now it's all over DigiToday! I guess they (in Lehtovaara) just didn't understand what the reputation will be like.

If someone is going to make a profit about that, it will be Lehtovaara's lawyers. Restaurant itself will lose many things: Lawsuit, their reputation and hopefully customers and profits too.

[Mikko]

Thats it! There is a plenty of restaurants to pick from in Helsinki. Lehtovaara lost their chances for a while. Very stupid activity regardíng lawsuit - they should do is...apology & fair game.

[jcatani]

Obviously Lehtovaara's customers are not experts in blogging..

[Ville]

Plain stupid action to ask 80 000 €, in my opinion. Is it wrong to say your opinion? Usually restaurants are interested in feedback, but apparently not Lehtovaara. Sad.

[Jacques]

Oh my god. I must say this is totally insane. I have never visited this restaurant in Helsinki and now for shure i never will. Not only because of the bad service, but filing a complaint to a customer who got bad service, and used his freedom of speach to spread the word out. I recomend everyone visiting Helsinki avoiding this horrible restaurant.

[Marcus]

Completely nuts! I've been at Lehtovaara for business dinners a couple of times and some of my colleagues use to go there with their customers quite frequently. I would never ever have found this blog on the net nor searched for Lehtovaara at google or anywhere else at the internet. But as they decided to run this marketing-campaign and tell the public how they handle complaints and that customers younger than 55 is not preferred (as I read the case, hope I don't have to pay for this :), I will most definetly choose some other restaurant in the future. And I will share this story with my colleagues first thing tomorrow, in case they missed today's Digitoday. Very very sad, as they had a good reputation and the food used to be good in my opinion.

[Joonas]

I agree with your comments on Lehtovaara. It's not what is purportedly used to be. Sounds realistic for a Helsinki restaurant servicing young clients in general. I've lived (Muncca, Meikku, Tölikkä) and worked close to the restaurant for tens of years and have eaten there maybe 15 times. What you describe in your letter sounds very realistic. You were of course eating a la carte during a busy time of year but shitty service is shitty service. It isn't the first time when if you don't look 55 plus have a paunch, you get shitty service. This kind of criticism (blog on internet) will send shivers down the spines of "fancy schpanzy" restaurants which is good. I suggest you feed this news also to international newsagencies. Nelonen (=Hesari=Erkko) evidently loved it.

[Asiakas]

Tuo on saattaa hyvinkin olla totta jonka luin. Suomalainen käsitys asiakaspalvelusta on edelleenkin osittain sieltä "neuvostoliiton suomesta" kotoisin. Itselläni on samankaltaisia kokemuksia.

[Asiakas]

Lisään vielä Posted by: Asiakas | June 28, 2005 02:04 AM lähettämääni kommenttiin että samakaltaiset kokemukseni ei siis ole tuosta mikälie lehtovaara ravitsemusliikkestä vaan muualta stadista. Tämä lisäys siksi ettei minunkin kirjoituksillani yritetä rahastaa kuten nyt näyttäisi olevan tapahtumassa Hietasen kohdalla. Herra Hietanen, koko Suomi on puolellanne. Pysykää lujana!

[Kuisma]

I have never visited this restaurant myself, but I have horrible experiences about some other restaurants in the Southern part of the Republic of Finland. Most horrible places I've ever been to are in the cities of Helsinki and Savonlinna. I do not specify which restaurants in these cities are the ones where I've had bad experiences, in order to avoid legal action. But my experience is similar to that extent that restaurants never have replied properly when I've sent letters to them to complain about the service. I think it is better to begin the complaining procedure by using the telephone first, and in all cases if you have written a letter and don't receive a reply in a timely manner, I would pick up the telephone and give them a call.

I also think that we should get one restaurant with values "love all, serve all, save the planet" to this city. Even if cities as big/small as ours (Boston for example) have Hard Rock Cafés, Helsinki still doesn't. If we did, I'm sure that many customers would go there instead of going to the ones who are less friendly to the customers than this one. I know if Helsinki had a Hard Rock Café, I would like to go there!

[Tero]

I guess this case is no longer about Lehtovaara´s service quality or lack of knowledge of the blogosphere. The case is about to rise to a level, where the foundation of freedom of speech is either totally respected or ignored.

The Finnish massmedia is wakening, hopefully they will reagard the case as an excellent opportunity to evaluate the impact of blogs, as part of the journalistic bundle.

[Adult]

Concerning asking papers. I have noticed that when people grow up and get middle aged all youngsters between let's say 16-27 (especially women) look almost the same. So it's no wonder why papers were asked. You'll notice that after a while.

[ccc]

Pomon kanssa tuli juuri puhetta kyseisestä ravintolasta.Olivat nelisen vuotta sitten olleet syömässä kyseisessä ravintolassa.He olivat ihmetelleet pihvin makua ja koostumusta,kutsuneet tarjoilijan paikalle ja oli käynyt ilmi että lihaa oli ennen valmistusta sulatettu mikrossa.
Sattuuhan sitä paremmissakin paikoissa...

[Paying Customer]

:-D You can't buy publicity like this.
Way to go, Lehtovaara.

[Dr. Zagat]

The story is a hoax – nobody goes to a place such as Lehtovaara and expects to be treated politely. If not, then I believe the writer learned it the hard way. Good luck!

[Jaarli]

Here is a second opinion about that restaurant:

http://www.aamulehti.fi/teema/ruoka/2539264.shtml

Seems like the owners try to rely on former good reputation and long tradition and want to protect it at all costs.