The ROOM by Kozeen Shiwan

Should You Book The ROOM by Kozeen Shiwan?

If you're choosing between The ROOM and Palace for a high-end Helsinki dinner, the decision comes down to what kind of cooking you want. Palace gives you polished Finnish modernism in a room with harbour views. The ROOM gives you something harder to categorise: creative cooking shaped by chef Kozeen Shiwan's Kurdish-Finnish perspective, in a space that feels deliberately intimate. Both carry a Michelin star. The ROOM has now held its star for two consecutive years (2024 and 2025), which tells you this is not a one-cycle novelty. If you've already done the Nordic-tasting-menu circuit and want something with a different intellectual register, book here.

The Venue

The ROOM sits at Pohjoisesplanadi 17, on Helsinki's central Esplanade, putting it within easy reach of the city's hotel corridor and the South Harbour. The address is prominent but the format is intimate: this is a small-room restaurant, and that spatial compression is the point. You are not dining in a grand hall. The proportions encourage attention — to the food, to the service, to the table across from yours. If you found the scale of your first visit slightly surprising for a restaurant at this price tier, that's by design. The room is not trying to impress you with volume. It earns its position through precision and close-quarters hospitality.

For a returning guest, the spatial dynamic rewards revisiting. You understand the rhythm better the second time: the room's intimacy means service interactions land differently once you know the pace. If you're bringing someone new to The ROOM, set their expectations correctly — this is not a sprawling special-occasion ballroom. It is a focused, deliberate dining room where the cooking is the architecture.

The Cooking

Kozeen Shiwan's cuisine is classified as Creative, and that label is doing real work here. The cooking is not anchored to a single national tradition. Shiwan draws on Kurdish culinary heritage alongside Nordic ingredients and technique, producing a tasting-menu format that reads differently from the Grön or Olo approach. Where those restaurants are explicitly rooted in Scandinavian sourcing philosophy, The ROOM operates from a more personal, cross-cultural reference point. Two consecutive Michelin stars confirm the execution is consistent, not just original.

For guests returning after a first visit: the menu will have shifted. Creative-format restaurants at this level change their programmes regularly, and the Michelin recognition suggests the kitchen has the range to keep that evolution coherent. Don't go back expecting the same dishes. Go back because the underlying logic of the cooking , its willingness to go somewhere specific and unexpected , holds across iterations. If you want a reference point further afield, the approach has some kinship with what Quique Dacosta does in Dénia or Arpège in Paris: chefs who have built a personal idiom rather than executing a regional template.

Brunch and Weekend Format

The ROOM's weekend and morning service deserves specific attention for returning guests considering a different time slot. At this tier of creative tasting-menu restaurant, lunch and weekend formats can represent the sharpest value proposition: the same kitchen, the same Michelin-starred execution, often at a shorter menu length and a materially lower price point than the full evening experience. The €€€€ price tier applies across the board, but if a lunch or weekend format is available, it is worth investigating directly with the restaurant before defaulting to a dinner booking. For a first return visit, a weekend lunch is often the right call , less pressure, the same cooking, and a format that lets the food take precedence over occasion performance.

Helsinki's fine-dining calendar also means that weekend slots at The ROOM will fill faster than weekday evenings for some service windows, so treat any lunch availability as a booking to act on quickly rather than a fallback option.

Ratings and Trust Signals

• Michelin Stars: 1 Star (2024), 1 Star (2025) , two consecutive years of recognition
• Google Rating: 4.2 from 76 reviews , a smaller review pool than comparable Helsinki restaurants, consistent with a tight-capacity format
• Price Tier: €€€€ , in line with Finnjävel Salonki and Palace at the leading of the Helsinki market

Booking

Booking difficulty at The ROOM is rated Hard. A small-room Michelin-starred restaurant in a city with a competitive fine-dining audience does not stay available long. Book as far in advance as the reservation system allows. If you're targeting a specific date , anniversary, birthday, a visitor in town , plan at least four to six weeks out. Walk-ins are not a realistic strategy. If you're flexible on timing, check for cancellations; small-capacity restaurants do see last-minute openings, but these are irregular and not something to rely on for a fixed occasion.

Pearl Picks , More Helsinki Fine Dining

If The ROOM is unavailable or you're building a longer Helsinki itinerary, these are the restaurants worth considering alongside it:

• Palace , Finnish modern cuisine with harbour views, comparable price tier
• Grön , New Nordic creative, strong on vegetable-forward cooking
• Olo , Scandinavian tasting menu, consistent Michelin recognition
• Finnjävel Salonki , contemporary Finnish, a different angle on local cuisine

For Finnish fine dining outside Helsinki, Kaskis in Turku and VÅR in Porvoo are the two restaurants most worth a detour. Both operate at a serious level relative to their city size. See our full Helsinki restaurants guide, Helsinki hotels guide, Helsinki bars guide, Helsinki wineries guide, and Helsinki experiences guide for broader planning. If you're travelling beyond the capital, Gastropub Tuulensuu in Tampere, Pöllöwaari in Jyväskylä, Lucy in the sky in Espoo, and Musta lammas in Kuopio round out the national picture.