Helsinki Hudson

Sometimes awesome. sometimes hit and miss but always fun.
The side dishes keep us coming back.

Amazing night of great food great wine great music and great service. We are vegan and chef cooked great food for us. Many other meat options too

This place was decent, if not a little stuffy. I ordered a chicken special, which came with sweet potato /​grits and stewed beans with lamb, all of which tasted fantastic. My boyfriend the lamb, but we both found it lacking — we don’t eat lamb often, but the flavors were off and the sides had an awful aftertaste. In combination, sub par for the cost.
The service was a little off-​putting; some sort of upper east coast old school vibe, perhaps intending to indicate that we didn’t fit in.
The cocktail menu was uninspiring relative to my Brooklyn-​based haunts, so we made our way elsewhere for a drink afterwards.
If we were to be in town again, we’d check out DA | BA instead — this had been my initial preference, but it turned out to be closed for the holiday. My sense is that the menu and vibe would be more to our tastes.

Booked two tickets there for a New Year’s Eve concert. The tickets were 110 (for two, including about 15 bucks in fees in total). Which would be fine for a holiday show – even though it didn’t include any food or drinks; interesting/​great band for sure, but hardly a big name. It seemed to me that this is really a restaurant that hosts some really good performers, not actually a «club» or concert venue as the ticketing system suggested.
The dining rooms and the stage were not partitioned at all. Felt like we could have just had dinner at the bar, or in the back room without the 110.00 ticket cost. On top of that, it was standing room only, with hardly anywhere to stand. I would suggest a City Winery model for nights when there is a high ticket cost. Perhaps everyone did pay, but it didn’t really seem that way to us.
Didn’t get a chance to try the New Orleans-​focused food, but people seemed to be enjoying it. There were some dishes that looked interesting, but my husband is vegan and I am mostly vegetarian, and so the menu was limiting for us, as it seemed to be very heavy on meat items. I really wanted to like it, because we had our wedding in New Orleans.
Staff was really excellent and we loved the décor/​location/​band/​sound/​A/​V, so I really hesitate to give this place a low number or stars, but I really think that concerts could be run better and the menu could be a bit more diverse.

Not a bad place. Quite gorgeous on the inside with exposed brick and beams, high ceilings, nice lights. Decent sized bar, and a large seating area that is spaced out well, so that you’re not on top of other people. I’ve heard that the place is best known for the live shows they have in the club, so I will likely come back and do that at some point. I tried their Southern Caprese Salad, Shareable Ribs, soup with pomegranate seeds and popcorn, and the seared scallop entrée. All of the food was good, but none of it was great. It was also on the expensive side. The ribs were probably my favorite, and the caprese salad, while a cool novelty idea, is not as good as a traditional caprese. The scallops were good, but I’ve had better. Nothing on the dessert menu looked interesting enough to try, so I skipped dessert.

Helsinki is such a lovely and beautiful place to have a drink, dinner, or a appetizer with friends. The staff is incredibly sweet, smart, and helpful. Whilst renovating my house we came here for drinks and dinner on a Monday night in December. We sat at the bar and shared the ribs, kale salad, and two of my friends ordered burgers.
We kept going back and forth on which style ribs we prefered. Needless to say, both styles were excellent. The kale salad portion was large and tangy, just the way I love dressings. The cornbread was great as was the slaw.
While sipping an amazing bourbon we enjoyed the post dinner afterglow and the ambiance of the place. There is a large selection of top quality spirits, craft beers, and a reasonable wine list.

As a music venue, 5 plus stars! Helsinki is world class! Puts Columbia County and Hudson on the map. Wonderful intimate setting.
Alas, the restaurant food is too, too heavy. I like occasional Southern food, but Helsinki’s is still too heavy. A more eclectic menu would be far better. Even better, bring back the original Great Barrington menu! But, again, I love, love, love the music venue.

Beautiful ambiance and great service. Wanted to love the food more. The fried tomatoes and burrata (app) was okay and well seasoned. My scallops (a house staple) were unfortunately overcooked and the sweet potato gnocchi were hard. We also tried the brisket which was a great dish. Overall, felt that it was overpriced for the quality of the food but nice dining experience.

I’ve been to Helsinki twice. The first time, there was live music. A guy who played in a band called The Mountain Goats. Great, great show but the food was only OK. It took us a second to admit that, yeah, the food wasn’t the best but we said that we would give it another shot the next time around.
The second time was quite different. No live music but the food was superb. I ordered the red fish — an arctic char maybe? Very good choice. The shrimp and grits, holyyyy yay-​zoos, practically made us lick the plate clean.
Not many people in there since it was during the week (a good amount of establishments in Hudson are closed Monday-​Wednesday, FYI). A relaxing place, friendly waiter, memorable experience.
We’ll be back for sure.

Good ambiance, average but pricy food.
In general worth a trying it once.
I have not been there for any of their performances. That may make it more worth to try.

We didn’t eat in the restaurant, but rather in the performance space. The food was way better than it had any right to be — flavorful, right temperature, plated well, etc. Worth every penny. This is a really cool space. Lots of singer/​songwriter types play the room. Would love to see them book more rock acts doing unplugged sets. 5 stars easy.

Came here briefly visiting from NYC for a wedding. They hosted the rehearsal dinner. The food was very good and I really like the inside look of the bar. There’s a fun bar downstairs that serves great bourbon along with a great selection of drinks. Up the spiral staircase is where the dinner was held. It was a very spacious venue seating about 75 – 90 people I would say. Definitely a great place to come and grab a drink with friends and family.

I bought tickets to see a band at Helsinki. I planned to eat somewhere else in Hudson and go to the show after. A week before the show someone from the club called and asked if I would like to upgrade my tickets to priority seating. I said yes then got a call back call back a day later, they said they had made a mistake, there was no priority seating available but they had a table in the restaurant from which I could see the show. This was the first red flag.
We were seated at a table in the very back of the restaurant, it was impossible to see the stage. It was clear they had called us in order to fill their restaurant because there were many empty tables around us. Now for the food…
Skip the sangria, it tastes like cheap peach champagne. The salads we got for appetizers were very good. The sweet potato gnocchi with the scallops was gummy and flavorless. The shrimp and grits and brisket were fine but not worth the money.
Overall, we enjoyed the show and would go back to Helsinki to see a band but never to eat.

Fantastic food and great space. Seen many great bands and solo artists come through with their dinner-​theater type setup, but on the restaurant side, I’ve never gone wrong. Not likely to need reservations even when it’s packed as it’s a large space, and doubles as a date spot but one you can take the family to on another night. The modern Southern cuisine is done right, with the time spent smoking and slow cooking very evident.

I want to get this out of the way before I start telling you about All The Reasons I Love Helsinki, because I really do love Helsinki:
The section of the menu labeled «Lagniappe» offends me. I love lagniappe. It’s one of my favorite things (even listed among my «loves» on this Unilocal profile of mine). But the very definition of the word means something offered as an extra, on the house. While those shrimp may be delicious, at $ 14 they shouldn’t be labeled as lagniappe.
All The Reasons I Love Helsinki:
The service is excellent.
The restaurant is beautiful, and the outdoor tented area even better.
The fried green tomato caprese is brilliant and delicious.
The bread and butter is wonderful.
Also, there is cream cheese in the butter. Cheating in the best way.
They do live music? And shows? Can’t wait to come back.
The scallops are absolutely gorgeous.
The salmon is good, but the couscous with lobster underneath? Amazing.
And finally, the absolutely massive rib platter to share. Oftentimes, people warn me that there will be too many ribs on a plate for me to eat, and this is the first time I’ve found that to be true. And I love that.

Love this place. Have been here half a dozen times and plan to return.
Beautiful space with zillions of spaces to sit inside and out. Lovely staff. Excellent menu with lots of choices covering the price spectrum. We usually order from the bar menu, which is tasty and just the right amount of food for a good price (fans of the Red and Black sashimi, pork and a pint, catfish tacos). The enormous serving of fried chicken off the main menu plus the arugula mint salad is excellent to share between two. Not a fan of the sangria but the Sublime cocktail is nice. Good array of fresh salads.

Well we thought we would try takeout and had a pretty large order only to find one of the dinners was missing after a 20 min ride home and we didn’t want to go back and forth again. The salad wasn’t spinach they had to use arugula which was fine but there was nothing in it but that. The scallop dinner was missing in the bag.
I think this might be better to go for a show, then dinner.

Great atmosphere and nice staff. I was a little suspicious of food in a restaurant that was mainly a club, but read the great reviews here. Maybe the food is good when it’s fresh, but what we got was clearly microwaved — and over microwaved at that. Had to wait quite awhile before we could eat the fried cauliflower app, and the shrimp and grits were just sad — anemic shrimp, and andouille sausage that was one color on one side, another color on the other, a sure sign that it was not fresh. I wanted to love or at least like this place, but the food was a huge disappointment. We would have been better off with diner food.

This place has it all — live music in the club on most nights, great southern home cooked food, beautifully renovated space, and you might even see alternative rock royalty hanging around the bar if you are lucky. I did last night.
This was my 5^th or 6^th time at Helsinki Hudson, and I had the chance to see a New Orleans Funk band by the name of Glen David Andrews in the club space. Music was oustanding, he had ¾ of the place dancing until the end. Because of the New Orleans themed music, the chef added a seperate Louisiana themed menu tonight. Now I love me some Aunt Theos Fried Chicken but I can have that any other night, it is a staple. I decide to try the Crab Rillettes as an appetizer followed by a Red Fish stew like dish with exceptional flavor. The new orleans style stew was hearty and a little bit spicy, but that is exactly what I was looking for. The best part was the mopping bread on the side of the dish, every bit of that stew was finished. Pair this carefully prepared food with well mixed cocktail or new orleans Dixie lager and you are set. Who Dat.

Three cheers and four stars for the two faces of Helsinki Hudson!
The restaurant has perfect lighting. One of those things you don’t notice about a place until someone gets it right, and Helsinki Hudson gets it right. The menu is American fare with Southern flair, and portions to big to approach yourself. The starters — including the oh-​so-​enticing Southerner’s Caprese (fried green tomatoes, house-​made mozz, and their own basil) — earn the title For The Table, as they’re meant to serve 4 – 6 people. The carrot dangled, we were saddened to hear there were no half-​orders.
Not that we’d have room. Her strip steak tipped the scales at 20oz, and my sweet tea brined pork chop was a Baby Huey unto itself. Didn’t catch any of those tannic sugars on the chop, but the temp stopped at medium and the meat’s well seasoned. Nice char from the grill, kiddos.
Cocktails went from Besitos to $ 6 Doc’s Draft Cider (in bottles?!) as we moved from the restaurant to the Club for a live show. Solid environment with a sizeable stage and no bad seats in the house — just make sure to swing over a bit early, as table space is limited to the first forty or so. After that, it’s standing room. Performers run the gamut; you’ll likely be up and cutting shapes anyway.
Rather stay planted? The full menu is served club-​side! Grab an early reso, eat a chop and stake your claim as the show starts.