Vivo’s

Great meze plate with an amazing variety of salads, tabbouli, vegetables, falafel, hummus and pita all for $ 12. Clean, chic interior and truly friendly service.

Grabbed a meat filled shwarma for the go. Not bad but nothing special — tasted a bit dry. Good value though. I might try the falafel shwarma next time. Mayby that is better. Hope so.

I ordered one of the plats du jour after the friendly counterperson patiently explained each of the four to me. I ordered the one that included a juicy lamb/​beef patty, crisp lettuce leaves in tzatziki, white rice, and a chickpea salad. It was an enormous portion, and very tasty. And at 9Eu it was an exceptionally good value. I liked the way baskets of deep fried. and seasoned Pita wedges were placed on the counter for diners to help themselves to.

Maybe they redecorated or maybe my memory is cloudy, because the interior doesn’t look the same as what I remember. I remember a chalkboard on the back wall with the menu. If this is the same place I had an excellent meal here. Friendly staff, generous well-​seasoned portions, and just a pleasure for fast affordable food. If I’m thinking of somewhere else with the same name, just disregard my praise :)

I was initially dragged in by a friend who has a crush on the guy who makes the shawarma. Totally dig the all-​white, modern interior. If you have a major stroller/​baby combo, you might want to consider only taking the baby part in since its pretty narrow spaces to navigate once you’re inside.
My friend could live on their shawarma and they look really delicious and are very reasonably priced. Being a salad person, it’s nice that they have a whole platter situation going on where one can pick and choose from such delicacies as chickpea salad, tabbouleh, marinated veggies, hummus… you see where this is going. Then you can plop a few falafels on there too and you’re good to go.
Except I’m not good to go. My wallet’s not good to go. The cost for the salad/​platter station situation thing seems to be tipping the scales toward overpriced. The food is good. But not like 20e a plate good. I could go to an actual restaurant with real flatware and plates that aren’t paper for 20e.
My strong suggestion: learn to like shawarma or eat less than I do.

Nice place without frills to have shawarma, falafel and other oriental specialities like tabbouleh or kubbe. My falafel sandwich was such a gigantic one that I could not finish it. A really generous amount of well seasoned and crispy falafel comes with salad, tomatoes, aubergine and the usual sesame sauce wrapped in Arabic flat bread. Do not unwrap your sandwich like I did for my pic because it will gradually fall apart … if you manage to eat it all you will probably not get hungry again for the rest of the day ;o).
Considering the exorbitant price of 8 € and the lack of atmosphere no matter how crazily the music jumped from Indian traditional to Latin American rhythm, I would not eat here on a regular basis. However, 3 belly dancing Unilocal stars for fabulously tasting falafel and the welcoming, friendly staff: o)!!

Clean, modern and most importantly tasty. Simply, best kebab I’ve had in Finland. All ingredients taste fresh and lively. Definite Mediterranean influence in flavours as apposed to Turkish kebab. I’ll definitely come again, and I don’t say that often. This time I had the chicken shawarma and it was great. I wonder what to order next?

For years it was basically impossible to find good kebab here in Helsinki. Now suddenly several new places pop up that serve excellent versions of it. After I already reviewed Döner Harju earlier I came across another fantastic place for Döner and Shawarma.
What makes Vivo’s on Iso Robertinkatu special is that instead of the horrible, horrible meat stripes that are normally used for kebab in Finland they have the real stuff. The meat they have on the grill stick there consists of several layers of real meat slices. This gives their döner and shawarma a whole different quality.
So if you have longed for the real döner experience and were not lucky to find it in Helsinki then don’t waste any time, drop by at Vivo’s and enjoy! Vivo’s of course also has delicious vegetarian dishes, salads and falafel.

Savory well portioned eats… very reasonably priced. Freshly baked treats to accompany your meal. Friendly staff. Fast service.