@mitu thanks but still could not get to work - I've found instructions on how to reformat a retropie SD card on mac, will just start again with fresh image :)
Now it seems that when I use my phone to connect to the SSH from external source my port forwarding works, but I can't connect from my desktop using internal ip address. Retropie is 192.168.100.11 and desktop is 192.168.100.15...