47 Best Restaurants in Finland

The restaurant of one of Rovaniemi’s best hotels offers a great dinner menu in a calm and stylish setting. Main courses include reindeer and moose steaks, reindeer burgers, sautéed reindeer, smoked salmon, whitefish, and a mushroom-based vegetarian option, followed by berry-based desserts. A set "Arctic Menu" combines the various elements, as does a five-course "Chef's Menu."

Situated on the north side of the Esplanade amid stylish design boutiques, this popular café is a great place to sample a giant version of the korvapuusti, roughly translated as a "slap around the ear"—a sweet bun fresh from the oven and made all the more delicious by virtue of the cinnamon sprinkled between its folded layers. Mix-and-match salads, filled bread rolls, and other enormous confectioneries are on offer as well, eased down with some of Helsinki's best coffee or something stronger if required. It's a good option for evening snacks as well as lunch. 

This is the kind of delightful, quirky, offbeat eatery that bucks any lingering ideas of Finnish restraint and conservatism. Cinnamon buns and blueberry pies are specialties, but it comes into its own in the summer months when the outdoor terrace is bustling and there's a barbecue for grilling the café's own sausages. The café itself is housed in a tiny former fishing-net storage shed, originally the property of the Paulig family, synonymous with a coffee brand in Finland. It's a handy rest-up point for visitors to the nearby Sibelius Monument. The café is also a rental outlet for paddleboards, kayaks, canoes, and rowboats. Seating is outdoors only, but it's still popular on chilly winter days when customers warm up by the fire.

Indigo is in a brick building in the heart of Mariehamn, with a main restaurant on the first floor, a bistro, and a bar with a lively outdoor patio and weekday lunch menu. Finnish beef and arctic char feature on the à la carte menu, with "tapas of the sea" and Åland beef tartare as starters. The bistro's gastropub menu includes excellent burgers, while the cheese platter includes Åland cheeses. The bistro is especially popular with families.

Located on the shoreline of the newly developed Hernesaari residential district, Löyly is a brilliantly conceived sauna restaurant, housed in an angular and elegant wooden structure, a minor architectural wonder in itself. Customers have three separate options or can indulge in all three in a single visit: bathing in the spacious sauna with an invigorating sea dip; lunch or dinner in the restaurant; and a relaxing drink on the shoreside terrace. There's also a popular Saturday brunch menu in the winter. The à la carte dinner menu includes Finnish dishes such as pike perch and reindeer, while the lunch selection includes moose meatballs and salmon soup. Löyly (it's the name in Finnish for the steam released when water is tossed on the sauna stove) is especially popular with the younger, trendier set, as well as convenient for disembarking cruise-ship passengers, and has been included in Time's 'World's Greatest Places" list.  

The name means "mom," and the regulars at this small-yet-airy riverside bistro feel right at home. The bright, light-green-and-white dining room is outfitted with chairs from the 1960s and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the river. The menu changes monthly and always includes locally sourced seasonal ingredients in its fresh fish dishes, including charcoaled salmon, grilled whitefish and perch, duck, mushrooms, and local cheeses. There's a four-course set menu in addition to lunch and the à la carte dinner menu.

Housed in a delightful harborside wooden pavilion, this lively summer steak, pizza, and salad restaurant also hosts live music performances and is popular with visiting boaters.

Probably the coziest and best place in town to sample authentic, top-quality Lapp dishes, Nili offers a prix-fixe "Rovaniemi Menu" that includes bear-meat consommé, caramelized pork, arctic pike perch, and a final course of homemade "squeaky" cheese, which is a hard cheese that is baked in the oven to soften it and usually served with cloudberry jam. The à la carte menu includes sautéed reindeer—poronkäristys—with mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce, a local classic. You can even try a bear burger if you're so inclined.

Award-winning chef Eero Vottonen has steered Palace to Michelin-star status with a single, sumptuous seven-course menu that utilizes fresh Nordic ingredients, from duck and salted trout roe to Norwegian scallops and lobster. Offering magnificent view of the South Harbour, it's on the 10th floor of a former hotel. Very upmarket, and a venue for special and perhaps more formal occasions.

An elegant riverside restaurant, Smör (Swedish for "butter") prides itself on being an ambassador of local food and a master of Nordic cuisine, and has earned a reputation for its discerning wine cellar filled with small vineyard labels. A selection of cold or hot small plates comprise the à la carte menu (four items minimum recommended), but the highlight is an all-Nordic-ingredient prix-fixe menu that includes duck, herring, and venison. Special dietary requirements can be catered to if specified in advance.

Long known as a hangout for leftist intellectuals, Tillikka now prepares hearty meals overlooking the rapids for patrons of every political persuasion. House specialties include vendace, fried pike perch, steaks, warm sandwiches, and pyttipannu, a no-nonsense fry-up of pork sausage, potato, and onion topped with gherkins and a fried egg—much more appetizing than it might sound. Try any of them with one of the local brews—this is, after all, also a favorite watering hole. The restaurant is housed in the same building as the city theater.

This very popular summer-only restaurant (due to its sheltered seaside outdoor terrace) spills out from a fabulous wooden Mariehamn yacht club building. The "Teriyaki 4.0" Japanese theme menu, from which two or three items can be selected to comprise a full meal, includes beef tataki and miso-sesame-baked cod. There is a good pizza menu in the adjacent Pub Albin.

The entrance is hidden away in a courtyard close to the Hietalahti shipyard, but this bustling bistro is worth the effort to hunt down. An open kitchen serves tapas-style meals at candlelit tables, and the adjacent BasBas wine bar also serves snacks to accompany its fine selection of wines. The Bistro has been supplemented next door (at the same street address) by BasBas Kulma & Dinery, which boasts a charcoal grill and draws on the same excellent wine selection. 

Named for the architect Carl Ludvig Engel, this café on Senate Square serves traditional lunch fare, and it's also open for breakfast, with porridge, muesli, croissants, cheeses, eggs, and fruit on the menu. Lunch portions are hearty—you can fill up on salmon soup, meatballs, reindeer stew, or the cold smoked salmon sandwich; for a lighter snack, try a savory Karelian pie (karjalanpiirakka) or one of the smaller open-face sandwiches. Locals stop in for coffee, wine, and desserts, which include seasonal treats such as lingonberry cheesecake, fruit tarts, and an excellent Sacher torte. The outdoor Kesäkino Engel summer cinema is held in the courtyard, which is also the occasional venue for recitals and other events.

Opened in 2003 by chefs Tommi Tuominen and Teemu Aura and the holder of a Michelin star since 2007, Demo serves food of the very best quality without the stuffiness of some high-end restaurants; this is a place where you can comfortably laugh out loud. The core menu combines classical French and local ingredients, and the restaurant offers six- and seven-course seasonal "surprise" chef's menus. The wine cellar is among the best in Finland—some 400 wines and counting, with Burgundy a specialty

Founded in 1852, this elegant table-service café—the oldest café in Finland—is a Helsinki institution. Just follow the alluring aroma of freshly baked bread along leafy Bulevardi to find coffee-sipping customers outside in summer watching the trams trundling by and some of the capital's more well-heeled residents coming and going. The atmosphere retains period authenticity despite a renovation; enjoy a leisurely buffet breakfast (7:30–10:30) on weekdays, including fresh bread and rolls from the in-house bakery and cakes from the patisserie. Breakfast gives way to brunch at weekends. All that 19th-century ambience is also in evidence next door at the Ekberg bakery, where fresh breads, pies, and cakes are available.

A short distance from the town center, Elite is a welcome place to recharge with a drink at the bar or meal after visiting Temppeliaukio Church, which is a five-minute walk away, and the Sibelius Monument—especially in summer, when there's outdoor seating. In addition to the Finnish classics of fried vendace, salmon soup with rye bread, and select game, a fixed "Artist's Menu" is offered, including an option for recommended wine pairings and a main course choice of charred trout or sirloin steak. Its elegant art deco interior and spacious layout are popular with artists and writers. 

Delicious dishes inspired by Southeast Asian recipes and ingredients are on the menu at Farang, one of the best and most authentic Asian restaurants in town, hidden away behind the Kamppi shopping mall, close to the Parliament House. It's an informal, social dining experience, blurring the lines between western concepts of starter, main course, and dessert, so your crispy soft-shell crab might arrive at the same time as your red curry and braised veal cheek. Exciting six- or eight-course tasting menus (including a vegetarian option) bring together samples of several à la carte dishes. It's popular for lingering lunches as well as dinner.

This fish restaurant and seafood bar is one of several good eateries in Kortteli, the bustling food market on the fifth floor of the Kamppi shopping center. The seafood bar is one of the few places in Helsinki where fresh oysters—at least three kinds—are available and also serves shrimp with lemon and yuzu mayo. The prix-fixe menu is a seafood platter comprised of oysters, king prawns, shrimp, lobster, langoustine, and two glasses of champagne for €99. Main courses include fish-and-chips, salmon soup, and pan-fried pike perch. Desserts include a delicious crème brûlée with lingonberry sorbet.

Fun dish names and an all-day-breakfast menu are all part of the mission of this laid-back Kallio restaurant to make vegetarian and vegan food more accessible and as "relaxed and yummy" as possible. The popular noodle salad combines glass noodles with carrot, red cabbage, avocado, and peanut butter sauce, with chicken as a side option for carnivores. Lunch and dinner menus take a similarly refreshing approach, and on Sundays the restaurant hosts a popular brunch with ample gluten-free options at all times. There are other Green Hippos in the Töölö and Punavuori districts.

Unpretentious but original gourmet-quality food at favorable prices is on Gustav's menu. An imaginative addition to the city's dining scene, it serves up a mouthwatering selection of cold dishes—such as whitefish and yogurt with black currants—and hot, including arctic char and fennel-lemon risotto, as well as thoughtful kids' menu. The crisp, freshly-baked sourdough bread with a variety of dips and spreads could be a sumptuous meal on its own. The bar is a lively spot for aperitifs and digestifs, or just drinks without a meal. There are two heated glass igloos for private dining (minimum group of six) on the pavement outside from November till March—although the privacy aspect is a little dubious; bear in mind they are made of glass!

Offering nine homemade brews (made in the on-site Waahto microbrewery) and excellent cuisine, not to mention a waterfront location, an outdoor patio, and live music, Huwila is a fantastic surprise so far from a big city. The menu includes burgers and salads as well as some unique but delicious creations, such as baby lamb chops with smoked celeriac, white cabbage in black-currant sauce, and for vegetarians, mushroom barley with roasted vegetables. Reservations for dining are essential. The Huwila Arena is here too, hosting live, mostly Finnish musical acts and theater, with performances and dinner packages from spring until fall.

This popular restaurant is in a former bank building opposite a pleasant park and serves both Finnish and international cuisine with an emphasis on seasonal ingredients. Local freshwater fish such as pike perch, mushroom risotto, and duck breast in raspberry sauce are fairly representative examples from the à la carte main-course menu. There's a Mediterranean brunch buffet served on Saturday and a good wine list. The restaurant's bouillabaisse was voted "best fish soup" in 2019 by the Finnish Gastronomic Society. Ask to eat in the bank vault.

Local, in-season, and fresh ingredients, including foraged herbs and salad ingredients from nearby forests, are featured on set menus at this sustainably principled gourmet restaurant, voted Finnish Restaurant of the Year in 2018. A popular venue for special events or celebrations, Kaskis reopened after renovations in 2020 and lists rainbow trout, whitefish, venison, and forest berries on its menu, with matching wine packages.

If you like finding the true character of a city and enjoy local color, try looking in simple, friendly restaurants like this one, whose name means "moon." The menu combines Finnish specialties such as perch, salmon, and reindeer with imaginative international fare. It's especially convenient for nights at the opera, as it's close to the Opera House, and the delightful covered terrace is open year-round. Diners can choose from an à la carte list or go for one of two fixed-price four-course house menus.

A five-minute walk from the austere Neoclassical Parliament House, on the same street as the National Museum and close to the "Church in the Rock," this casual local gem is the kind of restaurant travelers delight to discover. The main courses have a pan-European flavor and the decor is elegant modern Nordic, but the "classics"—the sort of hearty food that grandma used to make—are what this place is about. Seasonal game is popular in the colder months; in summer the menu lightens to include quality salads and fish. But whenever you come, you're in for good-quality, wholesome, Finnish organic ingredients at their best. Roasted butternut squash is an excellent starter. Pan-fried breast of pheasant makes a terrific main-course follow-up. Diners can choose between one of three set menus, including a delicious vegetable-only option, and a varied à la carte selection.

A dining room with a view—one of the best in the Helsinki area—awaits you in this new (indoor) rooftop bistro crowning a landmark office tower in the Espoo suburb of Keilaniemi. Order from a creative and varied menu that includes main courses of glazed pork ribs, tiger prawn pasta, spiced red curry with kimchi, and tempting desserts including In the Clouds, a passion fruit parfait with coconut gel and cotton candy. If you are looking for somewhere out-of-downtown for a gastronomic treat, this is worth a try, as long as you have a head for heights. Make reservations online.

Absolutely the best place in town to sample the classic, hearty Lakeland dish of crisp fried vendace (a small local whitefish) with mashed potatoes, Majakka also offers good lunch menus and has a pleasant outdoor summer terrace opposite the quay. Another Lakeland fish served on the menu is the delicious pike perch. The restaurant has a cheerful, local atmosphere and the service is friendly.

The first word of the name combines the Finnish words for vendace (muikku) and restaurant, and the eponymous little lake fish is the dominant item on the menu. In the town center, Sampo was founded in 1931, and its Scandinavian furnishings date from the 1950s. High ceilings, wooden fittings, and large lamps impart an elegant look, giving it a friendly pub-like ambience. The muikku, which comes smoked, fried, grilled, or in a stew with pork, potatoes, and onions, is a must.

Situated near the passenger harbor, Musta Lammas (i.e., "Black Sheep") is in the renovated redbrick cellar of a brewery that dates from 1862. The specialty here is Finnish fish and game such as vendace, whitefish, and lamb, prepared with innovative sauces and side dishes. There's a set four-course menu (save two hours at least for that), but everything is available à la carte. It has been attractively adapted from its beer-cellar days, retaining the original brick walls and beer barrels, giving it an authentic period atmosphere.