Restaurants in Finland
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Pizzeria Dennis
This place doesn't look much from the outside, but within is a warren of cosy rooms adorned with Chianti bottles and strings of garlic. There's a long and innovative range of pizzas and pasta, but you're better sticking to the tried and tested combinations: there's a good reason you don't see parmesan cheese and curry sauce together more often! Enthusiastic service.
reviewed
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Klippan
There’s no better way to appreciate Helsinki’s seaside location than by heading out to the myriad of island restaurants. The most famous is the stylish, spired Klippan, which is set in a villa on Luoto island, and famous for society weddings and crayfish parties.
reviewed
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Panimoravintola Plevna
Inside the old Finlayson textile mill, this big barn of a place offers a wide range of delicious beer, cider and perry brewed on the premises, including an excellent strong stout. Meals are large and designed to soak it all up: massive sausage platters and enormous slabs of pork in classic beer-hall style as well as more Finnish fish and steak dishes. Vegetables here mean potatoes and onions, preferably fried, but it’s all tasty, and service is fast.
reviewed
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Zetor
Ever wondered where the Leningrad Cowboys would park their pointy shoes? This whacky restaurant and pub has a kitschy Czech tractor theme from the mind of Finnish film-maker Aki Kaurismäki. Cabbage rolls, salmon soup and other traditional dishes complement the Finnish booze including sahti (traditional ale flavoured with juniper berries), but ease off if you’re finishing the night with a tractor ride.
reviewed
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Café Engel
This heavenly spot in the Senaatintori hums with tourists and university students alike. There’s always a good selection of cakes and enticing meals often of a vegetarian bent such as a beetroot lasagne. It’s a cultural hub with films shown in the courtyard during summer, irregular piano recitals and a plump English-language magazine selection.
reviewed
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Gustav Wasa
This underground restaurant is one of Finland’s best with a concise gourmet menu that blends classic Finnish with modern cuisine such as reindeer on tangy risotto. Once a coal cellar, the transformation to suave restaurant is achieved through low lighting and attentive service. For business meetings there’s a sauna to put the heat on clients.
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Kenkävero
Kenkävero is a design shop and an art centre picturesquely set in a lovely vicarage building 1km east of the centre. The cafe still feels like an elegant drawing room and you half expect the vicar himself to bring in tea and cucumber sandwiches. Instead there’s a much praised lunch buffet that pulls out all the stops.
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Sokeri-Jussin Kievari
An Oulu classic, this timbered local on Pikisaari was once a sugar warehouse and has outdoor tables that have good views of the centre. Although the renovated interior has lost a bit of the original character, it’s still an attractive spot to eat, with no-frills traditional dishes, including reindeer.
reviewed
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Wanha Lyhty & Kellari
This cellar restaurant is a testament to the nautical history, bedecked with model ships and ropes, but the traditional Finnish food is first rate. Upstairs the more casual bar does irregular live music.
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Huvila
This noble wooden building was formerly a fever hospital then a mental asylum, but these days writes happier stories as an excellent microbrewery and smart restaurant just across the harbour from the town centre. The food focuses on fresh local ingredients, and one of the delicious beers will match your fare perfectly, whether it be fresh, hoppy Joutsen, traditional sweet sahti, or the deliciously rich dessert stout. The terrace is a wonderful place on a sunny afternoon; there are also two cosy, compact double attic rooms (€120 during opera festival, €65 at other times).
reviewed
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Tiikun Tii Pii
The most interesting eating option by far, this is a Lapp hut 2.5km from the centre which is bookable for two to 15 people. You get a drink on arrival and watch the traditional dishes being prepared (nettle soup, smoked reindeer steak or salmon, Lapp cheese), before enjoying them in the cosy interior. Drinks with the meal are included in the price (you can also bring your own), and there's plenty of entertainment, such as storytelling the Sámi way (yoiks). It's a lot of fun. You must book ahead; there are normally two timeslots per night (18:00 and 21:00).
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Bodega Salud
Though no budget bargain, this Tampere favourite is enduringly popular for its cosy atmosphere and good salad, fruit and cheese bar (included with main courses). It styles itself as Spanish and certainly does a decent paella, but most dishes have a distinctly Finnish feel, with salmon, reindeer and creamy sauces all present and tasty. More adventurous are snails, gnu steak and Rocky Mountain oysters. You get a certificate if you eat the latter – shellfish are scarce in Colorado, but rams have been heard bleating in countertenor tones.
reviewed
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Gaissa
The upstairs restaurant of the Hotel Santa Claus is split into two attractive areas. Elegant Gaissa has a short menu aimed at visitors and served from a semi-open kitchen. Service is willing but error-strewn; the dishes are petite and reindeer-heavy but feature some great creations, such as spot-on reindeer rillettes and slow-roasted lamb that falls off the bone. Adjoining it is ZoomUp, a bar with salads, pastas, steaks, ribs (€13 to €19) and snacks like potato wedges, in a more casual atmosphere aimed at pulling a local crowd.
reviewed
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Pankkil
A welcome Ivalo arrival, this former bank building has been lovingly converted into a stylish restaurant, with plenty of natural light and wooden slat screens dividing the tables. The mistranslated menu gives few clues, but dishes such as ‘Master of Cheese’s Bovine’ don’t disappoint, and several reindeer dishes, including liver, are on offer. Out the back are excellent apartments (2-/4-/6-person apartments €80/100/160) that are exceedingly modern, spacious and comfortable; some have their own sauna.
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Musta Lammas
One of Finland’s best restaurants, the ‘black sheep’ has a golden fleece. Set in an enchantingly romantic brick-vaulted space, it offers delicious gourmet mains with Finnish ingredients and French flair. Roast reindeer with morel mushrooms was one of the highlights when we last visited, but the €32 vegetarian menu also caught our eye. The standard wine list is OK, but get the credit card out for some of the handwritten choices, which include some of the world’s finest reds.
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Wistub Alsace
This small, authentic spot specialises in Alsatian cuisine and accomplishes it well. The seasonal menu offers a small selection of quality dishes, including an always-delicious fish of the day, as well as pizzalike tartes flambées (€14 to €16). Presentation is excellent; deliciously aromatic Alsatian white wines are available, as well as cheaper choices by the glass or jug. Desserts are original and scrumptious; a small terrace offers more casual dining.
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Nili
Evoking a Lapland atmosphere with reindeer skins, Sámi music and cosy wooden cladding, this main-street restaurant has no problem pulling in the tourist crowd. Reindeer features heavily on the menu, but whitefish, char and salmon argue a fishy case too. The dishes are well presented and the service good, but the quality isn’t quite there to make it a classic, and the portions aren’t quite big enough for it to be a local favourite. Nevertheless, a sound option.
reviewed
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Svenska Klubben 5th Floor Restaurant
It’s often tough to spot the menu that’s at street level and points the way up to this excellent Scandinavian (yes, we know it’s not technically Finnish) eatery. If you can, get a ‘cabinet’ (small room for groups) that is decked out in Nordic minimalism. You can nosh down on the likes of whitefish with pickled lime, or roasted duck breast sweetened with cognac cream. Three-course lunches are consistently delicious and set menus have several choices.
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Kaamasen Kievari
Kaamasen Kievari is a legendary roadhouse a few kilometres north of the Sevettijärvi turn-off and 5km south of the Karigasniemi crossing. It has a cafe, petrol station and hard-drinking bar with pool table, as well as an excellent restaurant serving local dishes such as salmon, whitefish and a top reindeer steak with herb potatoes. They also have rooms and cabins (HI-affiliated), but Jokitörmä, 1km to the south, is better.
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Matala
One of a clutch of upmarket restaurants around the kauppatori, this consistently delivers on food, service and, of course, location; outside seating puts you in the middle of things but the awning affords you a little privacy. There are various degustation menus (€48 to €83) using typical northern Finnish ingredients; delicious Arctic char, or veal sweetbreads with globe artichoke are examples from the regularly overhauled à la carte menu.
reviewed
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Tori
Buzzing with a bohemian crowd and recognisable by the vinyl record on the door, this is the city’s anytime favourite. The decor is snappily revamped in 1950s interior kitsch, complete with period fittings, while the menu runs to beetroot-and-blue-cheese pasta, and a reinvention of meatballs with a brandy sauce. Breakfast is a build-your-own adventure or go for the porridge, while lunch sandwiches are good for the cash-strapped.
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Café Delicato
At the cornerstone of Helsinki’s Little Italy (OK, it’s really just this place and a restaurant across the road), this deli makes an ideal ciabatta grab. You have to make the tough choices between fresh fillings like olives, gravadlax with spring onion and dill, or gutsy salami and Roma tomatoes, but otherwise there couldn’t be a better Italian job in town. There’s also authentic strong coffee plus a selection of slices.
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Juuri
Who has time to sample every Finnish dish and risk having a plate of yuck to finish? Juuri’s sapas (Suomi tapas) gives you a chance to sample the classic in tiny portions, such as lingonberry marinated salmon on slivers of maltbread, or cabbage leaves stuffed with crayfish. The mains aren’t bad either and include grilled wild-boar ribs and raspberry-marinated Arctic char, which stay true to Finnish roots.
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Savotta
A little too themed for some tastes, this representation of a logger’s mess hall does traditional Finnish working food. Waitresses in peasant tops bring karjalanpiirakka (rice-filled savoury pastry) starters before moving on to meaty fare such as elk, bear stew or the Forest Foreman’s Plate, which is served in a skillet with much flourish. If you enter into the spirit of it, it’s a good night out.
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Monte Rosa
Attached to the City Hotel, this goes for the romance vote with a low candlelit interior and chummy booth seating. Most of the dishes are Finnish, with a pinch of oregano or sprinkling of pine nuts as a nod to Italy, and very tasty they are too. The house salad comes with a slab of salmon and sliced smoked reindeer, while main courses are aromatic and generously sized. They also do fajitas and pizzas.
reviewed