Finland Food Guide: Where to Eat in Helsinki & Rovaniemi

Finnish food is quiet, seasonal and closely tied to the forest and the lakes: rye bread, salmon and small lake fish, reindeer, wild mushrooms and berries picked by the bucketful in late summer. This Finland food guide covers the dishes to order, how to read a Finnish menu and the letters printed next to every dish, whether to tip, then goes city by city through where to eat in Helsinki, Turku, Tampere and Porvoo, in the Lakeland towns of Kuopio and Savonlinna, and in Rovaniemi in Lapland. Finland also has one of the best value meals in the Nordic countries: the weekday lunch buffet.

What to eat in Finland: 12 dishes to know

These are the dishes and foods you will meet across Finland, with the town or region they belong to where it matters.

• Karjalanpiirakka (everywhere): Karelian pies, thin rye crusts crimped around a filling of rice porridge, topped with munavoi, butter mixed with chopped boiled egg.
• Lohikeitto (everywhere): a creamy salmon soup with potatoes, leek and plenty of dill.
• Poronkäristys (Lapland and everywhere): thinly sliced sautéed reindeer with mashed potato, lingonberries and pickled cucumber.
• Loimulohi (Lapland and summer festivals): salmon nailed to a wooden board and slow-cooked beside an open fire.
• Muikku (the Lakeland): vendace, small lake fish, fried crisp in rye flour and eaten whole with garlic mayonnaise and mash.
• Kalakukko (Kuopio): a thick rye loaf baked for hours around small fish and pork belly, sliced and eaten warm or cold.
• Mustamakkara (Tampere): black blood sausage with rye, eaten with lingonberry jam and a glass of milk.
• Leipäjuusto (Lapland and Ostrobothnia): "bread cheese", a squeaky baked cheese served warm with cloudberry jam.
• Ruisleipä (everywhere): dense, sour rye bread, the everyday bread of Finland, served with every meal.
• Hernekeitto ja pannukakku (Thursdays): pea soup with pork, followed by oven-baked pancake with jam, served at many lunch restaurants every Thursday.
• Korvapuusti (everywhere): the Finnish cinnamon bun, flavoured with cardamom, whose name means "slapped ear".
• Salmiakki (everywhere): salty liquorice flavoured with ammonium chloride, a national obsession that divides visitors.

How to read a Finnish menu

Finnish is not related to Swedish or English, so menus without translations give little away, although many city restaurants also print menus in English and Swedish. The most useful thing to understand is the row of letters after each dish, which tell you about lactose, dairy and gluten. On weekdays, look for lounas: from about 10:30am to 2pm, many restaurants serve a lunch buffet or a set lunch that includes salad, bread, a main course and coffee at a fixed price.

Tipping, paying and meal times

Tipping is not expected in Finland. Service is included in menu prices, staff are paid a full wage, and Finns rarely tip except to round up after an excellent dinner or in a bar. Card machines sometimes offer a tip option, which you can skip without a second thought. Our guide to tax and service charges on menus explains how this compares with countries where service is added on top. VAT is included in all menu prices.

Finland uses the euro (€), the only Nordic country that does. Cards and contactless payments are accepted almost everywhere, including market stalls and saunas. When a card machine or cash machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline and pay in euros: our guide to paying in local currency explains why that choice costs you money.

Finns eat early. Lunch starts around 11am, and the lunch buffets are busiest from 11am to 12:30pm. Dinner is usually from about 5pm to 8pm, and many restaurants outside Helsinki close their kitchens by 9pm or 10pm. Alcohol stronger than 8 percent is sold in shops only by the state chain Alko, while restaurants and bars serve it as normal.

Where to eat in Finland, city by city

Finland's cities are small and easy to explore, and each region has its own dishes, from the archipelago in the south-west to the Lakeland and Lapland. Jump to a destination:

• Helsinki
• Turku
• Tampere
• Porvoo
• Kuopio
• Savonlinna
• Rovaniemi

Where to eat in Helsinki

Helsinki's food life starts at the South Harbour. The Market Square (Kauppatori) has stalls selling fried vendace, salmon soup, fresh berries and peas in summer, with simple cafés under orange tents, and the Old Market Hall (Vanha kauppahalli), a red-brick hall from 1889 on the waterfront, has fish, cheese and deli counters and small places to eat salmon soup or open sandwiches. The Hakaniemi Market Hall, north of the centre, is larger and more local, with produce downstairs and food stalls around it.

For dinner, the neighbourhoods of Punavuori and Kamppi, around the Design District, have many of Helsinki's best restaurants and wine bars, while Kallio, across the bridge, is cheaper and livelier, with bars, cafés and small restaurants. The Teurastamo, a former abattoir complex, now houses food businesses and hosts events. In summer, take the ferry to the island fortress of Suomenlinna for a picnic or a coffee, and do not miss a public sauna, several of which have restaurants beside them.

Where to eat in Turku

Turku, on the south-west coast, is Finland's oldest city and its former capital, and it has a strong food culture of its own. The Market Hall (Kauppahalli), opened in 1896, is one of the most beautiful in Finland, with wooden stalls selling fish, meat, cheese and pastries, and cafés where you can sit down for lunch. The Market Square nearby has summer stalls and is the place to buy berries and new potatoes.

The heart of Turku is the Aura river, lined with restaurants and cafés, and in summer old boats moored along the bank serve food and drinks on deck. The riverside walk from the cathedral to the castle passes most of Turku's best places to eat. Turku is also the gateway to the Archipelago Sea, thousands of islands where summer cafés and guesthouses serve smoked fish, archipelago bread (saaristolaisleipä, a dark, sweet malt bread) and local lamb.

Where to eat in Tampere

Tampere is Finland's largest inland city, built between two lakes with the Tammerkoski rapids running through the middle, and its old red-brick textile mills now house restaurants, bars and museums. The local dish is mustamakkara, black sausage, bought by weight at market stalls and eaten hot with lingonberry jam and a glass of cold milk. The traditional places to eat it are the Tammela market square (Tammelantori) and the Tampere Market Hall, one of the largest in the Nordic countries.

Tampere calls itself the sauna capital of the world and has dozens of public saunas, several with cafés or restaurants, and swimming in the lake after a sauna is a local ritual year round. The Pyynikki ridge, a park above the city, has an observation tower and walking trails, and the area around the old mills and the main street, Hämeenkatu, has the city's restaurants and bars. Tampere has a big student population, so food prices are lower than in Helsinki.

Where to eat in Porvoo

Porvoo is Finland's second oldest town, about an hour east of Helsinki, with an old town of colourful wooden houses on cobbled lanes and a row of red wooden storehouses along the river. It is the home of the Runeberg torte (runebergintorttu), a small almond and rum cake with raspberry jam and a ring of icing, named after the national poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg, who lived in Porvoo. Finns eat it on 5 February, Runeberg's Day, and in the weeks around it, but Porvoo's cafés sell it all year.

The old town of Porvoo is full of cafés, chocolate shops and small restaurants, many in old wooden buildings, and some of the riverside storehouses have been turned into restaurants with terraces over the water. Porvoo is a popular day trip from Helsinki, by bus or, in summer, by boat, so it is busy at weekends. Visit midweek or stay for dinner, when the day trippers have left.

Where to eat in Kuopio

Kuopio is the main city of the Finnish Lakeland, on the shore of Lake Kallavesi, and the home of kalakukko, the rye loaf baked around fish and pork. You will find it at the Kuopio Market Hall (Kauppahalli), a 1902 building on the market square, and at bakeries around town; buy a slice to eat warm with butter and a glass of buttermilk, or a whole loaf to take away. Kuopio restaurants also serve fried vendace, lake perch and pike-perch.

The Market Square is the centre of Kuopio life, with summer stalls and terraces around it, and the Puijo hill, north of the centre, has an observation tower with a revolving restaurant and wide views of lakes and forest. In summer, lake cruises leave from the harbour, and a few include a meal on board. Kuopio is also a good place to try a traditional smoke sauna, heated for hours with wood before bathing.

Where to eat in Savonlinna

Savonlinna sits among the islands of Lake Saimaa, Finland's largest lake, and is best known for the medieval Olavinlinna Castle and the opera festival held inside it every July. Its food speciality is fried muikku (vendace), sold from stalls at the harbour market and eaten from paper trays with garlic mayonnaise. The other local treat is the lörtsy, a half-moon of fried dough filled with minced meat and rice or with apple, sold at the market and in cafés.

The harbour market, by the passenger quay, is the place to eat muikku and lörtsy with a view of the lake. In opera season, Savonlinna's restaurants fill quickly and prices rise, so book ahead. The lake steamers that leave from Savonlinna in summer offer a relaxed way to see Saimaa, and some go as far as Kuopio. Outside summer, Savonlinna is very quiet and many places close.

Where to eat in Rovaniemi

Rovaniemi, the capital of Finnish Lapland, sits right on the Arctic Circle and is known around the world as the official hometown of Santa Claus. Lapland food is built on reindeer, Arctic fish and wild berries. Order poronkäristys, smoked reindeer, flame-grilled salmon, Arctic char and whitefish, with lingonberries, and finish with leipäjuusto and warm cloudberry jam, or a dessert of berries and cream.

Rovaniemi restaurants range from city-centre bistros to log-built restaurants and kota huts, traditional Lappish huts with an open fire in the middle, often part of a reindeer farm or husky safari. The Santa Claus Village, on the Arctic Circle north of the town, has cafés and restaurants aimed at visitors. In winter, many visitors book meals as part of northern lights or snowmobile tours, so check what is included. Further north, the Sámi village of Inari is the place to learn about Sámi food and culture.

Vegetarian, vegan and allergy tips

Finland is easy for vegetarians and vegans. Most restaurants have a vegetarian dish, lunch buffets always include vegetarian options, and Helsinki and Tampere have many vegetarian and vegan restaurants. The word for vegetarian is kasvis (or kasvisruoka, vegetarian food) and for vegan vegaaninen. Watch for meat stock in soups, pork in pea soup and sausages in many traditional dishes, and fish in rye-based Lakeland dishes such as kalakukko.

Finland is one of the best countries in the world for dietary needs: the L, VL, M and G labels on menus mean staff are used to questions, and gluten-free (gluteeniton) bread and pastries are common. Remember that "lactose-free" is not the same as dairy-free, and that Karelian pies and many pastries contain butter and egg. Our guide to eating abroad with food allergies explains how to explain an allergy clearly when you do not speak the language.

Useful Finnish phrases for ordering

Hei / Moi "Hello", used everywhere

Pöytä kahdelle, kiitos "A table for two, please"

Mitä suosittelette? "What do you recommend?"

Otan tämän "I will take this" (pointing)

Olen allerginen... "I am allergic to..." (Finnish adds an ending to the food word, so pointing at it on your phone helps)

Saisinko laskun? "Could I have the bill?"

Kippis! "Cheers!"

Kiitos ruoasta "Thank you for the food", said at the end of a meal

How swap.menu helps you eat in Finland

Finnish is one of the hardest European languages to guess at, and lunch buffets, market stalls and Lakeland cafés often label their dishes in Finnish only. Photograph the menu with swap.menu and every dish appears in your language with the Finnish name beside it and a short explanation, so you know that maksalaatikko is a baked liver and rice casserole with raisins and that mämmi is a dark rye Easter pudding before you order. Every price is shown in euros and your home currency, and the L, VL, M and G labels are explained for each dish.

Tap the dishes you want, add a note such as "dairy-free, not just lactose-free" or "no fish", typed or spoken, and swap.menu translates your order into Finnish. Show the waiter your phone, or let them scan the QR code and read your order on their own screen. You can try it right now on a sample menu with the free demo, or see travel pass prices.

Finland food FAQ