Teriyaki salmon, pickled vegetables and potato salad; Jerusalem artichoke gratin and pickled funnel chanterelles; roasted aubergine with almond-karekare paste, pike quenelles with a crayfish sauce and stewed spinach; creamy salmon soup with dill; veal pelmeni with broth and heavy sour cream; mashed potatoes with meatballs in a cut brandy sauce with lingonberries and quick-pickled cucumbers; Charolais beef tongue with minty peas, horseradish velouté sauce and new potatoes… These are just some of the delicious lunches that Helsinki has to offer that will have your mouth watering.
Another perk of grabbing your lunch from restaurants in Helsinki is that midday dishes are often a good deal. The fierce competition for lunch break customers pushes restaurants to offer top quality fare and the lunch vouchers offered as perks by many workplaces determine the price points – meaning a much more wallet-friendly experience than the evening hours.
Many Helsinki restaurants offer a few different quality lunch options that are tasty, yet slightly more simple than dinner dishes. Very often a lunch deal includes a salad buffet, starter soup, and coffee – dessert is usually ordered separately. Highly regarded lunch time favourites include Gastro Cafe Kallio, Canvas Canteen, Bruket, Pompier, and Story at the Old Market Hall.
Some of the city’s lunch restaurants serve only an open lunch buffet – a great choice if you want to try a bit of this and that. With inspiration from seaside Karelia, the lunch buffet at Konstan Möljä offers a glimpse into both history and traditional Finnish homestyle cuisine. Satama Bar & Bistro is another prime buffet – in fact, the best lunch in Finland 2022.
If you are craving a longer lunch, then there is an array of restaurants that offer a multi-course menu at a much lower price in comparison to dinner prices – Usually the menus include a slightly simplified three-course menu. Suitable venues for a festive weekday lunch include Vinkkeli, Alexanderplats, Cafe Savoy, Mauritz, or Pastis.
For friends of Asian flavours, interesting lunchtime options include Paisano with its modern Filipino specialities, Hoku’s fusion of Japanese and Hawaiian influences, Big Bowl’s handmade noodles that rank best in town, or Onda with its abundant lunch buffet.
The atmosphere of most of Helsinki's restaurants is remarkably relaxed, and there is no need to feel that you need to button-up at lunchtime but are rather free to enjoy your meal in a casual manner. During the summer months many places also offer outdoor seating, as many restaurants expand into separate summer terraces built on the sidewalk or even in front of the restaurant.