Helsinki

Adlerfelt

A restaurant (housed in a magnificent 250-year-old building) with cool Nordic food, interesting drinks and good moments.

Amarillo

Tex-Mex cuisine for Finnish tastes. Steaks, burritos, fajitas, burgers and salads. All food is very tasty but don't expect completely authentic Mexican cuisine.

15:00 to 21:00 mostly·Main courses 20 € to 40 €

Bangkok 9

A Thai cuisine restaurant in the City-Center complex in central Helsinki, opposite the central railway station. Offers authentic spicy Thai cuisine. Interesting decor. Usually a bit crowded.

12:00–20:00 mostly·Main courses €16 to 20

Bar Loosister

Good selection of burgers and beers on tap. Chicken wings with four different sauces, the hottest one "hot as fuck" is absolutely scorching hot.

14:00-00:00 mostly·Burgers around EUR 16

Bar No 9

Popular bar that also serves a variety of dishes with a twist of cross-kitchen style, priced from €4.90-15.90, most main courses under €10. Tends to be packed at lunch and dinner time.

Barbarossa

Good price-quality ratio pizzaplace, always fast service. Very small location though, so you might have to eat your pizza elsewhere.

Bastard Burgers

A hamburger restaurant, where burgers are served with beef produced only on Finnish farms.

Mon–Thu 10:30–22:00, Fri Sat 10:30–01:00, Sun 12:00–21:00

Behnford's

British and American store selling food, drinks, candies and other stuff.

Belge

A reasonable selection of Belgian beers, a nice range of bistro fare, and a good location for people watching. The dining room upstairs is non-smoking. The menus in the dining rooms are served inside Tintin comic books in Finnish, so you can read them while deciding what to order.

Main dishes €12–17

Benjam's Bistro

You want home made Italian cooking in Helsinki? Here it is. Benjam's is run by an Italian family. Atmosphere is cosy, but some of the food comes directly from the supermarket, tortellini and many desserts, for example.

Main dishes €10–15

Bites Burgers

Tasty burgers made to order, with a regular, vegan, vegetarian and special option that can be further customised. They have a good selection of sodas and craft beer. In their Kamppi location there's also an inner yard open during the summer with live music most nights. They also have a restaurant in Vallila and in the Kaivopiha food court.

€10-12

Bites Burgers

Tasty burgers made to order, with a regular, vegan, vegetarian and special option that can be further customised. They have a good selection of sodas and craft beer. They also have restaurants in Kamppi and the Kaivopiha mall.

€10-12

Blinit

Another Russian eatery specialized in blini with different fillings. Also pelmeny and soups (borscht specially recommended) on daily offer.

Mon-Thu 11:00-21:00, Fri-Sun 11:00-22:00·Lunch menu €7

Boathouse

On Liuskasaari island, Boathouse offers seasonal kitchen and a wide selection of wines.

May–Sep

Cafe Samovarbar

Lovely cafe in the toy museum with proper espresso, ice cream, local snacks and wines, with a terrace overlooking the sea.

11:00–17:00

Carelia

Finnish-French with a strong fish and seafood emphasis. Oysters and other seafood in winter, local fish in the summer season. Located in the premises of an old pharmacy with some of the pharmacy interior still intact. One of the best (if not the best) wine cellars in town: there are 37 different champagnes alone on the wine list.

Caverna

A large restaurant located in the basement, offering a diverse buffet mainly concentrating on Spanish cuisine. Various kinds of appetisers, main courses and desserts on offer, all for a fixed price of €39 (alcoholic drinks cost extra). For the main course, you select the meats when they are still raw, the restaurant cooks them for you and brings them to your table.

11:00–21:00 mostly·Buffet €39

Cella

Established 1969, this is one of the oldest restaurants in the Kallio district, serving classic Finnish food with lots of grease and salt. For a "real" restaurant (not fast food) in Helsinki it's reasonably priced, around €10-20 for main dishes. The chef himself often serves the food, complete with a sexist joke or an insult, and may even force feed you the leftovers if you don't finish your meal! Also serves as a pub with a decent selection of beers, ciders and single malts.

Central

One of the oldest restaurants in Helsinki, dating back to the 1890s. It has been in its current location since the 1960s. Serves a wide variety of common restaurant fare in Finland: salads, pastas, steaks and hamburgers.

12:00–23:00 mostly·Main courses €16-33

Chilli

Mikonkatu 8

Cheap kebab, shawarma, and falafel. Large portions, though be warned that this isn't your traditional Middle Eastern fare. Pitas come with something akin to spaghetti sauce inside. Filling choice, especially on a budget.

China Tiger

One of the best Chinese restaurants in Helsinki. Excellent food, a nice atmosphere and really good service. Extra points for the interior design.

Mon–Fri 11:00–23:00, Sat Sun 12:00–23:00·Lunch €9.2, mains from €12.8

Classic Pizza

A classy, fashionable pizzeria with a wide variety of pizzas on the menu. Some of the toppings might be rather unusual, such as grilled chicken, pickled cucumbers, beetroot, crayfish, bratwurst, coconut milk, or Finnish leipäjuusto cheese. But the end result is a tasty culinary treat anyway. For dessert, there's a pizza with ice cream and fresh fruit. The restaurant has several locations around the Helsinki capital area and elsewhere in Finland, but the most central one is in the Stockmann department store, on the basement floor. The restaurant is rather self-consciously a pizzeria. Although many other pizzerias in Helsinki also serve kebab, there are only pizzas on the menu here, and even the staff wear shirts saying "Sorry, no kebab".

€14–17

Demo

An unusual high-class restaurant geared towards the young and trendy, Demo's decor is minimalistic, but the food is of excellent calibre. There are no menus, only set courses pre-chosen based on what is fresh and available for the evening. Easily deserving of its Michelin star. Reservations essential.

Eerikin Pippuri

One of the more popular kebab places in town. On the same street as many bars, so good for a midnight meal as well.

Elite

In the 1930s, many artists, actors and other creative personalities lived in Töölö. Elite opened in 1932, and the restaurant almost instantly became a living room for them. The restaurant still has a feel from those days including paintings from the era on the walls, and some dishes are named after the famous patrons from those days.

Elm

Mediterranean restaurant, serving food made with fresh and authentic ingredients.

Mon–Thu 11:30–14:30 & 17:00–22:00, Fri 11:30–14:30 & 17:00–23:00, Sat 13:00–23:00·Lunch €13-16, main courses €12-36 Menu Elm €42

Event Arena Bank

Free flow lunch restaurant that offers a spacious and luminous environment to spend the lunch hour. The daily Lunch Club menu consists of four different choices all for €9.20. There is choice of Scandinavian style home-cooking, Mediterranean or Asian delicacies, salad bar and soup of the day or vegetarian meal.

Farang

Farang serves fresh, unique dishes from South-East Asia in a modern decor. Try one of the tasting menus if you can't decide what to have.

Tue-Sat 17:00-00:00·Mains €20–25, tasting menus €55–64

Faro

A rather nice restaurant and bar located right at the seashore, offering nice views. Serves lunch and à la carte menu. Lunch is affordable, if not quite cheap, but the à la carte menu is a bit on the pricier side. Also functions as a bar. Serves a variety of cuisine, lunch varies daily.

Lunch €10 to €13, main courses €20 to €30

Finnjävel

Michelin-starred fine dining restaurant serving Finnish food. The place contains two restaurants: Salonki for serving Finnish cuisine with the rich flavours of the Northern wilderness, and Sali for serving casual, yet elegant Finnish food in a cosy atmosphere.

Salonki: Tue-Sat 17:00-23:30; Sali: Tue-Fr 11.30-23:30, Sat 13:00-23:30·Menu Salonki: EUR 98-126; Menu Finnjävel: EUR 59; Finnjävel's Better Lunch: EUR 39