What to Eat in Helsinki

Helsinki sits on the Baltic Sea, where brackish waters, rocky shores, and long winters shape what people cook and when. Nordic light and short growing seasons favor hardy grains, root vegetables, mushrooms, and preserved fish. Coffee breaks and unfussy, seasonal lunches define the city’s everyday rhythm.

Markets reflect the archipelago’s catch and inland forests: salmon, Baltic herring, wild berries, and game appear alongside rye and dairy. Home kitchens balance comfort and practicality, relying on soups, oven baking, and gentle spicing like dill and cardamom. Tradition coexists with modern sustainability, from waste-wise cooking to responsible sourcing.

Lohikeitto is a cornerstone of Finnish home cooking, built on salmon, potatoes, carrots, leeks or onions, fresh dill, and a mild stock enriched with cream and butter. Cooks gently sweat the aromatics, simmer the root vegetables until just tender, then slide in cubed salmon and finish with cream, dill, salt, and pepper, taking care not to overcook the fish. The result is a clean yet velvety bowl: lightly briny from the sea, sweet from carrots, with dill’s aromatic lift and tender flakes of salmon that yield easily to the spoon. It is eaten year-round in Helsinki—steaming at winter lunch counters, ladled at workplace cafeterias, or made in summer cottages—often accompanied by buttered rye bread that soaks up the silky broth.

Karjalanpiirakka, protected in the EU as a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed, pairs a thin rye crust with a creamy rice porridge filling; potato or carrot fillings also exist, but rice is most common in Helsinki. The dough is rolled paper-thin, ovals are filled and tightly crimped, then baked hot and brushed with a butter–milk glaze to soften the edges; most people top them with munavoi, a simple spread of chopped boiled eggs and butter. The contrast is essential: crisp, toasty rye pleats encasing a soft, mildly sweet center, balanced by the salty richness of the egg butter. Though rooted in the Karelian regions of eastern Finland, these pies are everyday fare across the capital—eaten warm at breakfast, on coffee tables during gatherings, or grabbed as a quick snack at markets and kiosks.

Baltic herring, or silakka, is central to Helsinki’s maritime table, appearing fried, marinated, and layered on dense rye. For frying, small fillets are seasoned, dredged in rye flour, and pan-fried in butter until crisp, then served with mashed potatoes, browned butter, and pickled cucumber; for pickling, fillets are cured in vinegar with sugar, onions, allspice, bay leaf, and pepper, creating a sweet-sour bite with firm flesh. The flavors are briny and clean, with rye adding nuttiness and butter rounding the edges. Each October, the city’s Baltic Herring Market—held since the 18th century—celebrates the new season, but silakat are eaten year-round in homes, canteens, and harbor-side stalls, especially at lunchtime or as open-faced sandwiches.

Finnish Thursday pea soup, hernekeitto, is simmered from dried yellow peas with pork hock or diced pork and onion, sometimes flavored with a bone for depth, then served with sharp mustard. The soup’s texture is thick and comforting rather than pureed smooth, with sweet, earthy peas and soft pieces of pork; on the same day, an oven-baked pancake, pannukakku, arrives for dessert, made from milk, eggs, flour, sugar, and butter, often topped with jam and a spoon of whipped cream. The pairing is a centuries-old custom linked to pre-fast practices that persisted through Lutheran Finland and into modern public institutions. In Helsinki, schools, garrisons, and cafeterias still serve it on Thursdays, and many households follow suit, especially during the colder months when hearty, predictable meals fit the weekly rhythm.

Korvapuusti are Finnish cinnamon buns made from a soft, enriched dough scented generously with cardamom, then filled with butter, sugar, and cinnamon before being rolled, cut, pinched into “ear”-shaped spirals, and glazed with egg and pearl sugar. Baked until deep golden with caramelized edges, they are tender yet structured, the cardamom’s floral-spicy note leading rather than overwhelming the cinnamon. Finland’s per-capita coffee consumption is among the world’s highest, and these buns anchor the kahvipöytä—coffee table—tradition of offering something sweet to guests or coworkers. In Helsinki, korvapuusti are an everyday staple for morning and afternoon breaks, warming hands in winter and perfuming kitchens year-round with the familiar aroma of butter and spice.

Helsinki’s food culture balances sea and forest, preservation and freshness, and mild spicing that lets ingredients speak. Soups, rye baking, and careful handling of fish reflect the climate and a respect for seasonality. If this whets your appetite, explore more destinations and food traditions using Sunheron’s filters to pair flavors with the weather you love.