Budget
Pasta La Vista
Mikonkatu 8 ateneum, (http://www.pastalavista.fi/). pick a pasta, a filling and a sauce, for â¬7.70-8.70. menu changes often, vegetarian options also available.
La Famiglia
Keskuskatu 3, tel. +358 9 85685680, (http://www.ravintolaopas....). 11am-midnight daily. unpretentious italian food even for under â¬10, although the most of the items on the menu should be listed under the mid-price section. the weekday lunch buffet of soup, salad and two kinds of pasta â¬7-10 is still a particularly good value.
Golden Rax
Forum second floor, mannerheimintie 20 / mikonkatu 8, (http://www.rax.fi/). cheap and greasy, all-you-can-eat pizza buffet. includes soggy pasta, wilted salad, and drinks. â¬9.50 per person, â¬1.50 extra if you want ice-cream. there is also a salad-only menu which costs â¬6.50.
Sky Express
Annankatu 31. a pizza spot very close to the city center. it's a relatively small place, but the service is very fast and the place is open late at night. opens around 11am, and closes at 11pm 10pm on sundays. try the pã¤ivã¤n jã¤ttipizza "daily giant pizza", which is a large, thin pizza with a varying selection of fillings plus a 0.4 liter soft drink for â¬6, which is almost unbeatably cheap.
Kahvila Suomi
Pursimiehenkatu 12, tel. +358 9 657422. huge portions of tasty no-nonsense finnish food like meatballs and mashed potatoes, which explains the dock workers that crowd here at lunchtime. the japanese tourists, on the other hand, come because the cult hit movie kamome shokudo was filmed here! most mains under €10, priced sandwiches available. open m-f till 9 pm.
Singapore Hot Wok
Kamppi shopping centre, e floor, urho kekkosen katu 5 b, (http://www.kamppi.fi/reta...). select from a few tasty plates of wok. €9.50 per head.
Wrong Noodle Bar
Yliopistonkatu 5, (http://www.wrong.fi/). mâf 10amâ9pm. sa noonâ9pm, s 1pmâ7pm. asian-european fast food concept. €7-10 per head.
Unicafe Ylioppilasaukio
Mannerheimintie 3 b, (http://www.unicafe.fi/ind...). open m-f 11am-7pm, sa 11am-5pm. the biggest and most centrally located student restaurant and cafeteria is only a two-minute walk away from the main railway station. the lunch price is only â¬4-6 including drink, bread and the salad buffet, and â¬2.4 if you happen to own a finnish student card.
Chilli
Keskuskatu 6 and other outlets around time. 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.
Bar No 9
Uudenmaankatu 9, (http://www.bar9.net/). 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.
Budget choices are largely limited to fast food, although there are a couple of workaday Finnish eateries in the mix. In addition to McDonald's and its Finnish imitators Hesburger/Carrols, Helsinki is also full of pizza and kebab places, where a meal typically costs around â¬7-8 sometimes as low as â¬4-5, especially in Kallio. A more healthy option is Unicafe (http://www.unicafe.fi/), a chain of restaurants owned by the Helsinki University student union, which has around 10 outlets in central Helsinki and offers full meals from â¬5.70, including vegetarian options. During the lunch time, usually from 11am to 3pm, most restaurants serves food for reasonable prices. Lunch restaurants and lists in Helsinki can be found at lounaat.info.
Happiness Thai Buffet
Kaisaniemi metro station. open m-f 11am-8pm, sa su noon-7pm. decent thai food with vegetarian options in an all-you-can-eat buffet, single dishes also available. do yourself a favor though, and pass on the coffee. buffet â¬7.90, single servings â¬7.
VPK
Albertinkatu 29, (http://www.ravintolavpk.com/). m-f 11am-3pm. run by the volunteer fire brigade, this restaurant serves a daily changing buffet of hearty finnish fare in a cafeteria straight from the 1950s, complete with grim portraits of moustached hosemasters staring down at you. pea soup and pancakes on thursday are particularly popular. €9.50 per head.
| This guide uses the following price ranges for a typical meal for one, including soft drink: | |
| Budget | Under â¬10 |
| Mid-range | â¬10-30 |
| Splurge | Over â¬30 |
Helsinki has by far the best cosmopolitan restaurants in Finland, and is a good place to escape the usual diet of meat and potatoes... if you can foot the bill, that is. As usual in Finland the best time to eat out is lunch, when most restaurants offer lunch sets for around â¬6-10. Lunch sets are typically served from 10:30AM to 2PM, but the times vary between venues. In the evening, only budget places are less than â¬10, while splurges cost well over â¬30 per head.
A surprisingly large number of restaurants close down for a month or more in summer July-August, so call ahead to avoid disappointment.
Top end
Two classes of fine dining stand out in Helsinki: fresh seafood and Russian. During the dark days of the Soviet Union, it was sometimes said that the best Russian restaurants in the world were across the border in Helsinki. For something authentically Finnish and uniquely Helsinki, try Vorschmack, an unusual but surprisingly tasty mix of minced lamb and herring, served with chopped pickles and sour cream smetana.