Aoi is a contemporary nordic fine-dining restaurant in Ullanlinna, Helsinki.
Aoi is a small Ullanlinna room in the Michelin Guide, run by a trio cooking a short four-course menu where global ideas meet Nordic produce like pike perch.
Must order: The four-course menu; spring brings white asparagus, summer the pike perch with fennel and apple.
Tip: A personal, low-key dining room on quiet Neitsytpolku. The menu is short and rewritten often, so trust the kitchen.
Address: Neitsytpolku 10, 00140 Helsinki
Palace holds Finland's only two Michelin stars, on the tenth floor of a 1952 Olympics building, where Eero Vottonen cooks a Finnish tasting menu.
Order: The full tasting menu; Vottonen leans hard on Finnish lake fish and game in season.
Tip: The dining room is on the top floor with views over the harbour and Market Square. Book three to four weeks ahead for weekend tables.
Olo on the Pohjoisesplanadi has held a Michelin star since 2011, serving a long Nordic tasting menu of northern ingredients in a grand 19th-century townhouse.
Order: The OlO tasting menu; the kitchen builds it around the best northern produce of the week.
Tip: Set in a neoclassical merchant's house on the Esplanadi. Reservations take one to six guests online; larger groups by enquiry.
Grön in Punavuori holds a Michelin star and Green Star; Toni Kostian cooks a plant-forward set menu of foraged Finnish produce in a 16-seat room.
Order: The set tasting menu; the full menu is also available as an entirely plant-based version.
Tip: Just 16 seats around an open kitchen on Albertinkatu. Vegetables, wild plants and fermentations lead; book three to four weeks out.
Demo has held a Michelin star since 2007 and in 2024 moved to a Ruoholahti tower with near 360-degree views, where Tommi Tuominen serves three tasting menus.
Order: The chef's menu at dinner, or the four-course lunch for the city's best-value star meal.
Tip: Now on the top observation floor of the We Land building in Ruoholahti. The weekday lunch menus are far cheaper than dinner.
Finnjävel Salonki, in the Kunsthalle building, won a Michelin star in 2021 for refined, modern takes on traditional Finnish home cooking by its kitchen.
Order: The eight-course menu; dishes reread Finnish staples like liver, herring and root vegetables.
Tip: The fine-dining Salonki sits upstairs; the casual Sali is downstairs in the same building. Both are in the Taidehalli art hall.
Savoy on the eighth floor of the Esplanadi has served Finnish-French cooking since 1937 in an Aalto interior; vorschmack is the house signature.
Order: Vorschmack, the minced beef and herring hash that Marshal Mannerheim made a Savoy fixture.
Tip: The 1937 Aalto-designed room and roof terrace look over Esplanade Park. It sits in the Michelin Guide, and lunch is the affordable entry.
