What to Eat in Lapland: Local Food Guide
Lapland food is honest. There’s no fuss, no foam, no microgreens arranged with tweezers. The cuisine comes from what the land provides – reindeer that graze on lichen, fish pulled from Arctic rivers, berries picked from bogs in late summer, and dark rye bread that’s been baked the same way for centuries. You won’t find a long menu in most Lapland restaurants. You’ll find a short one where nearly everything is good.
If you eat one thing in Lapland, make it poronkäristys – sautéed reindeer with mashed potatoes and lingonberries. This is my favourite Finnish dish and the one that my mother often makes when I go visit her.
If you eat two things, add lohikeitto, the salmon soup that every restaurant does well. Beyond that, let cloudberries, rye bread, and a campfire coffee take care of the rest. There are quite a few Finnish words in this guide, which you by no means have to learn. They are here mostly for fun, and to help you in the supermarkets. You will always have the menus in the restaurant at least in English plus perhaps a few other languages.
The Dishes You Need to Try
Lapland’s food scene revolves around a handful of core ingredients. Here’s what to look for and what to order.
| Dish | What it is | Where to find it | Typical price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poronkäristys | Sautéed reindeer, mashed potatoes, lingonberries | Every restaurant in Lapland | 28-40€ |
| Lohikeitto | Creamy salmon soup with potatoes and dill | Every restaurant, lunch cafés | 18-25€ |
| Kuivaliha | Dried or smoked reindeer meat | Markets, supermarkets, souvenir shops | Varies |
| Muikku (vendace) | Tiny fried lake fish, eaten whole | Markets, some restaurants | 18-25€ |
| Arctic char | Delicate pink-fleshed fish, grilled or smoked | Restaurants near Inari and Enontekiö | 28-40€ |
| Lakkahillon kanssa | Cloudberry dessert (with cream or on leipäjuusto) | Restaurant dessert menus | Part of meal or tasting menu |
| Leipäjuusto | Squeaky cheese, served warm with cloudberry jam | Restaurants, supermarkets | Varies |
Reindeer: The Main Event
Reindeer meat is to Lapland what lamb is to New Zealand – it’s everywhere, it’s the default, and it’s genuinely good. Poronkäristys (sautéed reindeer) is THE Lapland dish. Thin-sliced reindeer is cooked slowly with butter and water until it’s tender and slightly sweet, served on a mound of mashed potatoes with lingonberry jam on the side. The combination works perfectly – the tart lingonberries cut through the richness of the meat.
Order it at your first meal and then try it again somewhere else. Every restaurant has its own version and the differences are subtle but real. Some use more butter. Some add cream. Some serve it with pickles on the side. None of them are wrong. I have also made this dish at home quite a few times. And every time it turned out a bit different. A bit like my risottos, I guess..
Beyond the sauté, look for poron kuivaliha – dried reindeer meat, usually sold in thin slices. It’s salty, intensely flavoured, and makes excellent trail snack or something to bring home. Shortly put, the Finnish reindeer jerky. You’ll find it in supermarkets and souvenir shops. Smoked reindeer (savuporonliha) is milder and works amazingly well on rye bread.
Fish: Simple and Superb
Lohikeitto – salmon soup – is the safest bet on any Lapland menu. Creamy, warming, loaded with chunks of salmon and potato, finished with dill. It’s hard to get wrong, and restaurants rarely do. At casual places, you’ll find it for 18-25€, often served with rye bread on the side. On a cold day after a morning activity, there’s nothing better.
If you’re near Inari or any of the larger lakes, look for Arctic char (nieriä). It’s a delicate, pink-fleshed fish that’s milder than salmon and beautiful when grilled or smoked. Vendace (muikku) is the other Lapland fish worth seeking out – tiny freshwater fish, deep-fried whole and eaten like chips. They’re crispy, slightly oily, and dangerously easy to eat by the handful. You’ll find them at markets and some restaurants, sometimes served in a paper cone.
Many safari operators serve fish cooked over an open campfire as part of the excursion. This is often the most memorable meal of the trip – not because of technique, but because eating fresh fish outdoors in the Arctic, sitting on a log by a fire, is its own kind of luxury.
Berries: Lapland’s Secret Gold
Cloudberry (lakka in Finnish) is the berry you need to know about. Golden-orange, soft, with a taste somewhere between mango and citrus – it grows only in Arctic bogs and is notoriously difficult to cultivate. Finns treat good cloudberry jam with the reverence other cultures reserve for truffles. On a dessert menu, anything with lakka is worth ordering: cloudberry jam on leipäjuusto (squeaky cheese), cloudberry cream, cloudberry liqueur.
Lingonberry (puolukka) is the everyday hero. Tart, red, and served alongside almost every meat dish. Finns eat lingonberries the way Americans use ketchup – with everything. The difference is that lingonberry jam is actually good for you and goes with reindeer like nothing else.
Blueberries (mustikka – technically bilberries, smaller and more intense than the cultivated kind) grow wild across Lapland’s forests. They show up in pies, porridge, and smoothies. If you visit in late July through September, you can pick your own – jokamiehenoikeus (everyman’s right) means you can forage freely, even on private land. Yup, you read that correctly.
Bread: The Unsung Hero
Finnish rye bread (ruisleipä) is dense, dark, slightly sour, and genuinely addictive once you adjust to it. It’s nothing like the soft rye bread you might know – this is proper bread with a crust that crunches and a crumb that’s almost chewy. Finns eat it with butter, with cheese, with smoked reindeer, at breakfast, at lunch, and at dinner. If a restaurant brings bread to the table, it will be rye. Eat it.
Kalakukko is a traditional Eastern Finnish speciality – a rye crust filled with fish (usually vendace or perch) and pork. It’s more common in the Kuopio region than in Lapland, but you’ll occasionally find it at markets or as a speciality item. Think of it as Finland’s answer to a pasty – a complete meal wrapped in bread.
At campfires during safaris, you might get to try tikkupulla – sweet dough wrapped around a stick and baked over flames. It’s simple, slightly smoky, and tastes better than it has any right to, mostly because you’re eating it outdoors in the Arctic.
Where to Eat: Restaurants vs Self-Catering
Eating out in Lapland is not cheap. Casual mains (pasta, pizza, burgers) run 18-25€. Traditional Lappish dishes – the reindeer and fish you came for – sit at 28-40€ per main course. Multi-course tasting menus at the finer restaurants reach 90-120€. Alcohol in restaurants is expensive by any standard. A budget day of eating out costs 60-90€ per person.
Self-catering is where you can save real money. K-Market and S-Market supermarkets exist in all resort towns and are well stocked. You can buy reindeer meat, fresh salmon, rye bread, lingonberry jam, and cloudberry products right off the shelf and cook in your cabin. A budget of 30-45€ per day covers supermarket shopping plus one meal out – enough to eat well without breaking the budget.
Most cabins in Lapland come with a full kitchen. This isn’t a compromise – it’s howwe Finns do it. Cook reindeer stew in your cabin, eat it with a view of the snow, then head to the sauna. That’s a better evening than most restaurants can offer. And then you can show pictures of you cooking Finnish delicacies on Instagram.
Vegetarian and Vegan Options
Let’s be honest: Lapland’s food culture is built on reindeer and fish. Traditional restaurants lean heavily on meat and seafood, and the further north you go, the fewer plant-based options you’ll find on menus. This is improving – Rovaniemi and Levi now have restaurants with decent vegetarian mains, and most places can do at least a salad or pasta dish – but it’s not a destination where vegetarians will feel spoiled for choice.
Your best strategy is self-catering. A cabin with a kitchen gives you full control. Supermarkets carry a reasonable range of vegetarian and vegan products, including plant-based alternatives that have become standard in Finnish grocery stores. You can eat well on mushroom dishes, root vegetables, rye bread, berry desserts, and the various plant-based products Finnish supermarkets now stock.
If you do eat out, lohikeitto works for pescatarians, and many restaurants can adapt dishes if you ask. Just don’t expect a dedicated vegan menu outside of Rovaniemi’s newer spots.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the must-try food in Lapland?
Poronkäristys – sautéed reindeer with mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam. It’s on every restaurant menu in Lapland, it’s consistently good, and the combination of flavours is unique to the region. Follow it with something cloudberry for dessert and you’ve had the essential Lapland meal.
Is reindeer meat ethical to eat?
Reindeer in Lapland are semi-wild, not factory farmed. They roam freely across vast areas of fell and forest, eating natural vegetation. Herding is a centuries-old practice central to Sámi and Finnish Lapland culture. The meat is lean, free-range, and about as ethical as any meat production gets.
Can vegetarians eat well in Lapland?
It’s manageable but requires planning. Rovaniemi has the widest selection of vegetarian-friendly restaurants. In smaller resort towns, options are limited to pasta dishes, salads, and whatever you can request as a modification. Booking a cabin with a kitchen is the most reliable approach – Finnish supermarkets have solid plant-based ranges.
Where can I buy cloudberry products to take home?
Every supermarket in Lapland sells cloudberry jam. For cloudberry liqueur, visit an Alko shop – you’ll find them in Rovaniemi, Levi, and other resort towns. Airport shops also carry cloudberry products, though at a markup. Jam travels well in checked luggage; liqueur counts toward your duty-free allowance.
Best Booking Resources for Lapland
After years of travelling to and around Lapland, these are the booking tools I keep coming back to. They consistently offer the best prices, the most relevant options for northern Finland, and actually work well for Lapland-specific searches — which not all platforms do.
- Skyscanner – The best flight search engine for Lapland routes. It catches the budget airlines and seasonal charters that other search tools miss, and the price alerts are genuinely useful for spotting deals on Helsinki-Rovaniemi or direct UK routes.
- VR Finnish Railways – The only way to book Finland’s overnight trains. The Santa Claus Express from Helsinki to Rovaniemi is an experience in itself — book early for the cabin berths, they sell out weeks ahead in peak season.
- DiscoverCars – Compares all the major rental companies at Lapland airports in one search. Crucially, they show which rentals include studded winter tyres — mandatory in Lapland and a detail other comparison sites bury in the fine print.
- Booking.com – Has the widest selection of Lapland accommodation by far, including cabins, glass igloos, and small family-run guesthouses that don’t list elsewhere. Free cancellation on most properties makes it low-risk for planning ahead.
- GetYourGuide – The largest marketplace for Lapland activities: husky safaris, snowmobile tours, aurora trips, reindeer visits. You can compare operators and prices side by side, and most bookings are cancellable up to 24 hours before.
- SafetyWing – Travel insurance designed for adventurous trips. Covers winter sports, extreme cold activities, and medical evacuation — all relevant when you’re snowmobiling at -25°C. Affordable and the claims process is straightforward.
- Holafly – eSIM that works in Finland from the moment you land. No hunting for local SIM cards at the airport, no roaming surprises. Set it up on your phone before departure and you’re connected in Lapland immediately.
Some of the links above are affiliate links — if you book through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend services I genuinely use and trust for Lapland travel.
