Lappish food is simple, seasonal and built on what the land and the water give: reindeer, fish from cold lakes and rivers, berries, small yellow potatoes and flatbread. Much of it is shared with Sámi food culture, which is older than any of the resorts. This guide goes through the classics, when they are at their best and where to taste them.

The classics

Sautéed reindeer (poronkäristys) is a classic on the menus of many Lapland restaurants. Thin slices are cut from frozen reindeer meat and simmered in butter until tender, then served with mashed potatoes, lingonberries and often pickled cucumber. It’s also easy to cook yourself: supermarkets in Lapland sell reindeer already sliced for käristys.

Reindeer in other forms is worth trying too: fillet, cold-smoked meat, dried meat and sausages. Three reindeer products from Lapland carry the EU’s protected designation of origin: reindeer meat (Lapin Poron liha), dried reindeer meat (Lapin Poron kuivaliha) and cold-smoked reindeer meat (Lapin Poron kylmäsavuliha). The reindeer graze freely in Finland’s reindeer herding area, and the meat is lean and mild.

Fish comes from clear, cold water. Arctic char and whitefish from Lake Inari and Kilpisjärvi, vendace, grayling and brown trout are eaten smoked, salted, fried or cooked over a fire. On the coast, at the Kukkolankoski rapids north of Tornio, whitefish are still caught with long-handled dip nets in summer, a tradition that goes back centuries.

Lapin Puikula is a small, yellow, almond-shaped potato grown in Lapland, with an EU protected designation of origin since 1997. The new crop in late summer is a treat with butter and dill.

Rieska is an unleavened flatbread made from barley or potato, best warm with a thick layer of butter.

Squeaky cheese (leipäjuusto) is a mild cheese baked until it has brown spots. It was traditionally made from reindeer milk and today mostly from cow’s milk. It’s served warm with cloudberry jam, or cut into cubes and dropped into a cup of coffee: in the north it’s also called coffee cheese.

Berries are everywhere: lingonberries with meat, bilberry pie, crowberry juice and, above all, cloudberries. They have their own guide: cloudberries and cloudberry pancakes.

Coffee by the fire completes the picture. On trips, coffee is boiled in a soot-blackened pot over the fire and drunk from a kuksa, a wooden cup carved from a birch burl.

Sámi food

Sámi food culture has its own traditions, with reindeer at the centre; traditionally, the animal is used as fully as possible. Suovas is salted reindeer meat smoked over an open fire; bidos is a reindeer stew served at weddings and other celebrations; gáhkku is a Sámi flatbread. Dried meat and fish have long been ways of keeping food through the winter.

For Sámi-run food experiences, look especially in the Sámi homeland in the north, around Inari, Utsjoki and Enontekiö. Choose places run by Sámi themselves: they can tell you about the food first-hand, and your spending supports the community directly. The Sámi Parliament of Finland’s guide for responsible visitors is worth reading before you go, and our guide to travelling in the Sámi homeland has more practical advice.

Where to eat it

  • Rovaniemi has the widest choice: several restaurants specialise in Lappish food, and others cook local ingredients in a modern way. Stays in Rovaniemi
  • The fell resorts of Levi, Ylläs and Saariselkä have cafés on the fell tops and kota restaurants along the slopes and ski trails: log huts with an open fire in the middle, serving reindeer, salmon soup and pancakes.
  • Inari is the place for Sámi food and fish from Lake Inari.
  • On a trip. Many husky, reindeer and snowmobile safaris include a meal cooked over a fire in a kota: salmon soup, grilled sausage or reindeer, and campfire coffee.
  • Reindeer farms often serve a meal as part of a visit.
  • In your cabin. The local supermarket stocks reindeer, fish, rieska, squeaky cheese, lingonberries and cloudberry jam, so a Lappish dinner is easy to cook yourself. Browse cabins and villas.

When you look at menus, ask where the fish and meat come from. Many restaurants proudly name their local suppliers.

Places with a long history

We don’t recommend individual restaurants, but a few places have a history long and well documented enough to be part of Lapland’s story. We mention them as facts, not as advertisements.

  • Hotel Pohjanhovi, Rovaniemi. The modernist hotel on the bank of the Kemijoki opened in 1936. German troops blew it up in 1944 during the Lapland War, and a new hotel was built on the same site in 1947. It has been one of Rovaniemi’s best-known meeting places ever since, and it reopened after a renovation in 2025.
  • Hetan Majatalo, Hetta. In 1924 a local family opened their home to travellers, and the guesthouse has housed and fed people passing through Enontekiö ever since. It is one of the oldest tourism businesses in Lapland. Stays in Enontekiö
  • Inari’s first hotel. Opened by the Juutua river in 1937 as Inarin Matkailumaja and later known as Kultahovi, it burned down with the village in 1944 and was rebuilt on the same foundations. Today it is Wilderness Hotel Juutua. Its restaurant, Aanaar, cooks with fish from Lake Inari, reindeer and wild plants, and was named Restaurant of the Year 2020 by the Finnish Gastronomic Society. Stays in Inari
  • Hotel Pallas. The first hotel on the Pallas fells was completed in 1938 and blown up in 1944; the oldest log part of today’s hotel dates from 1948. It stands inside Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park, at the southern end of the Hetta–Pallas trail. Stays in Muonio
  • The top of Kaunispää, Saariselkä. A fire lookout on the summit got a small rest stop in 1952, and since 1954 travellers have been served food at the top. The present café-restaurant building dates from 1986, and the view opens over the fells in every direction. Stays in Saariselkä

When it’s at its best

  • Summer: fresh fish, and the first berries from July.
  • Late summer and autumn: berries (July–September), mushrooms and the new Puikula potatoes.
  • Autumn and early winter: the reindeer round-ups from late September to January are the herders’ harvest time, so reindeer is at its freshest.
  • Winter: hearty food after a day outside, ice fishing on frozen lakes and warm drinks in a kota.

Food is also a good reason to pick a stay with a kitchen or a restaurant nearby. For a sweet ending, read about cloudberries and cloudberry pancakes.