Skip to main content

FOOD, SHOPPING, RESTAURANTS, MEALS AND SOUVENIRS IN LAPLAND

Our food experiences in Lapland, Finland

We spent one week in Rovaniemi, Lapland, Finland from 28th October to 4th November, living in an Airbnb flat. We were self-catering so had to go shopping every day, buy food and drinks for breakfast and dinner. Once a day we ate hot meals in restaurants, it was a good opportunity for us to try different restaurants each day.

Diverse and delicious

Before our travel, we were afraid of getting meals without any spices and expected a lot of fish and potato, simple and tasteless meals. Despite our expectations, we’ve got really delicious meals. We tasted not only the Lappish cuisine but also Chinese, Swedish, Russian and Mexican ones. Foods were tasty, and portions and prices were correct.

In most of the restaurants, we could find a smart and cheap solution: buffet lunch. Available in several places, the price is 10-12 EUR and you can choose from a lot of meals: soup, fresh cold salads, main courses and soft drinks, tea or coffee.

Shopping in supermarket

Almost every day we went shopping at K-supermarket, which is the most frequent food store in Rovaniemi. Selection of foods and quality is very high (I think more than in some UK supermarkets), we could find delicious foods for breakfast or dinner: cold meats, tomato, paprika, salads, fresh crusty bread, rolls, biscuits, ice cream, yoghurt, fruit tea and many more… Prices are incredibly high (3-4 times more expensive) compare with those in the UK.

In supermarkets, you can find the classical Lappish foods: smoked salmon, fresh salmon meat, reindeer, moose or bear salami, reindeer chips (dried smoked sausage), local fruit jams (blueberry, cloudberry, raspberry…), cheese and many more. Prices of reindeer, moose or bear meat products are rather high.

Fazer chocolates are the most common locally produced chocolate (from Vantaa, Helsinki), large selection on the shelves, worth to buy some bars for your loved one

Food experiences in Rovaniemi city centre

Lordi Square and shopping malls are popular spots in Rovaniemi, where in the neighbourhoods tourists and locals can find several very nice restaurants, cafés, and eateries.

We taste-tested them:

  • Freija Cat Café (Freija Kissakahvila)
  • Tsar Restaurant
  • RAX buffet
  • Xiang Long Chinese restaurant
  • Comico Restaurant

Buffet lunch after lunchtime in Inari

Inari is a nice small town in the far North, with breathtaking landscapes, reindeer, and about 50 cm thick of snow blanket at the end of October. It took about 5 hours to get there from Rovaniemi on the snowy and icy roads, driving about 370 km. Inari is the capital of Sami Land, with a nice museum and nature centre of Siida, with a lovely restaurant inside, Sarrit. There is a lunch buffet every day from 11am to 3 pm.

The road to Inari was so snowy and slippery, so we had to drive carefully unfortunately we arrived 5 minutes after 3, but the staff was very nice and served us the buffet lunch. There was a tortilla day so we could taste the “authentic” reindeer tortilla. It was very delicious and tasted like a beef.

Time-travellers’ lunch on the Finnish-Swedish border

We planned and took a day trip to Tornio (Finland) and Haparanda (Sweden) sister cities along the Finnish-Swedish border located in two different time zones, and visited the northernmost IKEA store (our favourite store) in the world. In the IKEA Restaurant, we took some time to relax and enjoyed the lunch buffet with Swedish-style dishes (salmon, meatballs), salads, drinks, and desserts for a reasonable price.

Top destinations in Santa Claus Village

Santa Claus Village is the most popular destination in Rovaniemi, a magical winter wonderland with lots of different services for visitors: accommodations, tours, activities, souvenir shops, Santa Claus home, post office and excellent restaurants. More details from our experiences are in a separate post.

7 travel tips on eating in Lapland, Finland

1. Visit Rovaniemi’s most popular restaurants (see above for more details)

2. Take trips in the surroundings of Rovaniemi, visit local restaurants and cafés (see above for more details

3. Eat and drink in the lunch buffet and save your money

4. Taste local specialities in eateries, and restaurants: salmon, reindeer, bear meat, cheese, fruit jams

5. Taste meals from different cuisines (Russian cuisine is heavenly and delicious)

6. Drink glögi when you are outside in the cold weather

7. Don’t leave Rovaniemi without taking some local souvenirs (reindeer fur, reindeer meat products, chocolates….) and postcards for your loved ones

Labels:
Location: Finnország

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

EASTER IN ICELAND

In 2022, Easter will be celebrated in mid-April and this festive season, like Christmas, will again be spent in Iceland. What to expect if you are planning a trip to Iceland at Easter The weather in April is still very changeable and wintry, with temperatures averaging between 1 and 7 degrees Celsius, but the day length reaches 15 hours in the middle of the month, giving plenty of time for excursions and outdoor activities. The weather forecast for Iceland for the next 5 days can be found here: https://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/areas/ The middle of April is no longer an ideal time to see the aurora borealis, but with luck, you still have a chance to see the lights. You can check the current aurora forecast for the next 2 days at this link: https://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/aurora/ In Iceland, Easter is a long weekend of 5 days from Thursday to Monday with family or friends, and many people spend this period skiing. If you're planning an Easter trip to Iceland, you should ...
Post a Comment
Read more

FIRST TRIP TO ICELAND - ADVICE FOR BEGINNERS

Since 2018 we have been frequent travellers. After discovering England, our first foreign trip was to Iceland. Despite the October weather not being too kind to us, we had a wonderful experience and fell in love with the country. We felt that we had to return. Since then it has been the only place we visit regularly, several times a year. With our experience and knowledge of the place, we try to provide useful answers to the questions of newbie travellers planning their first trip to Iceland: - where to go for the first time, - what to see, - how long to stay and when to go, - what to look out for when organising your trip, - what preparations are necessary, - what to take with you, - is it advisable to organise it yourself or should you use a travel agency? Iceland is a very safe country, with high-quality services, great hospitality and professionalism, so we can organise the tour ourselves. From home, we can book flights, select and book accommodation, car rental, buy entrance tic...
Post a Comment
Read more

DRIVING BY CAR IN ICELAND, OUR EXPERIENCES IN AUTUMN

  First visit to Iceland with a Dacia Sandero, avoiding the F-roads At the end of October 2018, we spent 5 days in Iceland for the first time and rented a Dacia Sandero from Goldcar for our day trips. We were very satisfied with the car and the rental service. The rental contains some insurance (for example Collision damage waiver (CDW), Theft waiver (TW), Third party liability protection (TP),…) but your liability is the deposit. So in any issue, you will lose the part or the full deposit, which is terrible. But if you want to sleep well you can purchase a car and hire excess insurance which can protect your deposit and cover the first part of any claim (known as the "excess"). We planned trips to Snaefellsness peninsula, Reykjanes-peninsula, Geysir-Gullfoss-Thingvellír, South Iceland (Vík, Solheimasandur, Skogafoss) and Akranes (where we rent a flat), so we drove on main roads, avoiding the F-roads, this is why we chose a smaller 2WD car which was perfect and the cheapest o...
Post a Comment
Read more