Coffee & tea

All the really cool, posh city-goers have their breakfast or lunch at Café Succes and no wonder why: the croissants, bread, jam and coffee are delicious! It is actually very famous for its cinnamon rolls (called “korvapuusti”). I know people coming all the way from Espoo (the next city) to buy them. For lunch they serve soups, sandwiches and salads for a reasonable price.

The café is old and definitely Finnish, but it looks like it could be somewhere in Paris. White walls, red leather couches and wooden chairs around small round tables make it cozy yet chic! Most of its customers are just locals having their breakfast and reading their daily paper. Not that many tourists know about, which means you will get a more authentic experience. The service is good and even better if you talk in Swedish.

Thanks to the big windows you can watch stylish people passing by. Personally I think Café Succes is the most romantic café in the city!

One of the best outdoor-things to do in Helsinki is to go to one or many of the islands in front of the city. Seurasaari is an open air museum: there are 78 old wooden buildings from all over Finland. The cottages, farmsteads and manors are from the past four centuries. You can get a guided tour if you want to or just walk slowly on your own through the green area. The houses are open only in summertime, but the island is worth of exploring in winter as well.

There are also beaches and one of them is for the nudists. You can swim there in wintertime as well (Mind you the water is freezing and you have to jump into the hole on ice! There is no sauna or shower before or after the swim!) If you are hungry or thirsty there is a restaurant, café and kiosk. Oh and don’t forget the teeny tiny ones: Bring some nuts to feed the tame squirrels!!

How to get there? Seurasaari is only 5 km from the city central. You can take a bus from Lasipalatsi or a boat from the Market Square.

Maatilatori (freely translated: The farmer’s shop) sells organic food from Nordic countries, but mainly from Finland. The shop, that is located in the very heart of the city, is adorable: there are wooden boxes with eggs in them, they sell nougat lollipops, special cheeses, cider, jam in class jars, organic poultry, fresh vegetables, fruits and other organic food. They also sell healthy juices made from the Nordic berries, like cloudberries and sea buckthorn berry. Everything is produced close by and the fresh stuff is seasonal.

The shop has a bunch of loyal customers, consumers who are worried about environmental issues and who want to eat as pure, clean and organic food as possible. Some of the products are pricier than in a super market, but many of the customers are willing to pay the price, because they want to eat healthier.

For a foreigner this little shop is an excellent way to taste Finnish food and buy these odd, but good flavors to take home to.

There is a cafe where you can have a lunch too.

You can enjoy all your meals at the 8th floor in Stockmann department store. These restaurants are not inexpensive although you will get good value for your money!

Start your morning at F8 Cafe sipping a latte and enjoying a croissant or filled sandwich.

Have a lunch at F8 Food or F8 Easy. Both restaurants serve different menu everyday (inc. grill, asian and home cooking). Easy is a more relaxed yet stylish place where as Food is more hectic with wok-food and a salad bar where you will have hard time choosing between delicious marinaded artichoke, sun dried tomatoes, cheeses etc.

Stop for an afternoon tea or ice cream at Velvet where music and the couches are smooth and soft. The couches are covered with (what else than) velvet!

For a fine dining there is F8 Fine restaurant. Have the slightly salted salmon with row mousse for a starter and carré of lamb with thyme sauce for the main course. Skip the dessert, because…

… the cherry on a top is the F8 champagne bar. Chocolate and champagne combination is an excellent ending for the day.

Lasipalatsi means “The palace made of class” and it has big windows through which you will see the whole city central. Lasipalatsi restaurant is upstairs and the café is downstairs. The interior is unique and from the 30′s! The food is good, basic Finnish and European food. They use lot of seasonal ingredients. You will find a good wine selection at the restaurant as well. The café is more for lunch, a quick bite and coffee. The lunch menu changes every day.

Behind the restaurant there is a huge platform, a balcony where you can drink and chill out. The platform is there only for the summer and it is called “Laituri”. There are sun beds for even more relaxing and socializing!

In Lasipalatsi building there is a cinema called Bio Rex (that where I went when I went to the movies for the very first time), Maatilatori, a book shop, another café (Java) and sort of city library.