At first view, Rovaniemi seems like a tiny arctic city with grey buildings and for-ever-frost. Dive a bit deeper and find the local living rooms with cosy sofas and hot cuppas, play darts with a non-English speaking Finn in a pub or dine as fancy as we locals do Saturday nights with friends and Sunday afternoons with families.
To open up the local dining culture a little bit, I have to admit we are pretty closed up folks in the period of Monday to Friday.
Many restaurants stay closed on Monday and Tuesday because we all simply stay home for the crappiest days of the week. We enjoy our quickly made family portion of local mac’n’cheece, macaroni with mince and white egg milk tucked into oven (we call it Makaroonilaatikko) and take the remains to work for lunch.
But when we reach the end of the week you can meet us outside the regular home-office-home route. We then take a few hours to hang out with friends and colleagues on Friday afternoon in bars.
Afterwork beer and wine with lapas – the Lappish tapas – are served in many bars and our favourite is the new restaurant Bord by hotel Scandic City. What is so special about this place is that the lapas menu consists of local ingredients twisted into tapas bites in skilled hands of the head chef Aki.
Restaurant Bord trusts in fresh, quality ingredients in everything they do check both menus: the seasonal and the à la carte!
Friday night is best used on romantic date in restaurant Nili which has earned all the fame they have as the best restaurant in Rovaniemi.
The word Nili means a storage or a fridge before times of electricity. Lapps used to store meat out of the reach of foxes and lynx as Nili was traditionally build on top of a high pole.
Today, the restaurant is the landmark of the city so make sure you book a table also for weekdays. The interior is made of reindeer leather crafts and waitresses are dressed in traditional women’s long dresses.
Don’t be afraid to try something new like spruce sorbet or bear meat soup. Menu is a fresh mix of modern and traditional Lappish kitchen where the origins of the chefs are visible: mushrooms are hand picked Lappish forest mushrooms and in Rovaniemi menu (4 course menu of the season) you can taste a local treat: birch sap schnapps.
If you want to invest in a good meal drive up the Ounasvaara hill for Lapland Hotels Sky Ounasvaara for a la carte.
This restaurant is the only restaurant in Lapland that made it to top 40 restaurants of Finland. Menus are constantly changing with the top chefs of Finland working on creations of top-notch ingredients into what can be called Northern style dishes.
Restaurant view is worth the drive too: all tables look down a ski slope and the trees are nicely lit for the dark nights. Restaurant has an exciting ambient of authentic Finnish design from 50’s to real fine dining atmosphere.
New addition to Rovaniemi street view offers the lately opened Roka Kitchen & Winebar.
Sanna, the owner and sommelier, has not only designed the interior herself but handpicked the wine menu as she is one of the most northern sommeliers in Finland!
So, weather you are up for lapas and wine or proper dining of several courses (and hours), step in and enjoy! Sanna’s husband Toni is the heart and soul of the menus and as a fisherman himself and the fish dishes are worth trying.
Safartica staff favourites are the Rovaniemi owned, private, cafés with international blend of menus – just like we are!
Ask us for more tips as the city is full of delicious choices!
Lotta
