The Best Cafés in Finland
Red brick walls, high ceilings, and the steady hum of a working roaster next door define this specialty café inside a former horse stable. Voted Finland’s best café in 2018 and 2020, and Lehmus has won best roastery three times. Hand-pour options include V60 and AeroPress; cakes change weekly.
Roastery and café in the Malski cultural centre, revitalizing a former brewery from 1912. Joonas Reinikainen founded Kahiwa after visiting a coffee farm near his grandparents’ home in Kenya; F1 driver Valtteri Bottas joined as co-owner in 2020. Saturday brunch and house-baked bread complete the offer.
In a quiet neighbourhood, this small café functions as a roasting operation and a community hub. Founder Olli built his first roaster with a local metalsmith; barista Anna earned recognition as a young coffee influencer. Some blend is named after streets in Kirjala, where the roastery started.
Finland’s oldest bakery is a proper institution with table service and chandeliers. It was opened by Fredrik Ekberg as a French-Russian confectionery in 1852 and is now run by descendant Otto Ekberg. The Napoleon cake follows an unchanged recipe; the Alexander Torte honours Czar Alexander I.
Inspired by Tokyo, Paris, and Copenhagen, the seasonal pastries could include matcha tiramisu, Basque cheesecake, and cardamom buns with a twist. Andante doubles as a flower shop with three decades of history; the Japanese baristas pull espresso with precision. A favorite in the Design District.
Wicker chairs line the riverfront terrace of a yellow building from 1829, where baristas pull espresso from house-roasted beans. The family-owned roastery Turun Kahvipaahtimo has won Finland’s Barista of the Year six times. The homemade cakes and quiches change every day.
Roaster Samuli Pääkkönen co-founded Frukt in 2018 after training in Copenhagen. Clean lines define this 2024 showroom, the first permanent café from one of Finland’s most respected micro-roasters. It offers hand-brew options, matcha from TeeMaa, and pastries from Bageri Å.
Founded by childhood friends Svante Hampf and Benjamin Andberg, Kaffa grew from a garage experiment to Finland’s largest artisan roastery. Guests can watch the roasting on a 50-year-old Probat through glass; the School of Coffee trains baristas next door. Voted Finland’s best coffee shop in 2017 and 2019.
Behind a narrow glass door on the main street Aleksanterinkatu, a staircase leads up to the café where this third-wave chain began in 2009. Jens Hampf runs the café while his brother Svante roasts the beans at Kaffa Roastery. Weekend brunch in the light-filled rooms is highly popular.
Cinnamon buns stack high in the display of this small café in the Art Nouveau district of Ullanlinna. The Romanian couple Cosmin and Cristina Tatosian bake everything in-house and pull espresso from top European roasters. The terrace catches afternoon sun by the park.
Miriam Laitinen has baked for Jyväskylä since 2011 and remains a rarity with her completely gluten-free patisserie. The cakes are so good most guests never notice the difference. Velvet sofa booths, bentwood chairs and table service complete the European-inspired setting.
The Helsinki outpost of the Swedish specialty roastery uses a brick warehouse from the 19th century that once served as the Russian tsar’s stables. Single-origin pour-overs, Chemex, and Aeropress share the menu with raw cakes from pastry maker Suvi Tikamo. Harbor views from the terrace.
Single-origin beans from Helsinki’s Good Life roastery, ranking among the world’s top five percent, define this bohemian coffee bar. Pastries arrive from quality bakeries across the city, including croissants from Greenbake. All-day breakfast, seven days a week.
High ceilings and tall windows make this station building from 1869 feel bright and spacious. Petra and Lasse Karjalainen run the café, roastery, interior shop, and B&B on the historic grounds. The name simply means Pulsa Station; the village sits 20 kilometres from lakeside Lappeenranta.
In 2018, four friends from fine-dining restaurant Grön, Good Life Coffee, and Let Me Wine joined forces for a common project: a bakery in a former dentist’s practice where sourdough is proofed for 48 hours. Not only the bread but also their reinvented cinnamon buns create queues.
Behind the granite walls of the former Kakola prison lies this organic sourdough bakery and mill. Croissants undergo a three-day fermentation in a dedicated, temperature-controlled room. Frukt Coffee Roasters supplies the espresso from right next door. Open Wednesday to Sunday.
Third-wave coffee meets vinyl at this music and arts café, opened in 2024 by the team behind Boulangerie Marco. Browse the record bins, catch an art exhibition, then stay for evening cocktails and DJ sets. Bread comes from Marco’s bakery; the atmosphere is effortlessly cool.
This family-owned café lies at the base of an observation tower from 1929 on the world’s largest gravel ridge. It is famous for its sugar-dusted doughnuts (munkki), baked from a recipe developed in the 1980s. Gluten-free versions are available; coffee from Kahwe Roastery.
Ornate ceilings, stained glass, and a fresco by Vilho Sjöström fill this 200-year-old Art Nouveau space on the Esplanade. This flagship café, run by Robert Paulig’s children, houses a gelato factory and a bakery known for its cinnamon rolls. A grand piano invites spontaneous performances.
Behind a climbing honey rose, a falu-red cottage from 1866 houses one of Mariehamn’s most beloved cafés. Bagarstugan bakes daily: the traditional Åland pancakes with prune cream, goat cheese pies, and layer cakes. Inside, the original wood-fired oven remains as a reminder of the building’s past as a bakehouse.