10 Best Restaurants in Southwestern Coast and the Ålands, Finland

Indigo is in a brick building in the heart of Mariehamn, with a main restaurant on the first floor, a bistro, and a bar with a lively outdoor patio and weekday lunch menu. Finnish beef and arctic char feature on the à la carte menu, with "tapas of the sea" and Åland beef tartare as starters. The bistro's gastropub menu includes excellent burgers, while the cheese platter includes Åland cheeses. The bistro is especially popular with families.

The name means "mom," and the regulars at this small-yet-airy riverside bistro feel right at home. The bright, light-green-and-white dining room is outfitted with chairs from the 1960s and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the river. The menu changes monthly and always includes locally sourced seasonal ingredients in its fresh fish dishes, including charcoaled salmon, grilled whitefish and perch, duck, mushrooms, and local cheeses. There's a four-course set menu in addition to lunch and the à la carte dinner menu.

Housed in a delightful harborside wooden pavilion, this lively summer steak, pizza, and salad restaurant also hosts live music performances and is popular with visiting boaters.

An elegant riverside restaurant, Smör (Swedish for "butter") prides itself on being an ambassador of local food and a master of Nordic cuisine, and has earned a reputation for its discerning wine cellar filled with small vineyard labels. A selection of cold or hot small plates comprise the à la carte menu (four items minimum recommended), but the highlight is an all-Nordic-ingredient prix-fixe menu that includes duck, herring, and venison. Special dietary requirements can be catered to if specified in advance.

This very popular summer-only restaurant (due to its sheltered seaside outdoor terrace) spills out from a fabulous wooden Mariehamn yacht club building. The "Teriyaki 4.0" Japanese theme menu, from which two or three items can be selected to comprise a full meal, includes beef tataki and miso-sesame-baked cod. There is a good pizza menu in the adjacent Pub Albin.

Local, in-season, and fresh ingredients, including foraged herbs and salad ingredients from nearby forests, are featured on set menus at this sustainably principled gourmet restaurant, voted Finnish Restaurant of the Year in 2018. A popular venue for special events or celebrations, Kaskis reopened after renovations in 2020 and lists rainbow trout, whitefish, venison, and forest berries on its menu, with matching wine packages.

A summer restaurant in a historic wooden pavilion on the waterfront, Kaivohuone boasts barbecue ribs, burgers, pizzas, and salads on its terrace menu. Live music by top Finnish bands in the main hall adds some extra bounce to summer evenings.

The Park Alandia Hotel in Mariehamn's lovely leafy Esplanade has a popular restaurant. In addition to a great bistro menu in its bar, lunch is popular on weekdays. The restaurant's classic dish is spiced beef à la Park, a delicious fillet with honey gherkins, red cabbage, beans, and pan-fried garlic potatoes. Try one of the many varieties of the local Åland Stallhagen beer in the bar. The restaurant scores extra points by virtue of being open on Sunday, not something you can take for granted in these parts. Look out for live music events in the bar on Friday and Saturday.

This classic Finnish restaurant, founded and used as a meeting place by a local society of the same name but open to all, is decorated in dark wood and has large windows offering a splendid view of an adjacent park close to Turku Art Museum. The menu makes up for its brevity with quality. Mushroom soup, fried duck, a fish of the day, and ravioli are on the main course list, with a special dessert highlight of marinated cloudberries and dark chocolate.

A superb waterfront location and a menu comprising fresh local products such as fish, game, mushrooms, and berries, in addition to a pleasant outdoor terrace in summer, are the main attractions of Uusi Kilta.