Vegetarianism is common in Finland, but even in Helsinki veganism is still quite rare. Finding meat-free options is easy, but completely vegan food may be difficult to source. There are no completely vegan restaurants in Helsinki, but many vegetarian restaurants which carry vegan options.
Most vegetarian restaurants are located in or near the city center or the Kallio/Hakaniemi district, which is worth visiting. Their addresses are marked with an asterisk (*). The Hakaniemen tori market square also houses a farmer's market every weekday until 3 PM.
Vegetarian Restaurants in Helsinki
Zucchini (Fabianinkatu 4), Kipsari (Hämeentie 135) and Kasvisbaari (Kaikukatu 4) are cafés offering vegetarian food and lunches, though only Zucchini is located in the city center. Silvoplee (Toinen linja 3*) is a restaurant/café serving a mostly raw food buffet (where food is paid by weight), baked goods, raw desserts and many kinds of beverages.
Vegemesta (Vaasankatu 6*) is a vegetarian burger place. They serve hamburgers and hot dogs based on seitan, soy and hemp products, but not all of them are vegan. There is also a selection of soy beverages and organic soft drinks.
Galleria Keidas (Fleminginkatu 7*) is a café/organic food store that serves a vegan brunch on Sundays between 11 AM and 2 PM. The brunch features e.g. homemade tofu.
Vegetarian Options in Normal Restaurants
Most restaurants have vegetarian options, but they usually contain eggs, cheese or other dairy products. Same goes for vegetarian burgers offered by the Finnish fast food chain Hesburger. Pizza parlors do not offer soy cheese, so the only option to get vegan pizza is to order it without cheese.
Besides the aforementioned vegan cafés, one could go to Soihtu (Aurorankatu 13), which offers some vegan options in a cozy atmosphere. Many cafés offer the option for soy lattes, but vegan baked goods are not very common.
As in many cities, Asian restaurants offer the best vegetarian options. The high-dining Asian restaurant Farang (Ainonkatu 3) even has a fully vegan, strongly Thai-influenced tasting menu.
Another good bet is "Tex-mex" restaurants, most of which also have decent vegetarian/vegan options and nowadays several like the even have tofu and soy burgers. Amarillo and Chicos chains even offer smoked tofu, though in Chicos it's smothered with honey. Chicos is one of the rare restaurants serving soy ice cream.
Vegan Products in Finnish Grocery Stores
Pretty much all grocery stores have a range of non-dairy "milk" products like soy, rice and oat milk, soy and oat yoghurts and soy and oat ice cream. Larger stores often also have soy cheeses, almond milk, whipped soy cream, rice ice cream and rice yoghurt, but hemp and coconut based products are yet to make it to the mainstream.
Oat-based dairy replacements are quite popular in Finland. Yosa oat yoghurts are worth a try. Beneviva and GoGreen make oat-based cream, "sour cream", vanilla sauce and GoGreen even has a whippable oat cream which is indistinguishable from the dairy product.
Tofu is sold in most grocery stores, but is quite expensive compared to Asian grocery stores, also best found in Hakaniemi/Kallio. Larger grocery stores also carry soy sausages, nuggets and burgers, but for tempeh and seitan products a trip to the Asian stores is again needed.
Health/natural food stores Ruohonjuuri (Salomonkatu 5) and Ekolo (Porthaninkatu 1*) carry many ingredients useful for vegetarian. Asoka (Torkkelinkatu 3*) is a tiny grocery store specially for vegetarians. Punnitse ja Säästä is a chain which primarily sells in bulk, but also has other vegan-friendly products like soy mayonnaise and some mock meats and vegan cheeses.
See Also
Public Transportation in Finland
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