Ravintola Lilja

What is Restaurant Lilja like?

Fine dining restaurant Lilja offers sophisticated culinary experiences with a Finnish heart, inspired by French cuisine, and using only the finest European ingredients. Our professional staff’s knowledge of food and wine, combined with personal service in an elegant setting, ensures an unforgettable dining experience.

Wild fish from local fishermen, Finnish berries, reindeer from Sodankylä, and French caviar – Lilja’s menu changes with the seasons, showcasing the best Finnish and European seasonal ingredients to bring new and different culinary experiences all year round.

What do you recommend from the menu?

Head Chef Ville Rainio: I’m always excited about creating a new menu and all the dishes we select. Seafood is currently at its best, full of minerals and fats, so we are offering the finest Norwegian hand-dived scallops, Swedish oysters, clams, lobsters, and more. We put a lot of time and effort into sourcing the highest quality ingredients close to our restaurant. Simplicity is the best way to honor these beautiful products we get to use.

For example, our new scallop dish is served lightly salted. Raw Crystal oyster cream, green tomato juice seasoned with seaweed, and elderflower-marinated green strawberries bring acidity and a sense of spring to the dish. It’s a visually striking dish, served on a plate surrounded by seaweed and steaming dry ice, representing the fog that rises from the sea early in the morning when cold water meets the first warmth of the sun, and the divers dive in to bring us this delicacy.

What type of person leads your kitchen? What is your kitchen philosophy?

Ville Rainio takes diners on a gastronomic journey, drawing inspiration from the traditions of French cuisine while showcasing the best ingredients from Finland and nearby regions, with the season at the center.

Rainio has worked in several Michelin-starred restaurants across Europe, including the world-renowned Noma. He says that long days taught him the basics of survival in the kitchen and what it takes to thrive in the industry.

Lilja works with many wonderful producers across Finland, such as Heikkilä’s Juustola butter, reindeer from Sodankylä, and seaweed from Åland. Close collaboration with producers is very important to Rainio in many ways. Using local and hyper-local products is not only environmentally friendly, but also best for the product, as it doesn’t suffer on its journey to the customer’s table.

Lilja’s kitchen philosophy combines a Finnish heart, French inspiration, and the finest European ingredients into refined culinary experiences. Locality and seasonality are central at Lilja.

All herbs, edible flowers, roots, and vegetables are delivered from the restaurant’s own garden in Malmi. Wild herbs and plants, such as the first spruce shoots, birch leaves, sorrel, and roots, seagrass, ferns, and many others, play a significant role on the menu as soon as they can be harvested. In summer, a big effort goes into preservation processes to ensure enough supply for the winter, such as wild herb sugar, salts, oils, vinegars, and various fermented preserves from the fields’ vegetables.

Lilja exclusively uses wild-caught fish, and the restaurant has its own buoy in Åland, where seaweed is grown and harvested for the kitchen. Other 100% organic producers include Töölö’s Rolling Cheese, Helsinki’s Meijeri dairy products made in Viikki, butter from Mouhujärvi, Finnish Dry Aged beef, and reindeer meat sourced solely from the Poromoisio reindeer farm in Sodankylä, to name a few.