RFK Rankings · Helsinki
Best Restaurants for Brunch in Helsinki (2026)
Brunch · Helsinki · 8 rooms ranked · Updated May 2026
Compiled by the Restaurants for Kings editorial team · Published February 5, 2026 · Updated May 24, 2026 · Reviewed by Fredrik Filipsson, Editor-in-Chief · How we rank · Corrections
A North African mezze table on a Saturday, a Marrakech-themed buffet on a Sunday: Sandro turned the Helsinki weekend brunch into an event, and the rest of the city followed. Finnish brunch runs on two traditions stitched together, the heritage café with its korvapuusti cinnamon buns and the modern buffet that borrows from the wider world, and the best rooms do one or the other with conviction. The list below was checked against current 2026 listings for opening status, with one note up front: the famous Sandro brand is thriving, but its original Kallio address shows shuttered, so book the Kamppi or Eira rooms. These eight are where Helsinki brunches now, ranked.
1.Sandro
The city's signature weekend brunch, a North African mezze buffet that locals book out; the must-do pick. Reserve early.
Sandro built the Helsinki weekend brunch into a destination, a generous North African, Levantine and Mediterranean mezze buffet that has won best-brunch honours in the city more than once. The format changes by day: Saturday is a Veggie and Vegan Garden, Sunday is Marrakech Madness, both shared spreads rather than a la carte. Book the Kamppi room on the fifth floor of the shopping centre at Urho Kekkosen katu 1, or the Eira room on Tehtaankatu, not the original Kallio address, which now shows closed. Plan on a spend in the low thirties of euros a head. It is the most popular brunch in town, so weekend reservations through sandro.fi are essential. Come hungry and graze the mezze; the spreads reward a slow pace.
Reserve the Kamppi or Eira room on sandro.fi; weekends book out fast.
2.Fazer Café
The Fazer flagship buffet, breads, pancakes and house chocolate at 35.90 euros; the classic Finnish brunch. Book it.
Fazer Café on Kluuvikatu 3 is the flagship of the Fazer chocolate house, and its weekend buffet brunch is the most classic Finnish brunch in the city centre. The spread is a textbook of the genre: Fazer breads and rolls, mini croissants, cheeses, smoked ham, pancakes, fresh juices and smoothies, and a run of the patisserie's own pastries and chocolate to finish. The price is fixed and fair at 35.90 euros a head, served Saturday 9 to 3 and Sunday 10 to 3. It is the dependable, comfortable choice, a buffet that does the Finnish staples properly without chasing a trend. Book ahead through TableOnline, because the central location fills on a weekend. Save room for the chocolate counter.
Reserve on TableOnline; the central buffet fills early on weekends.
3.Chéri
A French-leaning weekend buffet, blinis with caviar and duck confit at 39 euros; the dress-up pick. Worth it.
Chéri on Eteläesplanadi 22, on the smart Esplanadi park strip, runs the most refined weekend buffet in the centre. The spread leans French: a salad table of farm greens, a Skagen, blinis with caviar, hot dishes such as gratin dauphinois, ratatouille and duck confit, and a dessert table topped with pavlova. The price is a fixed 39 euros a head, served both Saturday and Sunday, which is strong value for the quality and the address. It is the brunch to book when you want the buffet format with a little polish rather than a casual café plate. Reservations are recommended for a weekend table. Work the hot dishes and the caviar blinis before the dessert run, which is generous.
Reserve a weekend table at Chéri; the 39-euro buffet runs Saturday and Sunday.
4.Story
Brunch in the Old Market Hall, eggs benedict and the famous salmon soup; the harbour-side pick. Walk in.
Story keeps its flagship inside the Old Market Hall on the South Harbour, one of the most atmospheric rooms in Helsinki to eat a morning plate. The kitchen runs Nordic café food into brunch: eggs benedict, omelettes, porridge, house granola, pancakes and a salmon soup that has its own following, with free-refill filter coffee in the Finnish style. There is no fixed buffet price, so it is a la carte and moderate, which suits a relaxed walk-in rather than a planned event. The market-hall setting, all timber and tile and harbour light, is the reason to choose it over a plainer café. It is busy on weekends but turns tables, so a short wait usually gets a seat. Order the salmon soup with the eggs benedict.
Walk in at the Old Market Hall; weekends are busy but tables turn.
5.Café Ekberg
Helsinki's oldest café, an in-house bakery buffet since 1852; the heritage pick for breads and pastries. A safe bet.
Café Ekberg on Bulevardi 9 has been baking since 1852, which makes it the oldest café in Helsinki and the city's most heritage brunch. The weekend buffet is built on what it does best: freshly baked breads and pastries, cold cuts, cheeses and yoghurt, everything baked in-house six days a week. There is a weekday buffet breakfast too, but the weekend brunch is the one to plan for. Pricing sits in the low twenties of euros, which makes it good value for a serious bakery buffet on a smart boulevard. It is the choice for a traditional, comfortable Finnish brunch rather than a global spread. Reservations help for a group; otherwise walk in and start at the bread table.
Walk in or book a group table; the in-house bakery is the draw.
6.Hotel St. George
An upscale Flow Brunch under a glass roof, chef Mehmet Gurs behind the hotel kitchen; the premium pick. Book ahead.
The Hotel St. George on Yrjönkatu 13, beside the Old Church Park, serves its Flow Brunch in a glass-roofed Wintergarden conservatory, the most upscale hotel brunch in the centre. The design-hotel setting is the draw, daylight pouring through the glass roof over a contemporary Mediterranean-Nordic spread, with the hotel's acclaimed Restaurant Andrea, led by the Finnish-Turkish chef Mehmet Gürs, behind the kitchen. Pricing is in the premium hotel-brunch tier; confirm the current rate when you book, as it runs higher than the café buffets. Advance booking through the hotel's Flow Brunch page is required. This is the brunch for a special weekend rather than a casual morning, where the room and the polish justify the spend. Book the conservatory, not the lobby tables.
Book the Flow Brunch on the St. George site; the Wintergarden is the room to request.
7.Way Bakery
Sourdough, croissants and a tight natural-wine list; the cool-kid brunch for a long morning. Drop in.
Way Bakery turns out more than a hundred organic sourdough loaves a weekend from its Kallio room on Agricolankatu 9, and opened a second counter inside the Old Market Hall in late 2025. The brunch here is the trendy, all-day version: flaky croissants, avocado toast, miso-chocolate brownies and a short, sharp natural-wine list, the kind of morning that drifts into early afternoon. It is a la carte at café prices and walk-in, so no booking required, just an appetite and patience for a weekend queue. This is the room for a younger, slower brunch where the bread and the wine are the point rather than a buffet. Take a corner table, order a croissant and a glass, and stay a while.
Walk in at Kallio or the Old Market Hall; the sourdough goes fast.
8.Café Regatta
A tiny 1887 seaside cottage famous for korvapuusti cinnamon buns; the most Finnish morning in town. Bring cash.
Café Regatta is a tiny red 1887 cottage on the Taka-Töölö shore near the Sibelius monument, and it serves the most quintessentially Finnish morning in the city. This is not a buffet brunch but a coffee-and-pastry ritual: arguably Helsinki's best korvapuusti, the cinnamon bun the country runs on, plus blueberry pie baked daily, eaten on a seaside terrace with the option to grill your own sausage on a Sunday. It is cheap, a la carte and walk-in, with a queue on any sunny day. Treat it as the start or the sweet end of a brunch morning rather than the main event, paired with a walk along the water. Come for the korvapuusti and the view; the coffee refills are part of the deal.
Walk in early on sunny days; the seaside terrace queues fast.
Avoid for brunch
Right city, wrong room for a weekend brunch
Sandro Kallio. The original Sandro at Kolmas linja 17 in Kallio shows closed in current 2026 listings, even though the brand is thriving. Book the Kamppi shopping-centre room or the Eira room on Tehtaankatu instead, both of which run the famous weekend mezze brunch. Turning up at the old Kallio address means a locked door, so check sandro.fi for the live locations before you go.
Grön and Palace. Both are MICHELIN two-star rooms in the 2026 Nordic guide, and both are evening tasting-menu destinations, not brunch venues. Booking either expecting a weekend brunch is a category error: these are multi-hour degustations built for a special dinner. Keep them for an evening when you want Helsinki's fine-dining peak, and brunch at Sandro or Chéri instead.
Savoy. The historic Esplanadi fine-dining institution, with its Alvar Aalto interior, is one of the grandest rooms in the Nordics, but it is a formal lunch and dinner restaurant rather than a brunch spot. It is the wrong format and the wrong tempo for a relaxed weekend morning. Save it for a landmark business lunch or a celebration dinner, and look to the buffets above for brunch.
How to plan brunch in Helsinki
Helsinki brunch divides cleanly into buffets and cafés. The buffets, Sandro, Fazer Café, Chéri, Ekberg and the St. George Flow Brunch, are the planned events: they take reservations, run on weekend timings, and the popular ones fill, so book ahead, especially Sandro and the St. George. The cafés, Story, Way Bakery and Café Regatta, are walk-in and a la carte, where the move is timing rather than booking, arriving before the late-morning rush or accepting a short queue.
Prices split along the same line. The café plates and the heritage buffets, Ekberg and Fazer at 35.90 euros, are the everyday tier, while Chéri at a fixed 39 euros is the value surprise for the quality. The St. George Flow Brunch is the premium event; confirm its current rate when you book. Geography is compact: most of the buffets sit in the central Kluuvi and Esplanadi blocks within a short walk, while Way Bakery is up in Kallio and Café Regatta out by the Töölö shore, both worth the tram for the setting. For the most Finnish morning, pair a buffet in the centre with a korvapuusti at Regatta and a walk along the water.
Frequently asked
Where is the best brunch in Helsinki?
Sandro runs the city's signature weekend brunch, a generous North African and Levantine mezze buffet that has repeatedly won best-brunch honours, with a Veggie and Vegan Garden on Saturday and Marrakech Madness on Sunday. Book the Kamppi or Eira room, not the closed Kallio address. For a classic Finnish buffet, the Fazer Café flagship on Kluuvikatu is the dependable pick at 35.90 euros, and Chéri on Esplanadi offers a refined French-leaning spread at 39 euros. The best room depends on your taste: a global buffet or a Finnish one.
How much does brunch cost in Helsinki?
A weekend buffet brunch in Helsinki runs roughly 30 to 40 euros a head at the headline rooms. Fazer Café is a fixed 35.90 euros and Chéri a fixed 39 euros, both strong value for the breadth. Sandro lands in the low thirties, and Café Ekberg sits a little lower in the low twenties. The St. George Flow Brunch is the premium outlier, priced above the others, so confirm its current rate when booking. The walk-in cafés such as Story, Way Bakery and Café Regatta are a la carte and cheaper for a lighter plate.
Do you need to book brunch in Helsinki?
For the popular buffets, yes. Sandro's weekend mezze brunch and the Hotel St. George Flow Brunch both fill and need advance reservations, through sandro.fi and the hotel site respectively. Fazer Café and Chéri also take bookings through TableOnline and are worth reserving for a weekend table in the centre. The café-style rooms, Story in the Old Market Hall, Way Bakery in Kallio and Café Regatta by the shore, are walk-in and a la carte, so the strategy there is to arrive before the late-morning rush rather than to book.
What is a traditional Finnish brunch?
A traditional Finnish brunch centres on the café and the bakery rather than a global buffet. The classic plate runs to freshly baked breads and rolls, korvapuusti cinnamon buns, pancakes, cheeses, smoked fish and cold cuts, with free-refill filter coffee. Fazer Café and Café Ekberg, the latter baking since 1852, do this heritage version best as a buffet. Café Regatta, a tiny 1887 cottage by the Töölö shore, is the purest expression of it, famous for its korvapuusti and blueberry pie eaten on a seaside terrace. Pair a central buffet with a bun at Regatta for the full tradition.
Are there vegan brunch options in Helsinki?
Yes, and the headline brunch leads on it. Sandro dedicates its Saturday brunch to a Veggie and Vegan Garden, an entirely plant-forward mezze buffet, and its Mediterranean menu carries vegan options on Sundays too. Way Bakery in Kallio runs plant-based bakery items and avocado toast for a casual vegan morning. The buffet rooms such as Chéri and Fazer include vegetarian dishes within their spreads. For a fully vegan brunch, time a visit for Sandro's Saturday Veggie and Vegan Garden, the strongest single option in the city.
Is Helsinki brunch better as a buffet or a café?
It depends on the morning you want. The buffets, Sandro, Fazer, Chéri, Ekberg and the St. George, are the choice for a planned, sit-down weekend event with range and a fixed price, and they reward booking ahead. The cafés, Story in the Old Market Hall, Way Bakery in Kallio and Café Regatta by the sea, suit a relaxed, walk-in morning built around a few plates or pastries and a coffee. For a special occasion go buffet; for a slow, atmospheric morning go café, ideally finishing with a korvapuusti at Café Regatta.
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