By now you are probably aware of the Finnish alcohol selling system. Everything that has more than…read more4.7 % of alcohol can't be sold at normal supermarkets but has to be sold at the state owned liquor stores called Alko. Unfortunately that breaks down the variety of things you can buy to what Alko has in their assortment. Still they normally have quite a lot of good products in most Alko stores. If you are searching for something special though and want to have a bigger variety and get some good suggestions what would go best with your food e.g. you should check out Alko at Paasikivenaukio right across from Kiasma. It is the biggest Alko in whole Helsinki and has a really big variety of all kinds of alcoholic drinks. The prices don't differ from any other market since they are regulated through the state. It is expensive anyway. This place like any other Alko in Finland is closed on Sundays.

If you're going to have smoked fish and cheese and all sorts of other Finnish delicacies, you might…read moreas well get yourself some beer or wine to go with it. In the Old Markethall (Venha Kauppahalli), that function is provided by the Alko shop. It's a small shop and it is definitely tightly packed with booze of all flavors and types. Coolers with some chilled but the majority is at room temperature. Wines from all around the world. Prices are better for more local stuff, but I did see a Port wine from one of the wineries I tasted in Porto here and it was not cheap. [Review 10068 overall, 1653 of 2018.]

This little liquor store is located at the north end of the Old Market Hall. It's tight, cramped…read morequarters with a good selection of wines. The inventory seemed to focus on wines, particularly red wines. Since Finland doesn't grow grapes, as far as I know, they import their wine from elsewhere. So that's what this alcohol shop sells- primarily imported wines. They do sell some beer here, at rather elevated prices. You could buy singles or a sixer of beer. They had small cards describing a little bit about the beers- hoppiness, or maltiness, or whatever. They seemed to focus on craft local beers, instead of the imports. They had the best wine selection I'd seen in Helsinki, but the local supermarkets had better beer selections. They also offered a very limited array of booze, I think. The place is appropriately located next to the restroom. My favorite part of this shop is how they offered a free publication about Helsinki beer and liquor culture, what the mixologists are up to, and what it means to drink locally! The clerk was attentive, and things were clearly marked with their prices. Beers started at about 3 euro.

Friendly and knowledgeable staff that gave us great wine recommendations as well as great…read morevegan/vegetarian restaurant recommendations. Sadly, since we were traveling in August, all of the restauranteurs were on vacation. After grabbing a couple of bottles of vino here we hit the supermarkets instead.