Restaurant NiliPoro

Hi, I am Esa Nilivaara, a local reindeer herder and owner of this restaurant. My roots are deep in the Sami people who lived in the forests, they were hunter-gatherers.

We opened this NiliPoro restaurant in the middle of Levi center, because I wanted to serve authentic reindeer food – made of local reindeers – to the people. These good recipes I got from my own mum.

There was 24 seats at our first restaurant, but soon it wasn’t enough, so we opened new and bigger NiliPoro Restaurant next to the old place.

We serve reindeer in many different ways and all meat is from our own herd, and it’s processed at Kittilä. So it’s surely local and fresh. Our reindeer delicacies are made by old traditions – with hints of global trends. Berries and mushrooms are picked from our own marshlands and woods nearby. We also make our flatbread every morning, by my mother’s recipe and it’s so good!

This is what we want You to taste and experience too!

You can see my reindeers wandering around Levi during your stay. You recognize them from their red or black neckband.

We want people to find reindeer meat at Levi, so you will find it in our restaurant. It’s local food at it’s best.

Welcome, it would be nice to have You as a guest!

best regards   Esa

Oh by the way! The mark around our restaurant logo, is the eartag which I use to mark my own reindeers – if You wonder what is that sign…

And the name Nili, means a place which was used  to store food outdoors up in a tree, to prevent animals from accessing it. Poro=reindeer and Nilivaara= that cache up in a mountain.