Aanaar is the restaurant of the Hotel Kultahovi and the reason a small surge of food-led travellers reach Inari each year. The kitchen, run for many years by Markus Sämpi, builds tasting menus entirely from the larder of the Inari region: reindeer (every cut, dried, smoked, slow-cooked), arctic char from the lake, wild willow grouse, cloudberries, lichen, wild herbs. The cooking is technically polished but never showy; the ingredient is always the point.
The dining room is small (about thirty covers), looking out over the Juutuanjoki rapids. Reservations open online and fill weeks ahead, especially over the aurora season. The wine list is short but well-chosen. Open for dinner only; closed for several weeks in autumn and spring.