Greenlandic food isn’t the healthiest: it’s fatty and built on fish and hunting, but I liked it. Try mattak, which is whale skin, and look out for seaweed and local plants too. These days Nuuk has restaurants from all over the world, and I even found a Thai one there.
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Greenlandic cuisine isn’t among the healthiest in the world. On my visit I tried typical Greenlandic dishes, and I liked them, even though in everyday life I prefer less fatty food with more vitamins and fibre.
Greenlandic food and its history, shaped by fishing and hunting
What do people eat in Greenland, and what’s a typical dish? When I visited Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, I tried most of the traditional dishes. My article on what to see in Nuuk has restaurant tips too.
For a long time Greenlanders were self-sufficient in food, until Denmark colonised the island and brought bread, sugar and coffee. That’s why their food today has a mix of influences. Here’s what traditional Greenlandic food looks like, and what to try on a visit to Greenland.
The Inuit, Greenland’s Indigenous people, and their traditional dishes
Most people in Greenland are Inuit, the Indigenous people who came here from Alaska, Canada and Siberia, so their culture and traditions run deep in Greenlandic food too.
Traditional Greenlandic food depends heavily on what the land and sea provide, because Greenland is surrounded by the sea and glaciers and rock cover most of the land. The main ingredients are fish, marine animals and meat, along with local plants and berries.
Tip from Milan Since November 2024, Air Greenland has flown direct from Copenhagen to Nuuk, and since late October 2026 to Ilulissat too. In season, though, some flights still go to the former military base at Kangerlussuaq. I’ve written about what to do in Kangerlussuaq and where to stay.
Greenlandic tapas
This is the plate of Greenlandic tapas I ordered at Killut, a traditional restaurant in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. From left to right: a piece of whale skin on dried fish, reindeer meat with pickled onions in the middle, then prawns and snow crab. I’d recommend it.
Why is the word Eskimo offensive, and why say Inuit instead?
Don’t call them Eskimos. The word Eskimo is rude: it’s said to mean ‘meat eater’, and using it is like calling a Roma person a ‘gypsy’. They are Inuit, the Indigenous people who settled Greenland from Alaska, Canada and Siberia, and for a long time the Danes oppressed them.
What do people eat in Greenland, and what are the typical dishes?
Mattak (or Maktuk) is whale skin
One of the best-known Greenlandic dishes is ‘Mattak’, a traditional food made from whale. It consists of pieces of blubber and skin, and it’s a firm favourite in Greenlandic cooking. Another popular dish is ‘Kiviak’, made from whole auks (seabirds) fermented in a seal skin.
Mattak is usually cut into small pieces and served with the skin on. The skin tends to be jelly-like, and the blubber is oily, with an intense, sometimes earthy flavour. It’s eaten raw, with no boiling or baking. It’s an important source of fat and nutrients for the Inuit, who live in the harsh conditions of the Arctic.
Fat gives the body energy and insulates it against the cold. For the Inuit and other Greenlanders, mattak is also an important part of their culture and diet.
Tip from Milan The taste of mattak took me a while to get used to. If it comes as a shock, add a few drops of lemon: that helped me. I’d compare it to cartilage.
Seaweed, berries and plants in traditional Greenlandic food
Greenlandic cooking makes good use of other fish and seafood too, such as cod, halibut and prawns. Dried fish is popular too, including small fish called ‘Ammassat’. Fermented dishes like ‘Kiviak’ have relatives in other Nordic countries as well. In Iceland people eat ‘Kæstur hákarl’ (fermented shark meat), and in the Faroe Islands ‘Ræstur fiskur’ (fermented cod).
Greenlanders also often cook with local plants, seaweed and berries, such as ‘Niviarsiaq’, a kind of Arctic herb a bit like lettuce, and ‘Qajaqarralik’, wild berries similar to lingonberries.
It’s worth pointing out that Greenlandic cuisine has been shaped by modern cooking and by influences from other countries. The larger towns have a wide range of restaurants serving food from all over the world, for locals and tourists alike. It made me smile when I came across a Thai restaurant in Nuuk, the capital.
More of my articles about Greenland:
- What to see in Sisimiut, a small, quiet town on the west coast
- What to see in Ilulissat, a town by the Icefjord and my favourite place in all of Greenland
Happy travels!
A Slovak travel blogger who has been getting Slovaks out of their office chairs since 2013. Author of the book Influencer and founder of the Bez Mapy blog.
