The story of the Station
The story begins on 17 February 1981, when a small log building with a café opened beside Highway 5 in Lapinlahti. In the yard stood the old water tower from Lapinlahti railway station, a landmark that stuck in the memory of many a passer-by. In just over forty years that little rest stop has grown into one of Finland's best-known and busiest roadside stations.
The station has been owned by the Majala family since 1990 and is still run as a family business. The customer-voted title of Finland's Best Lunch has made this small Northern Savonia roadside station known across the country.
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1884
Where the name comes from
The station is named after Matti and Liisa, the couple in Juhani Aho's novel The Railway (1884).
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Aho set the story in his home parish of Lapinlahti, where the ageing couple Matti and Liisa set out to see the great wonder of their age, the railway and the train. The train itself did not reach Lapinlahti until 1901, seventeen years after the novel appeared. The railway still runs right beside the station.
The other landmark was the old water tower from Lapinlahti railway station that stood in the yard, once used to fill steam locomotives with water. It still appears in the station logo, and was later returned to its original place at the railway station.
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1981
The station is born
A small log building with a café opens beside Highway 5 in Lapinlahti on 17 February 1981.
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In the yard stood the old water tower from Lapinlahti railway station, a sight that stayed with many a passer-by. In just over forty years the little rest stop grew into one of Finland's best-known and busiest roadside stations.
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1985
The family's first station
The Majala family's first station, Hirsi-Kesoil, opens in Kempele.
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It was one of the first roadside stations in Finland to stay open around the clock. It was built largely by the family's own crew in a spirit of shared effort, with little capital but a great deal of grit, and it became a stopping place known throughout the country.
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1990
The family buys the station
The Majala family buys the Lapinlahti station and replaces the plated lunch with a buffet.
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At the time the station belonged to the Union chain and was originally a hotel-restaurant with five guest rooms. From the start the Majalas had a clear vision of a roadside station, and customers found the place quickly. In 1991 Union and Finnoil merged into the Neste chain, and it became Neste Matin ja Liisan Asema.
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2012
The big extension
The station's largest extension is completed: bigger customer areas, kitchen and yard.
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The recession of the 1990s tested the young business and debt piled up quickly, but giving up was never an option. The persistence paid off and the business began to grow.
Around the turn of the millennium the five guest rooms were given up and a space for a Marimekko shop was built onto the side of the log building. The largest extension so far was completed in 2012: customer areas grew, the kitchen was enlarged and the yard was rearranged for lorries and electric-car charging points. Today the premises total around 890 square metres.
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2019
From Highway 5 to Highway 4
The business expands to Pihtipudas as the Niemenharju Travel Centre joins the family.
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In a way a circle closed, since the Majala family's first station had also stood on Highway 4. The family now serves travellers on Finland's two busiest north-south highways.
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2024–2025
Finland's Best Lunch
Matin ja Liisan Asema wins Edenred's Finland's Best Lunch competition twice.
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The win came in two consecutive years, the first restaurant in the competition's history to do so. It was decided by customers: more than 100,000 votes were cast in total. That is what makes the recognition special, because it rests not on a review but on people finding the place good enough to go to the trouble of voting for it. Many of them have driven Highway 5 for decades and stopped with us hundreds of times. A genuine acknowledgement of long-term work done with heart.
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Today
Our values
Family enterprise, listening to the customer and plain humanity still guide everything we do.
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Customer service is done with heart and a cheerful Northern Savonia attitude, and even the busiest day is no reason to leave anyone unnoticed. The food is made in our own kitchen the way it would be made at home, and a regular customer gets familiar quality year after year. We offer steady, long-term jobs and flex around people's circumstances, because good service comes from staff who are happy at work. Many have already spent two or three decades with us, and there are several nationalities among us.
