STOCKHOLM SWEET HOME

If Stockholm is renowned for its countless islands, parks and palaces to amaze you, your palate will not be left out on the shores of the Baltic. The Swedish capital is above all known for its cultural offer, but its gastronomic scene has become one of the richest in Europe in the last decade. Hereafter a clue to discover it with five different tables.

MEATBALLS FOR THE PEOPLE  

Meatballs as a standard...  Meat dishes are part of Swedish gastronomy. And Meetballs For the People – a brand that says a lot about its intention – are worthy ambassadors. Located in the heart of Sofo, the trendy district of the Scandinavian capital, this polpette specialist offers not in all possible forms, dogmatic roundness obliges, but rather to see in all colors: from the most classic meatballs with beef, pork, veal, chicken and wild boar, to the most Nordic ones based on elk, deer, and ... which does not exclude a vegetarian option on the menu.

But everything here encourages a meat journey, the warm and comforting décor, focused on nature and hunting. The walls of a very English pub green and the different game heads which, hung as trophies, plunge you straight into a Guy Ritchie film, firearmsless, law forces.

We love the chef's plate which allows you to taste several possible meats, among which veal and elk are the ultimate comfort after a day of visiting, even more so when accompanied by a stout brewed on the island of Gotland, 150km away.

📍 Nytorgsgatan 30 - 116 40 Stockholm, Sweden
✔️ From Sunday to Thursday : 11AM-11PM // Friday & Saturday : 11AM-00PM 
💶 50€ 

One of our best adress in Stockholm. Located in the heart of the island of Södermalm in the south-central part of Stockholm, Triton offers a unique menu every day (adaptable to individual dietary restrictions), dictated by the availability of products, all from local producers.

Sweden obliges, only the wines on the menu are not of Nordic origin, with a strong penchant for Spanish grape varieties, including a Verdejo from the Cantalapiedra estate in Castilla y Leon which has nothing to be ashamed of compared to the Chardonnays our palates are more accustomed with.

Kitchen open to the dining room, service with great care that does not forget to turn and turn again the vinyls in the rhythm with the dishes, everything follows one another here without a false note. Warm salad of vegetables, guanciale, mushrooms and sherry sauce as a prelude, followed by a dish of ravioli with parsley and lemongrass, again of remarkable balance.

This is followed by a lamb, raised less than 100km from Stockholm, slaughtered the day before and worked the same day in two ways, as a shoulder and a sausage, covered with a pointed cabbage flambéed to order. For dessert the night we went, a homemade raw cream ice cream accompanied by blueberries and crispy lace, the kind of dessert that we instantly regret having shared together, quite the opposite of the moment spent with our hosts in the evening. Unquestionably an address to keep and share, then.

📍Ringvägen 87 - 118 61 Stockholm, Sweden
✔️ From Tuesday to Saturday, 5PM-11PM 
💶 Menu at 60€, wineglass apx. 13€ 

Head to the Östermalm district, and more precisely to the Saluhall halls, where Stockholm provides the best it has to offer in terms of products: Baltic fish, seafood, game meat, Scandinavian pastries, a real food market.

To observe the stalls as best as possible, all you have to do is take a step up in the literal sense of the word and climb the few steps that lead to the balcony of the halls, where the Hedvig restaurant has just opened its doors. Up there, ultra-local cuisine mixes the most essential products of Scandinavian cuisine: salmon, Arctic char, venison, or doppsko, a Swedish version of beef bourguignon.

When tasted, the freshness of the fish is instantaneous, the Arctic char revealing aromas of nuts, sublimated by a celery puree that does much more than accompany it. As for meat, venison top is proof that if Scandinavian countries are not very supplied with meat, they have mastered the techniques, cooking and accompaniments, green cabbage being anything but white cabbage on the plate.

Desserts are not to be neglected either, special mention to the rhubarb crumble and its wild raspberry sorbet from Sweden. And if your eyes are bigger than your stomach, you can use it to admire the bird's-eye view of the stalls of Saluhall, an even more magical setting at sunset.

📍 Humlegårdsgatan 3 - 114 46 Stockholm, Sweden
✔️ Everyday from 11AM to 00PM.
💶 Menu at 60€ with a drink 

It arrives a bit rosy, sliced very thinly and nicely arranged in a delicate carpaccio on a wooden plate: the heart of elk! Yours – heart, or rather the one of your vegetarian neighbor – has a top that says a lot about the cultural gap that still separates the south from the north of our good old continent...

But Knut gently advocates belonging to the Viking culture, to the gathering and hunting that constitutes it. The two locations – one of which is more pub than gastronomic – are located a few hundred metres from each other, as if to better accompany the eater in his quest for the Nordic sense.

And the elk heart in all this? Delicious! Enough to whet your appetite and open your mind for the reindeer tartare that is easily swallowed with thin slices of pickled squash and whipped mayonnaise... with clarified butter. Dried reindeer heart and Västerbotten cheese – "the parmesan of the region" – are accompanied by white pizza with chanterelles and above all aquavit cocktails, which remain, after all, the best way to face the polar night. Here you are, Viking!

📍 Upplandsgatan 17 - 113 60 Stockholm, Sweden
✔️ Monday to Thursday: 11AM-11PM // Friday: 11AM-00PM // Saturday: 4PM-00PM 
💶 60 – 80€ with a drink 

STORA BAGERIET 

Literally opposite Dramaten, the Royal Drama Theatre in Stockholm, Stora Bageriet does everything but act. The perfect place for a fika, the famous local coffee break, coffee, but especially pastries, let's be honest if not frugal.

It is difficult to make a choice as the window is filled with pastries, local breads, and other savory dishes, but, due to the crowd of customers, it is nevertheless necessary to finish deciding. The roast beef smorrebrod is as full as the bread is worked, of a colour so dark that it would make the whitest of French baguettes pale in comparison. As for the salmon one, freshness is the order of the day, the generous slice of smoked fish swimming in a sea of cream and dill, for a guaranteed effect. A taste for simple things.

On the sweet side, it's impossible to talk about fika without biting into the classic kanelbulle, this cinnamon and cardamom brioche, a must-have of Swedish gastronomy, much more emblematic than the wiener, this puff pastry brioche folded into a square and filled with vanilla, less famous but just as gourmet.

📍 Sibyllegatan 2 - 114 51 Stockholm, Sweden
✔️ Monday to Friday: 7.30AM-6PM // Satudray & Sunday: 8AM-6PM 
💶 Smörrebröd at 10€, pastries around 7€, and hot drinks between 5€ and 10€