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Six tasty spots for a Swedish meat feast

As a new pop-up champagne and hot dog concept bar opens in Stockholm, The Local brings you six affordable destinations for meat lovers across Sweden, alongside our weekly interactive culture and entertainment listings.

Published: 10 September 2015 08:14 CEST
Six tasty spots for a Swedish meat feast
Stockholm's new Korv & Bubbel concept bar. Photo: The Local
1. Korv & Bubbel (Sausages and Bubbles), Stockholm
 
Stockholm's Södra Teatern has just launched a range of salty sausages designed to be washed down with a dry glass of champagne. The new menu is being served exclusively on the first floor South Bar of the multi-levelled building, while the theatre's restaurant undergoes renovation work between September 9th and 20th. When The Local attended a tasting on Wednesday lunchtime we found the service slow, but the hot dogs were scrumptious and a perfect size to snack on during a business meeting or after work drink with colleagues. The Garden Dog apppeared a particular hit with guests, featuring a beetroot topping. All priced at 98 kronor ($11.60) these sausages aren't a steal, but Södra Teatern does also offer almost unrivalled views over the capital's old town for free.
 

The launch of the new concept on Wednesday. Photo: The Local
 
2. Frick och Hagberg, Stockholm
 
Sweden's food truck industry swelled over the summer, despite plenty of wet weekends, with Frick och Hagberg scoring some of the tastiest reviews. Boasting a range of burgers made with organic Swedish beef and pork from Uppland and topped off with homemade mayonaise and fresh vegetables, if this wagon shows up in your neighbourhood, you won't be disappointed. Based mostly in the Stockholm area, you can follow the truck on Facebook to find out where it will be based over the next seven days. The team behind it also offer corporate catering.
 

A Frick och Hagberg burger. Photo: Frick och Hagberg
 
3. Bullen, Malmö
 
One of the highest rated traditonal Swedish food outlets in southern Sweden on Tripadvisor, Bullen is a cosy pub restaurant in Malmö offering a range of hearty dishes perfect for autumn and winter. Veal meatballs served with a whiskey cream sauce are a speciality here. Or try Bullen's popular house hamburger which comes with crispy bacon and melted cheddar cheese. The fried salted pork with onion sauce will also get your tastebuds bouncing. All main courses are around 200 kronor ($23.80)
 

Bullen has a cosy atmosphere. Photo: Bullen
 
4. Gourmet Korv, Gothenburg
 
Top Sweden-based travel blogger Steve Vickers describes this west Sweden delight as lifting “Sweden's takeaway hot dog tradition to new heights” and we couldn't agree more. The wild sausage is one of the most popular snacks on the menu, packing in venison flavoured with cognac and juniper. Cheese with lamb chorizo or spicy garlic sausage are among the other popular choices. Lunch with a drink here should cost no more than about 80–100 kronor ($9-11).
 

The outside of Gourmet Korv in Gothenburg. Photo: Steve Vickers
 
5. Meatballs for the People, Stockholm
 
Nestled in the heart of the trendy SoFo district on the hipster island of Södermalm, this restaurant offers not only some of the tastiest meatballs in the capital, but a very warm welcome too. At weekends you usually need to book ahead here, or there's a bar area with high stools where you can sip on a beer or cava while you're waiting. The Local recommends the meatballs with goats cheese as an especially yummy starter. Main dishes start from 179 kronor ($21). You can also buy take-out.
 

Meatballs for the People in Södermalm, Stockholm. Photo: Karl Ritter/TT
 
6. 7/11 and Pressbyrån, nationwide
 
No list about Swedish hot dogs would be complete without mentioning the bargain snacks sold at 7/11 and Pressbyrån (newsagent) stores on street corners and at train and bus stations around the country. While these sausages are about as far as way as you can get from fine Nordic dining, at around 15 kronor ($2.40) they are a handy option when you're short on time or cash and are pretty tasty too. If you're out partying with a group of Swedes don't be surprised if they grab one to help line their stomachs before heading out for the night, and another to soak up the alcohol on the way home.
 

A Pressbyrån store in Stockholm. Photo: Hasse Holmberg/TT
 

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FOOD AND DRINK

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

Should you tip in Sweden? Habits are changing fast thanks to new technology and a hard-pressed restaurant trade, writes James Savage.

Published: 5 April 2024 13:59 CEST
OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

The Local’s guide to tipping in Sweden is clear: tip for good service if you want to, but don’t feel the pressure: where servers in the US, for instance, rely on tips to live, waiters in Sweden have collectively bargained salaries with long vacations and generous benefits. 

But there are signs that this is changing, and the change is being accelerated by card machines. Now, many machines offer three preset gratuity percentages, usually starting with five percent and going up to fifteen or twenty. Previously they just asked the customer to fill in the total amount they wanted to pay.

This subtle change to a user interface sends a not-so-subtle message to customers: that tipping is expected and that most people are probably doing it. The button for not tipping is either a large-lettered ‘No Tip’ or a more subtle ‘Fortsätt’ or ‘Continue’ (it turns out you can continue without selecting a tip amount, but it’s not immediately clear to the user). 

I’ll confess, when I was first presented with this I was mildly irked: I usually tip if I’ve had table service, but waiting staff are treated as professionals and paid properly, guaranteed by deals with unions; menu prices are correspondingly high. The tip was a genuine token of appreciation.

But when I tweeted something to this effect (a tweet that went strangely viral), the responses I got made me think. Many people pointed out that the restaurant trade in Sweden is under enormous pressure, with rising costs, the after-effects of Covid and difficulties recruiting. And as Sweden has become more cosmopolitain, adding ten percent to the bill comes naturally to many.

Boulebar, a restaurant and bar chain with branches around Sweden and Denmark, had a longstanding policy of not accepting tips at all, reasoning that they were outdated and put diners in an uncomfortable position. But in 2021 CEO Henrik Kruse decided to change tack:

“It was a purely financial decision. We were under pressure due to Covid, and we had to keep wages down, so bringing back tips was the solution,” he said, adding that he has a collective agreement and staff also get a union bargained salary, before tips.

Yet for Kruse the new machines, with their pre-set tipping percentages, take things too far:

“We don’t use it, because it makes it even clearer that you’re asking for money. The guest should feel free not to tip. It’s more important for us that the guest feels free to tell people they’re satisfied.”

But for those restaurants that have adopted the new interfaces, the effect has been dramatic. Card processing company Kassacentralen, which was one of the first to launch this feature in Sweden, told Svenska Dagbladet this week that the feature had led to tips for the average establishment doubling, with some places seeing them rise six-fold.

Even unions are relaxed about tipping these days, perhaps understanding that they’re a significant extra income for their members. Union representatives have often in the past spoken out against tipping, arguing that the practice is demeaning to staff and that tips were spread unevenly, with staff in cafés or fast food joints getting nothing at all. But when I called the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union (HRF), a spokesman said that the union had no view on the practice, and it was a matter for staff, business owners and customers to decide.

So is tipping now expected in Sweden? The old advice probably still stands; waiters are still not as reliant on tips as staff in many other countries, so a lavish tip is not necessary. But as Swedes start to tip more generously, you might stick out if you leave nothing at all.

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