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The Stockholm restaurants where Sweden’s top chefs eat

Sweden's top chefs have chosen their favourite Stockholm restaurants, from Michelin-starred culinary blow-outs to some of the best-kept secrets across the entire city. Here we present an exclusive sneak peek into the glory of the some of our best chefs’ favourite and funkiest Stockholm food lairs.

Published: 15 July 2019 05:00 CEST
Updated: 16 March 2021 17:08 CET

The Stockholm restaurants where Sweden's top chefs eat

Tak's Frida Ronge is among the chefs to have worked on the guide. Photo: Helén Pe/mediabank.visitstockholm.com

Stockholm is a glorious confusion of thousands of eating places, encompassing every type of national or regional cuisine. If you’re spending time in this open, progressive city you are confronted with a multitude of eating possibilities – the variety is truly head-spinning!

So, who better to guide you through the labyrinth of choices than some of Sweden’s most renowned and creative chefs themselves?

A number of brilliant Swedish chefs, known for their innovative approaches to Scandinavian culinary tradition and commitment to working with carefully-selected and locally-sourced produce, have set aside their knives, whisks and competitive natures to create a new restaurant guide.

These restaurants are not intended to be a definitive guide to Stockholm’s best restaurants but simply a selection of the places the chefs enjoy spending their free time. It’s a rare insiders’ guide to eating in Stockholm.

Click here for the full restaurant guide, and also for step-by-step audio guide for the visually impaired

Here we offer you a tantalising tasting menu of five of the 10 restaurants in the guide, chosen by chefs such as Tom Sjöstedt, famous for preparing the first-ever vegetarian dish for the Nobel Banquet, Rebecca and Sofia Olsson from Gothenburg’s fantastic VRÅ and Frida Ronge of the glamorous Tak and UNN.

Bar Agrikultur

via Agrikultur on Instagram

This mini-restaurant may only have about two dozen drop-in seats, but this creates an intimate, dinner party atmosphere. Even better than the atmosphere is the food: an ever-changing menu of snacks and refined small plates from the chefs behind the superb eco-Nordic restaurant Agrikultur.
TRY: White asparagus atop soft scrambled eggs flavored with roasted hay

Kagges

via Kagges on instagram

This Michelin-starred tavern-style restaurant feels like a neighbourhood bar or cafe. The slightly experimental food is presented in an understated, unpretentious manner.
TRY: Fried chanterelles on a bed of poached eggs, onions and peas

Bistro Sud

A bohemian neighbourhood eating place in the coolest area of Stockholm and one of Södermalm’s best-known taverns, with actors and musicians among the guests. It’s relaxed – it has a special table for dogs! – but they take their food seriously here.
TRY: Lobster with horseradish, clarified butter and grilled bread

L’Avventura

Looking for a dramatic eatery? Look no further than, L’Avventura which offers offers a decadent dining experience inside a former cinema. The cavernous space even has a pair of mature olive trees planted at its centre.
TRY: Deep fried truffle and mushroom risotto

Babette

Come to this low-key restaurant to try the best, and most adventurous, pizza in town and leave having discovered its secret weapon – a truly amazing and surprisingly affordable wine list.
TRY: Pizza Margherita.

Click here for the full restaurant guide, and also for step-by-step audio guide for the visually impaired

This article was produced by The Local Creative Studio and sponsored by Visit Sweden and Visit Stockholm.

How to grow your own fruits and vegetables in Sweden

Know your growing zone

Sweden is split into eight different growing zones, known as växtzoner in Swedish, with one being the mildest zone in the far south of the country and eight being the harshest, in the far north.

The easiest way to figure out which zone you live in is to search your address on a digital growing zone chart like this one from the Swedish Garden Association.

There are two “bonus” zones too, which you’re unlikely to see on plant labels: zone zero, which refers to extra mild conditions in zone one, like a sheltered south-facing garden or the climate inside an unheated greenhouse, and the fjällzon or zone nine, which is found in mountain regions.

Lots of fruit trees can handle snow, for example, but not all of them will survive the winters in harsher, colder zones.

“Apple trees or fruit trees will survive snow,” British gardener and cider maker John Taylor, known for presenting Swedish gardening show Trädgårdstider (Garden Times), told The Local.

“You can grow all kinds of apples, pears, plums, cherries, we can grow edible quince in southern Sweden, so there’s a bunch of fruit trees which will survive, but it depends what rootstock they’re on – that’s called grundstam in Swedish,” he explained.

“There’s one rootstock called B9 that survives down to minus 40, because it’s from Russia, then there’s another called M106, and that probably doesn’t want to live in the depths of Norrland.”

Buy plants local to you

An easy way to make sure the plant you’re planning on buying is going to survive in your zone is by sourcing it from a local plant nursery or garden centre, as they won’t sell plants that can’t handle the local climate.

“There’s a nursery in the north of Sweden and Finland called Blomkvists, they sell lots of fruit varieties which will survive up there,” Taylor said. “You can grow pretty much anything you want up there, just as we can [in Skåne, southern Sweden], but it will be different varieties that taste different and will survive the frost.”

You won’t be able to grow Mediterranean fruits like lemons or oranges in Sweden unless you bring them inside during the winter, although you should be able to grow peaches or nectarines in most of the country.

“The further up in the country you go, the further north you are or the further away from the coast, the harsher the climate becomes, so you might need to have them on a south-facing wall or in a greenhouse,” Taylor said.

Think outside the box

Although the growing season in Sweden may be shorter than it is further south, there are still a number of crops from warmer climates that do surprisingly well.

“People don’t really grow cucumbers outside here, I don’t think they realise that you can actually grow them outside,” Taylor said. “Tomatoes, too. You don’t need a greenhouse, you just stick them in the ground, they’re basically a weed – you’ll get so many you won’t know what to do with them.”

Sweetcorn, for example, performs well in a Swedish climate, Taylor said, although Swedes more often grow it as a feed crop for pigs.

You can also test things by trying to build a microclimate so you can grow things that are one or even two growing zones away from yours. Usually this is done by providing shelter from the wind and the weather using fences, hedges or by planting near buildings, as well as providing protection during the winter.

And if you’re pushed for space, look into companion planting, where you can grow multiple plants which complement each other in the same space.

One example of this is the “three sisters”: corn, climbing beans (or peas), and squash. The corn provides a support for the beans or peas, which anchor the corn in high winds while fixing nitrogen in the soil, while the squash’s large leaves provide shade for the soil, preventing it from drying out.

Don’t be put off just because you don’t have any outside space

Thinking outside the box applies to balconies too.

“If you’re in a built-up area, you will get reflected light from other buildings, so even if you’re on an east-facing balcony, you should be able to grow a lot of stuff. North is a bit more tricky, but east and west are probably better than south as you’re not getting hammered by the sun all day,” Taylor said.

You should be able to grow things like tomatoes, cucumbers and flowers, but it’s important to get hold of good soil and replenish it each year, so your plants have enough nutrients.

“Anybody with a balcony can grow pretty much the same that you can in a garden, you just have to get the soil up there and you always have to fertilise, the soil becomes nutrient deficient after one season.”

“But if you’re prepared to get the soil up on your balcony you can grow anything, even fruit trees. They will be smaller and stunted, and won’t give as much fruit – I’ve done it myself – so don’t see it as an obstacle, see it as a possibility.”

Kale and tomatoes growing on a balcony. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

Take inspiration from Swedish growers

Thinking outside the box doesn’t mean that you should completely ignore what all your Swedish neighbours are doing. If you’re not sure what to plant in your garden or what fruit and veg you should try to grow, take a look at what other people who live near you are growing.

You might also come across some crops you’ve never tried before which work well in a Swedish climate, like Alpine strawberries (smultron), honeyberries (blåbärstry), wild garlic (ramslök) or sea buckthorn (havtorn).

This doesn’t just apply to varieties, but also where you plant them in your garden. Some crops need full sun, some work best in shade, and others, like asparagus, can grow tall and cast a shadow over your garden.

“You want a south-facing location for all fruit, and berries – check out what your neighbours are doing,” Taylor said.

If you don’t want tall plants to cast a shadow over other crops, see if you can plant them at the northernmost edge of your garden, while making sure that sun and soil conditions are still optimal. Blueberries, for example, need acidic soil to thrive, meaning you will probably need to amend your soil if planting in the ground, or even plant them in containers.

Think about what you want to do with your harvest

This may seem obvious, but it’s important to plant what you like to eat, too. If you hate the aniseedy, licorice-y taste of fennel, why bother growing it?

You should also choose the variety of crop based on what you’re going to use it for. Do you want to make pickles with your cucumbers, or are you going to eat them on salads? Do you want cherry tomatoes for snacking on, or big beef tomatoes for making sauces?

“Think ‘what am I going to do with my harvest’,” Taylor said. “Am I going to juice it? Am I going to preserve it? Am I going to make cider with it, for example?”

Apples, for example, can range from sweet eating apples to tart cooking apples, so make sure you do your research before you commit to buying an apple tree. Most varieties exist in English-speaking countries, so you should be able to search the name of the variety online and find some information in a language you understand, if you don’t speak Swedish.

“Patience is a virtue,” he added. “A lot of fruit trees are going to take two or three years, or even more, to give a harvest. So you have to have patience.”

Learn to deal with the Swedish weather

Many areas of Sweden along the coast or in the south of the country can get windy, which you’ll have to learn to deal with.

“How to deal with the wind? You can’t,” Taylor said. “We cannot affect this, we are powerless.”

“What you have to do is plant them in areas where there’s less wind, usually behind large buildings.”

Some plants simply won’t survive the wind, so either you plant them close to buildings, protect them, or accept that you’re restricted in what you can grow.

Make sure to provide supports for crops which will grow tall, like sunflowers, peas, beans and sweetcorn, and tie these down well or bury them deep in the ground, so summer storms can’t blow them away.

Listen to the full interview with John Taylor in The Local’s Sweden in Focus Extra podcast for Membership+ subscribers. Out on Wednesday, May 8th.

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