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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

 
via Bistro Sud on Instagram
 
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

via L’Avventura on Instagram

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.

 
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SOCIAL LIFE

Why summer in Sweden can be lonely for foreigners – and what you can do about it

Sweden’s summer holidays are long, but for people who haven’t made friends here yet, time off work without daily contact with colleagues can also be lonely.

Published: 8 July 2024 13:21 CEST
Why summer in Sweden can be lonely for foreigners - and what you can do about it

A survey by national statistics agency Statistics Sweden showed earlier this year that hundreds of thousands of people in Sweden don’t have a close friend.

For those born outside Sweden, the figure was more than twice as high than for native-born Swedes, regardless of whether they have foreign or Swedish parents.

Sweden regularly tops international lists of the worst places in the world for immigrants to make friends, which is often put down to the local culture which respects privacy and values individual independence.

During the summer, this can become even more obvious, as Swedes log out of their work computers and head off on holiday for four weeks starting in July. For new arrivals to the country, the loss of this daily contact with colleagues – as well as the fact that friends and family often live in a different country – can make summer feel rather lonely, especially if their social media feeds are filled with idyllic pictures of Swedes spending their time at family summer houses in the countryside.

“It can be very noticeable,” psychologist Anette Utterbäck told the TT newswire. “Especially when you can see everyone else having fun on holiday, it can feel very obvious that you maybe don’t have that many people you can spend time with.”

It’s not always easy to find friends in Sweden, especially during the summer when people are often on holiday.

“The problem isn’t necessarily that people are too afraid [to try and make friends], but it can also be the case that they try to reach out a hand, and no one reaches back.”

Utterbäck said that it’s a good idea to try as much as possible to build relationships during the rest of the year.

“There don’t need to be many of these, but building a network around you which you value all year round, rather than forgetting about it during the winter when you’re busy,” she said.

For immigrants, making friends in Sweden may look different than it did back home, although a classic tip for making friends with Swedes which often comes up in surveys with our readers on the topic is to join some sort of club or society, whether this is a sports club, interest organisation or even the board of your housing association.

READ ALSO: How to make friends in Sweden – seven things I wish someone had told me 

Many of these clubs or societies take a break during the summer, but why not try a summer course or activity instead? 

You could take a university course, with the added benefit of improving your job prospects in Sweden, an intensive course with a provider like Folkuniversitetet, ABF or Medborgarskolan in a skill you’ve always wanted to learn, or even a class at your local sports club or society. You could even use the summer as an opportunity to improve your Swedish.

READ ALSO: ‘We all cheer each other on’: How we made friends in Sweden

There are also clubs, apps and other online groups which can be useful for meeting new people.

“Facebook’s popularity isn’t what it used to be, but there are still some thriving, friendly Facebook communities, like Girl Gone International and International Meetup Sweden,” The Local’s contributor Gemma Casey-Swift wrote in a recent article on making friends in Sweden.

“I met one of my closest friends in a hiking group. Some of us went away to a cabin, which was completely out of my comfort zone, but as well as an award-winning hangover and an appreciation for public transport in Gävleborg, I came back with a new friendship.”

There are also apps like Gofrendly, Citypolarna and Meetup, which offer all sorts of events up and down the country where you can meet new people.

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