Stockholm Restaurant Week 2014

The annual restaurant week in Stockholm is a fantastic idea. It gives you the chance to try a two course menu at one or more of the city's many restaurants for only 250SEK. It starts in the beginning of February and stretches on for two wonderful weeks ahead. This year I had time for two pretty great meals in two very different restaurants in two very different parts of the city, with wine and excellent company as a major plus.

Stockholms Matvarufrabrik is located in Vasastan close to Odenplans tube station. I've had dinner here before and the food was good but the service was terrible. I was intrigued to see if this had changed so when my friends suggested we try it during Restaurant Week I agreed. The setting was warm and cozy and the menu looked promising. The waiter was attentive and informative, both on the menu and on the wine list, a big improvement from the somewhat bitchy waitress I had the (dis)pleasure of meeting here last time. The menu consisted of a beef tartar to start, with the classic accessories; capers, beetroots, mustard, egg yolk, salt and pepper served in a glass jar. The main course that followed consisted of pan-fried char, beurre blanc (butter sauce in plain English), charred onions and a terrine made of Jerusalem artichokes. We had a lovely Merlot-Grenache de la Chevaliere (2011 + link) throughout the meal which actually went pretty well with the fish. All in all it was a good meal, although the fish was a little on the cold side when they brought it out, they layout and presentation was good, the service had definitely improved since my last visit and I think that the dinner guests did their part in the improvement as well... :) 

Bistro Bon is located on the hills of Stockholms Södermalm, the-must-visit area in the city for all the worlds hipsters. Once again I let my friend and dinner companion chose the place to eat. Neither of us had been to Bistro Bon before and we did't really know what to expect. From the outside it might as well be a Thai Restaurant, with blinking lights in all different colors, it didn't give off the same french vibe as is apparent in the name. Inside, it was very different. Cozy and intimate with a clean but classic look, it immediatly felt that we could sit here for a good few hours eating, drinking and talking. Unfortunatley, the waitstaff did not think this was a good idea and as soon as we denied our offer of dessert, the stressed and rude waitress brought us our bill and said "time's running out". We had no idea there was a time limit on our visit, if we had been informed that we only had to 8pm, we probably wouldn't have lingered so rudely... The food was better than the service though, a tasteful lobster bisque with a seafood croquette deep fried in panko to start. The maincourse that followed was a little bit too meaty for my taste but the tenderness of the meat was undeniable. It was a Roti de Boeuf au Poivre, a char grilled Ball Tip +4, overnight grilled 54 medium, served with sautaeed haricots verts with smoked bacon, bordelaise sauce, green pepper butter and a potato terrine. Pretty damn good. We had a lovely bottle of rich Dancing Bull Zinfandel (only 91SEK at Systembolaget) which at least went well with the main course.

We finished the night at Ugglan just behind Nytorget, an awesome place to hang out, play some board games, some boule, air hockey or just have some good beer! 

All in all I'm pretty happy with this years Restaurant Week, my only regret is not trying out more restaurants! Hopefully next year I'll make it to more :)