I've fallen in love with Stockholm.
Because I had done all the "tourist" things on my last trip, I could get out and really explore different neighborhoods on this trip.
Meals included a memorable vegetarian tasting menu at Mathais Dalgren's Rutabaga. Oaxen Krog's sibling, Oaxen Slip, delivered simple, flavourful Swedish cooking including excellent beef tartar and beet tartar dishes, which made me forgive the kitchen for being rather slow. Restaurang AG is all about the beef and who doesn't love a steak with a flag from the cow's origin country? Finding this place is like trying to find a hidden bar in Tokyo, but once you get there.... wow! Save room for the bread and fat spread.
But I'd like to focus on one special restaurant gunning for a third star, and in time is likely to get there. Gastrologik is the little restaurant that could. Having received its second star only recently, they clearly have higher ambitions.
While it does have some physical limitations (no air con in summer), it makes up for this with a relaxed atmosphere combined with a focused, technique-driven menu. The chef who does the sauce work should be commended.
Service is polished, but my one critique is that sometimes it appears a touch frantic. Bees buzzing around the hive. This can happen when the team is so eager to please it rushes to your table. Taking a quick breath and walking a pace slower would remedy this immediately. Again, this is not a problem per se, but I'm evaluating at a three-star level.
Here are some pictures to give you an idea of the plating and how simplicity can be your best friend when technique is so on point.
The executive chef, who comes here by way of Quince in San Francisco, has the reigns and is clearly cerebral in his approach.
Stockholm had emerged from lockdown a couple days before and you would have thought the locals were going to burn the city to the ground their first Saturday night out. Everyone was on the streets. Pure jubilation and madness. There was a line 10 deep to enter 7-11.
By Sunday morning the city had turned sleepy, no doubt hung over from the previous night's festivities. The only evidence of what took place? Overflowing garbage cans dotted the landscape of this otherwise pristine city.