Stockholm and Oslo.......all kinds of advice needed.

We will be going to Stockholm & Oslo next year and would love any advice this esteemed board can offer. There doesn’t seem to be much, especially current thoughts. Restaurants, hotels, sights…all is appreciated. [thankyou.gif]


Cheers! champagne.gif
Marshall

Send me a PM and I’ll dig out emails I’ve sent friends (lived in Stockholm for 4 years)

It’s been a while, and I don’t think I took notes, so just general comments on Stockholm

Really enjoyed it, a great place to walk around, but also with wonderful options of ferry rides to specific islands, plus a good metro/train network if wanting to branch out further. It is expensive, so factor that firmly into your mind before going, budget for it, then spend without questioning individual transactions every time. Some great food, from cloudberries to reindeer and wonderful fish. Brilliant mushrooms as well, but I don’t know how much makes it to the shops.

Supermarkets can stock lower alcohol beers, but if you want wine or normal / higher strength beers, then these are sold in the state monopoly stores - we didn’t go in, but did have a look online and the range is pretty wide and prices not as bad as other state monopoly stores in Scandanavia

For a comfortable, fairly well located hotel, check out the Diplomat. On the waterfront (if you can get a waterfront room, please do) and Dux beds.

Stockholm is awesome and was an unexpected surprise - I wasn’t expecting that the city was set on an archipelago. And prepare to feel short and dark.

I was in Stockholm last summer–one of my favorite cities on earth: Scandanavia Trip Report - Travel, Wine Tourism, and Restaurants Forum - WineBerserkers

Short recommendation: dine at Sturehof and explore the archipelago.

We were in Stockholm for 3 nights last summer. It is a wonderful and beautiful city. Like others have said if you can get out on the water it is amazing. It was an anniversary trip and we stayed at The Grand Hotel. It was a lot of money and I was not overly impressed. It felt in need of updating/refreshing. We were upgraded to a suite overlooking the harbor. Which was very nice but I don’t think it was nearly worth the tarif. That being said the hotel bar is amazing, don’t miss it. We had a wonderful meal at Oaxen Krog. The Vasa museum with the Swedish warship is great. The people are wonderful (yes very tall and blond). Also if you can fly SAS it has been my favorite European airline so far. They just redid a lot of their Biz class cabins. Really nice.

George

We stayed five nights in a suite at the Grand Hotel when we were there last summer–we were quite pleased with the place, although it was quite pricey. I’ll second George’s comments about the Vasa museum.

There are a couple of old synagogues that are nice. One is attached to Raoul Wallenberg park, which is worth a walk through, and one is attached to the Holocaust museum. +2 on the Vasa

I live in Oslo. I have two small children, so I don’t have the overview of the Oslo restaurant scene that I used to have, but I can provide some of my favourites. I’ll probably add more as I remember them.

We went to A l’Aise for my birthday this year and I loved it. It is fine dining done pretty much exactly right. The food is classical French with a few modern twists, but the twists are done very well and not as a show off. The wine menu is very good and relatively reasonably priced. The service is excellent and not too stiff, many French fine dining places could learn a thing or two here.

Another option in that category is Statholdergaarden, also a fine choice.

In the new Nordic scene, Kontrast is getting great reviews, but I haven’t had the chance to go there yet myself.

More casual places I like include Let Benjamin, Chez Colin and Brasserie Blanche.

There are some great sushi places in Oslo, the best is Omakase Oslo, but Alex is also great. If you are here in summer, Solsiden is a good seafood restaurant on the waterfront.

One thing that really shouldn’t be missed in Oslo is the coffee bars. There are quite a few really good ones, my favourites are Supreme Roastworks and Tim Wendelboe, but Fuglen is also good and a good example of Scandinavian design.

When it comes to wine bars, I recommend Territoriet.

You may have heard of the Gustav Vigeland Park and museum, and it is certainly worth a visit. His brother’s museum and mausoleum is much less known, but really special and one of my favourite museums.

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Magnus: Thank you so much! Wonderful information.

Cheers!
Marshall

Marshall!

Born and bred in Stockholm. It’s a beautiful city and was a wonderful place to grow up. Haven’t lived home in almost 20 years, but go each year and have a lot of family there still. So I’ll try to recommend the classics and not the newest stuff, as I’m not clued up on that.

For RESTAURANTS I would suggest a few classics:

  1. Prinsen - try to get table and sit outside. It’s great people watching. At least one of you should order a Toast Skagen as a starter and the meat eater should order Wallenbergare. Divine stuff. You’ll find that the Swedish food is excellent generally, bit of an undiscovered cuisine in my opinion. Another great starter is Löjromstoast (Bleak Roe Toast) and main dish classic is Biff Rydberg. Prinsen is a little more steakhousy, not fine dining, but you can’t come in sweatpants either. Perfect for a lunch as well or whenever is best for people watching. Good thing it gets dark really late up there in summers so you can still sit outside at 8pm. http://restaurangprinsen.eu/en/

  2. PA&Co is another Swedish classic, and more for locals. Little more laidback compared to Prinsen. Normally with good daily specials. Excellent food. http://www.paco.se

  3. Teatergrillen - sumptous red velvet interior and good food. Great for a late night dinner after drinking. http://www.teatergrillen.se

  4. Den Gyldene Freden (The Golden Peace) is a classic high end dining place that’s been in the beautiful old town sine 1722. It’s a little more formal, but food is world class. Michelin star. Perfect place for lunch or dinner as you explore the old town - which is unmissable! http://gyldenefreden.se/

  5. Ulla Winbladh is another classic on the island of Djurgården (there’s a bridge), so it’s a nice walk to walk by all the boats on Strandvägen, then cross the bridge to the island and eat lunch here. It’s like an inn, in it’s own beautiful building. Look at the website and you’ll see. Kinda high end, but casual enough. http://www.ullawinbladh.se/en/swedish-culinary-craft-historical-environment

  6. In the mood for world class fish? Wedholms Fisk is a Michelin star fish restaurant and Bengt Wedholm who started it is like a god in Swedish cuisine. He took Swedish fish to another level. But it’s very high end fine dining, so try to get a table early if you want this. It’s worth it. http://wedholmsfisk.se

  7. Fem Små Hus (Five Little Houses) another high end dining experience in the old town. Not quite as fancy as Den Gyldene Freden, but almost. You can dine in the 12th century vaults downstairs.

BREAKFAST/PASTRYS:

Sweden do these magical shrimp sandwiches. You’ll see them everywhere, but I would suggest going to Wiener Cafe which is right in the middle of the shopping district and order one of those. It’s right in the middle, has excellent food and a cool interior. It’s called räksmörgås. They also have excellent pastries and coffee, so a good afternoon stop as well when you need a little pickup. http://wienercafeet.com

Also, make sure you have Toast Skagen as a starter for every dinner. That’s like crack.

For DRINKS:

Check with the locals what the newest and cool places are. Probably more on Södermalm, which is like the cool hipster area since about 20 years. I’m out of touch with this, so I’ll just name some of the classics.

  1. Riche. Classic, excelllent bar that never goes out of style. Always hip. Also a great place to sit outside an people watch and sip on an Irish Coffee (if it’s cold), or a wine or beer if its hot. http://www.riche.se/

  2. Kvarnen. A classic on Södermalm. Been there forever and you can chose the upstairs that’s been unchanged forever and the newer bar downstairs. Used to be rowdy, but not anymore. http://www.kvarnen.com/index.php/se/

  3. Pelikan. A true beer hall classic, also on Södermalm. Used to be local alcoholics, but now gone hip. Pelikan – Restaurant and bar at Södermalm

  4. Mosebacke. This sits on top of a hill on Södermalm and has views all over Stockholm. Great beer garden and a good bar inside. It’s shared with the Theatre, so you enter through the Södra Teatern entrance if the garden steps are closed. Excellent place for getting drunk and on a summer afternoon or evening. http://sodrateatern.com

MUSEUMS:

  1. I’d go see the Vasa Museum. It’s this preserved man-o-war/warship that sunk on her maiden voyage in the bay there. It’s a great insight into how people lived then and how they constructed ships - and what went wrong with this one. BTW, if you go see it, you’re really close to the restuarnt Ulla Winbladh, just saying…:wink: Welcome to the Vasa Museum

  2. Livrustkammaren. If you’re interested in armory, warfare, clothing etc there’s a great museum at the palace where they showcase all the guns, swords, armour and clothing, horses etc of the kings and queens at the time. It’s pretty cool. Home - Livrustkammaren

  3. Skansen is an outdoor museum where you see animals and walk into old houses and see how people lived during the 12th century. It’s like a combo zoo and museum. Cool if you’re interested in how life was then. Or want to see a live Moose…:wink:

HOTELS:

  1. Lydmar. Luxury, but kinda hip. Right by the sea.

  2. Grand Hotel. The old luxury standard. Great service and right by the sea as well, but perhaps a little stale. Their bar, called The Cadier Bar, is excellent. So is the food.

  3. Hotell Diplomat. Right in town and in a beautiful building. Nice rooms. But room service is a little lacking at times as it shares lobby with a restaurant. Can take quite some time to get stuff up. Also not enough bell hops etc to help out when you need, but that’s more of a general Swedish problem.

  4. Ett Hem. This is a mindblowingly cool luxury boutique hotel. If you can swing $400+/night, it’s an amazing experience. Only 10 rooms, but they’re gorgeous. And service and food is impeccable. https://www.etthem.se

  5. Story Hotel. A lower priced hotel right in town, but still good quality. But no real room service etc, you kind of have to go down to restaurant or bar to order what you need.

  6. Miss Clara. Nice, newly done up casual and minimalistic hotel very close to town. Good value.


    GENERAL THOUGHTS:

  7. The old town is unmissbale. Yeah, its touristy and has quite a bit of tchatchki shops, but the architecture and small allies are very pretty.

  8. Walk. It’s a small city, you can walk from on end of town to the other in 2hrs and it’s great way to see and experience it.

  9. If you’re tired, take the underground/tube. It’s really pretty and all the stations are designed differently and quite interesting. And it’s quick.

  10. Södermalm is the hip area. Östermalm is the old money area. Djurgården is the outdoor island right next to Östermalm. It’s where the Vasa Museum, Ulla Winbladh and Skansen is. If you want a theme park, there is one here as well called Gröna Lund. It’s not great, but kinda quaint and cute. All the rides are like old. It’s a bit Coney Island. As I mentioned earlier, walk Strandvägen and look at all the tall ships. It’s a nice walk. My old hood is called Kungsholmen and it’s also nice, but a little quieter. But you might want to go and have a look at Stadshuset, there. It’s our city hall.

  11. Main shopping is on Biblioteksgatan. It’s kinda 5th Avenue-ish and high end, so not sure how interesting that might be. But the main Acne store is there if you want to buy some nice hispter jeans. For the more esoteric stuff, vintage stuff etc, it’s gonna be on Södermalm somewhere. You’ll have to ask the locals.

Hope you all enjoy it!

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Adam ; Wow! Thanks!

Cheers!
Marshall

Feel free to reach out to me for Stockholm stuff Marshall. It’s a great city.

Just a quick note. I prefer Sturehof to Wedholm’s Fisk. Both has great dishes. Sturehof has a much better wine list, is more casual, and has great people watching.

There’s many restaurants in Oslo with pretty mark-ups on their wine list, but to name a few:

Vintage Kitchen, no more than six weeks since I puchased Roumier Amoureuses 14 of their list for $450.

http://www.aktivitetsweb.no/vintage/vinkart_standard.asp

Le Benjamin, top notch French Bistro with a pretty list. Rousseau Ruchottes $300, Bonnes Mares $400, Liger-Belair Cras 16 $350, Rousseau Chambertin $700 etc, as seen in the link below.

http://lebenjamin.no/content/2-menus/vinliste-13.august.pdf

Sawan, nice townhouse in the best part of Oslo. Asian food and a great list, I had Liger-Belair La Romanee 2010 there in March, $1100.

The winebar below Grand Hotel, Rousseau, DRC, Roumier, PYCM, etc etc.

Beijing Palace for chinese, with Cathiard, Rousseau, PYCM, Rousseau, Mugnier (Amoureuses $500…) etc

Gaasa, just wine there. Cathiard Reignots $250, La Tache 13 $1600, Rinaldi Brunate 14 $150 etc.

And there’s many more, Tranen, Teatro or Vinoteket for pizza & wine. Bass, Hapolati, Katla, Trattoria Populare, Arakataka all have top food and top notch wine lists.

Hi Marshall,
I’m the founder of Star Wine List, www.starwinelist.com, a guide to great wine bars and wine restaurants, and you’ll find plenty of tips for both cities on the site:

We started in Stockholm and are now growing to several other countries and cities - my background is in media and wine and I started it because I thought there are so many restaurant guides in the world but not that much gathered for wine lovers.

We show the wine lists of many of the venues (thanks Henrik N for the links above) and you can also search for a particular wine and see where it is listed.

Would love to hear if you find it useful and get your feedback when you have traveled there, and let me know if you’d like any more information!

Cheers!
Krister

Wow this thread is spectacular

+1
Would have been nice when I was over in both places each year :smiley:

As always, Akkurat for beer!

I was just in Stockholm last month for a day (part of a Baltic Sea Cruise), but we ran over to the Hairy Pig Restaurant (recommended by wine friends) and it was amazing! Casual pub-like place. They work with local farms for all their food and make delicious charcuterie and house-made sausages. A Perfect lunch, just off the main square in Gamla Stan. https://thehairypig.com/restaurant/

Enjoy your travels!!

Krister: Thank you so much! That is a wonderful resource. Do you have any personal favorites for dinner?

Thanks again!
Cheers!

Marshall champagne.gif

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