The French architect picks his favourite local restaurant, a great international food market and a bakery that beats the bread in Paris
EATING OUT
Babette
113 55, Roslagsgatan 6, 113 55 Stockholm, Sweden; +46 8 509 022 24, www.babette.se
Albert is a regular at this casual neighbourhood restaurant which we visit on our first night in Stockholm – the food is excellent and the wine list is very appealing. “It’s close, it’s exactly the kind of food I like to eat on an everyday basis and it’s not very expensive.
I’ll say it’s really good.” – Albert
Shibumi
114 25, Kungstensgatan 2, 114 25 Stockholm, Sweden; +46 8 696 23 10, www.esperantogroup.se
“Another new restaurant I like is Shibumi. The chef Sayan Isaksson has basically a whole building in my neighbourhood, an old theatre, and on the upper floor he has a Michelin-starred restaurant called Esperanto, which is Asian and mostly vegetarian. Then on the ground floor you have Råkultur, which does the best sushi in town. And now he’s opened Shibumi in the basement. It’s more like Japanese pub food, small plates. Delicious, really nice.”
Spritmuseum
Djurgårdsvägen 40, 115 21 Stockholm, Sweden; +46 8 121 313 13, www.spritmuseum.se
“The restaurant at Spritmuseum is one of the good new places in Stockholm.” We agree – we had lunch here and Petter Nilsson’s food is exceptional. The wine list by Erika Lindstrom deserves a special mention too.
Matbaren
Grand Hôtel, Södra Blasieholmshamnen 6, 111 48 Stockholm, Sweden; +46 8 679 35 84, www.mdghs.se
“I like Matbaren a lot but haven’t been recently – it’s been open a few years now. The chef Mathias Dahlgren has been a driving force behind what you could call the Swedish modern kitchen.”
Rolfs Kök
Tegnérgatan 41, 111 61 Stockholm, Sweden; +46 8 10 16 96, www.rolfskok.se
“The interior here, designed by Thomas Sandell, is really nice. It’s inspired by the Shakers, a 19th-century American religious sect who were dancing a lot – they used to hang up all their furniture on the wall so they could dance.”
Köttmästarn
Tegnérgatan 32, 113 59 Stockholm, Sweden; +46 8 122 112 12, www.kottmastarn.se
“This place is brand new and really good. It’s a butchers shop and deli, and you can also sit down and eat.”
BUYING IN
Hötorgshallen (pictured above)
Hötorgshallen, 111 57 Stockholm, Sweden; +46 8 23 00 01, www.hotorgshallen.se
We meet Albert outside this big underground food market in the city centre. It doesn’t look like much from the outside but it’s full of great shops and kiosks with the most international food selection in the city. “I don’t come here all the time because it’s quite expensive,” he says. “What I buy here is a bit more special. It’s particularly good for fish and meat.” Albert buys rabbit for our dinner at Hellbergs fågel & vilt – “They’re the only ones who sell rabbit in Stockholm.” He also picks up some saucisson at Prima Delikatesser.
Fabrique
Drottninggatan 102, 111 60 Stockholm, Sweden; +46 8 23 23 27, www.fabrique.se
A high-end bakery chain with branches across the city, they also have an outpost in London and big plans to expand. Albert drops by his local branch on Drottninggatan to pick up a baguette. “It’s a big issue because I’m French and we’re supposed to be good at bread but actually the bread is much better here than in Paris. They are much more developed with sourdough, whereas in Paris the bakeries are more industrial now. Here the bread is much more expensive but it is really good.”
Green Rabbit
111 40, Tegnérgatan 17, 111 40 Stockholm, Sweden; +46 8 20 46 26, www.greenrabbit.se
Albert also rates this bakery started by big-name Swedish chef Mathias Dahlgren.
Hemköp
Upplandsgatan 28, 113 28 Stockholm, Sweden; +46 8 545 417 80, www.hemkop.se
“This is a small Swedish supermarket chain and one of the best.”