If you are looking to savour ultra-fresh local ingredients along with panoramic scenery, West Sweden is the perfect culinary heaven for you. When we refer to local, it isn’t a London restaurant offering Scottish scallops from hundreds of miles away, it will be grass-fed lamb on a farm metres away from the restaurant. It will be seaweed foraged from the local seabed. Here, we will examine the top foodie destinations to visit in West Sweden, especially if you are a seafood connoisseur.
Gothenburg
The second largest city in Sweden is also the gateway to the region. With numerous daily flights from London and a flight time of just over two hours, this is a fuss-free journey to escape to a very scenic part of Sweden. There is no shortage of worthy restaurants to visit in this historic city but one to consider is Restaurant Atelier at the quirky Hotel Pigalle. Try pressing the call button for the lift on each floor, and you’ll be greeted by different seductive messages.
You immediately get a sense of how much they value local produce when perusing their menu. Carrot in three-ways is sourced from nearby Trollhättan, whilst the fish course of blackened fillet of ling might be an unfamiliar sight on UK restaurant menus, but it is a fish commonly found in Scandinavia.
Bohuslän
This is one of the most alluring parts of Sweden and it is where you will experience miles of magical coastline with quaint lighthouses and windswept trees. The archipelagic region boasts around 8,000 islands and islets, and if you are a fan of mussels, your first port of call should be to Ljungskile.
Mussel expedition
At Musselbaren, they offer insightful mussel expeditions out to their expansive offshore farms where you can harvest these very sustainable delicacies first-hand. It can then be cooked for you immediately at their restaurant by the pier, where the preference is to cook the shellfish for slightly longer to offer a substantially meatier texture.
The dish to try is their mussel balls – the preparation is much similar to meatballs, but the mussels offer that extra salinity to get the stomach juices flowing. They’ve also branched out to an award-winning distillery using by-products such as mussel shells in the distillation.
Luxury living and lobster fishing
Next, you should head to Gullmarstrand and stay at the tranquil Gullmarsstrand Hotell. The jewel in the crown is their unique spa experience where an outdoor heated infinity pool sits next to a jetty for sea baths and a full glass-fronted sauna faces the sea. Their suites, perched on top of a hill, offer commanding views of the islands and bays of Gullmarsfjorden – the Swedish version of the fjords.
Their restaurant is a hidden gem (in more ways than one, as their menu is quite hard to find on their website). Dishes have a more unusual twist to stereotypical offerings such as a veal tartare and a sea buckthorn sorbet.
What you don’t want to miss is their lobster safari, where you’ll learn the art of catching lobsters with lobster pots and is often paired with a five-course gourmet dinner afterwards. Sustainability is a key part of the experience, you’ll learn they won’t catch lobsters with eggs and that there is also a minimum size to comply with – 8cm measured from the rear edge of the eye cavity to the rear edge of the back.
Seaweed safari
Seaweed has been that superfood that has been threatening to burst onto the global stage for several years. It contains numerous vitamins and minerals and is a great source of iodine and antioxidants. If you book a seaweed safari with Linnea Sjögren from Catxalot, you can put on a wet suit and go seaweed foraging in iconic Smögen. Not only will you learn what the different species are useful for, but you’ll also get to sample home-made seaweed bread and tea from hospitable Linnea. She famously supplied seaweed to the world-renowned three Michelin-starred restaurant Noma.
The icon of West Sweden
Smögen, with the colourful fishermen’s huts, is the poster boy image of West Sweden. It is a bustling seaside town in the summer and wonderfully serene at other times with plenty of nature paths for quiet contemplation. The town offers some of the freshest seafood restaurants in the region – Göstas Fiskekrog is one to consider, especially as they own their fish market next door. Their shrimp sandwich is a mountain of freshly caught shellfish.
A sustainable gastronomy getaway at Koster Islands
You might wonder why I would suggest a 55-minute ferry ride from Strömstad to Koster Ekenäs. The Koster Islands are some of the sunniest parts of Sweden and the pace of life is just that much more sedate. You can’t drive your car onto the island and most parts are accessible by bike or by foot.
One of the finest boutique hotel and dining experiences is on the island at Kläpphagen Koster. The project is the brainchild of chef extraordinaire, Martin Nilsson, and whether it is collecting the rain to water his vegetable garden or selling local Koster Island sea salt in his gift shop, he is about utilising the surrounding environment sustainably and resourcefully.
Their tasting menu is a tour de force in open-fire cooking, but it is only available during off-peak season as it is so labour-intensive. Expect to see dishes like oysters from the island with beef fat drippings and beef tartare with Swedish caviar and sea squirt stock. They probably have the lowest food travel mileage for the main course as the lamb (Koster lamb with chanterelles and pomme purée) is supplied by their neighbouring farm.
After dinner, you can waltz back to your suite, which has a very homely vibe with intricate floral wallpaper and mismatching plush cushions.
Dalsland
If Bohuslän is all about the sea then Dalsland is about the diverse lakes, forests and hills, and it is often referred to as Sweden in miniature.
Swedish Country Living
If you are still not sold on rural escapes, you will be after visiting Swedish Country Living. Owners Marie and David used to be city-dwellers running a fashion company in downtown Gothenburg but they chose to take a more meaningful career change, moving to farming and holiday rentals in the countryside. What was once their summer house is now a land filled with sheep grazing on grass and roaming ducks that help to remove the slugs.
Their hermitage for rental are all individually designed in conjunction with their architect son, where no two buildings have the same design. What is a genuine highlight is their outdoor cooking package that comes with your accommodation. You can bake your sourdough pizza in their wood-fired oven with the help of Marie using mushrooms which are foraged from the estate grounds. You can go fishing in the vast lake Vänern, which is right on their doorstep and they even have a boathouse on the estate to make your nautical adventures that much easier.
Outdoor fire cooking at Kroppefjäll
Outdoor cooking with fire does seem to be a keen passion for the Swedes out in the west country and this is also on offer when you stay at Kroppefjäll B and B, which is set in the middle of the lush Kroppefjäll nature reserve. Food bags with instructions are prepared for you, so you just need your barbecuing expertise on hand to create the finest Swedish burger and the vegetables are supplied by a nearby farm at Sandlycke Gård.
Being a small rural community, the very personable couple, Eva and Patrick Petrén Allier, who own the farm, also help to operate the hotel. They can even arrange a hike for you through Doctor Saedéns Runda, which used to be a trail used by patients of the local sanatorium.
Embracing nature in the forests of Kroppefjäll
On the other edge of the nature reserve, you’ll discover Ragnerud vandringsdestination. What started as a camping site has morphed to include holiday cottage lets and it is a family-run business in its third generation situated in a picture postcard-perfect spot in a magnificent valley at the foot of the Kroppefjäll plateau. With majestic pine trees on either side and a mystical lake in the middle, this has been a popular holidaying destination for the Swedes for generations.
In recent years, they’ve focused on taking their gastronomic offering to the next level and you’ll find that the restaurant focuses on the flavours of Dalsland. The provenance of their ingredients is all listed on their website and all are local to the region. They too offer a tasting menu when it is off-peak – expect to see hearty offerings like pike quenelles, baked rabbit with smoked celeriac and red wine braised ox cheeks. They also serve up local Edsleskog gin along with local Brukskällan Indian tonic for the full Dalsland experience.
In a nutshell
With such a diverse topography offering the best of nature’s larder, there is no reason not to consider West Sweden and Gothenburg for your next gastronomic holiday.
Factbox
For more information on the region, visit westsweden.com
