City, Scandinavian Restaurant Guide

This “Nordic restaurant with classic and well-executed dishes from the region” is a more casual offering in the Bloomberg Arcade from Danish veteran City restaurateur Soren Jessen, of smart No 1 Lombard Street. There’s a good choice of Danish smørrebrød – slices of rye bread with tasty toppings – and a matching selection of aquavit and Scandi gins. Although the odd reporter feels it’s “rather let down by the austere ambience”, it is “excellent for a quick work lunch”.

“Fabulous Swedish cakes and good coffee” are the siren call to this tiny Scandi kafé in Covent Garden, if you can nab a seat – but “it’s just so small you can’t always get in”. Top Tip – “the prinsesstårta is to die for”.

“Really amazing use of the smoke and fire they cook with” (“there’s practically no gas or electricity in the kitchen!”) “produces lots of novel flavours” at star Swedish chef, Nicklas Ekstedt’s Whitehall yearling, which well-travelled reporters say “lives up to the Stockholm original” with its “inspired Nordic cuisine” (matched with “a novel selection of wines”). And “the lovely staff are really engaged with what they serve you” at this dining room within the five-star Hyatt: arguably, the most interesting culinary arrival of the year. One gripe, though: “some rather mean portions”.

The “outstanding Scandinavian” flavours created by Swedish chef Emma Bengtsson – a superstar in New York – are showcased at this stark, “very spacious” modern venue (lots of “high-quality wood and granite”) in the St James’s Market development behind Piccadilly Circus. It’s never reproduced the excitement in London that it enjoys in Manhattan. Even critics acknowledge “it could be so good”, but some items seem “absurdly expensive” and the room itself can seem icy in its beauty.

This “small” Swedish restaurant in Islington serves “amazing”, “absolutely delicious” meals based around Nordic ‘husmanskost’, meaning home cooking. It took over the Grade-II listed premises vacated by fellow-Scandi Rök (RIP) three years ago, making for an easy transition for locals with a taste for the north.

Limited but mostly positive feedback this year at this second-floor dining space, within the gobsmackingly lovely Belgravia Pantechnicon building. Despite the ambition of its Nordic menu (the name means ‘fire’ in old Norse), though, it is still not making many waves. Maybe it’s because a peek up the staircase takes you out onto the gorgeous rooftop…

“Great coffee and an always-buzzy vibe” make it worth remembering this attractive, all-day Marylebone deli/café, which serves a mix of patisserie, cakes, soups, salads and sarnies from breakfast onwards.

Harrods enticed Swedish superstar Björn Frantzén to open his first London outlet as the trump card in their beefed-up in-store hospitality offering, with a scheduled late-2022 launch date. His self-named Stockholm flagship is a regular on ‘World’s Best’ lists and his Singapore offshoot Zén is not far behind, which indicates he’s not bad at running multiple sites globally. We look forward to feedback.