Gallerian, Hamngatan 37, Stockholm
There’s this thing about shopping malls that I really like. I think it’s just cozy and easy all these shops together underneath one roof. I love the silly tunes their playing. I love the extravagant decoration during holidays. But the main reason why I love them is because of the food courts, those indoor plazas with a lot of different food vendors where it’s almost impossible not to find anything you like to eat! Holland you don’t really see these types of malls, but both in America and Asia I’ve been to great malls with even better food courts.
And I just recently found out that the Swedes also know how it’s done.
Inside the Gallerian mall in Stockholm you can find all sorts of small stands where they sell delicious treats, ice cream, smoothies or coffees. And they also have three big restaurants. We’ve only been to two of them, because they were so good. The first one, Hamngatan Stories, was totally filled with businessman and woman when we had lunch there at Friday afternoon. The main reason I wanted to eat at this place, was because of this counter standing in the middle of the restaurant, where people we’re busy making their own desert with vanilla cream, fresh fruits and other sweet toppings. Without knowing what we exactly ordered, they handed us two plates both filled with high quality food. One with delicious steak, potato gratin, butterbeans and a red wine sauce. The other one with spinach and ricotta filled tortellini in tomato sauce, topped off with parmesan and parma ham. But, beside the desert table, they also had a great salad buffet and a wide variety of bread and spreads. All included in the price of these two plates (which we paid about 222 SEK, or 25 Euros, for).
I can be quite conservative when it comes to food: when I find something really good I can keep coming back to it over and over, not being nterested in what other restaurants might have to offer me. Too bad the desert, salad and bread buffets were just a weekdays-deal, so we had to find our self a fine place for the other two days, since I really liked that part of it.
Luckily, just across the aisle, there was Piazza Fiore, a delicious Italian restaurant (with, as you know a must for me, a wood-fired-oven). We decided to share a pizza and a pasta, since we really couldn’t chose which one we liked best. And they were sooo good! And again, as a starter we received some free bread with butter and salad.
Compared to the Netherlands, Sweden is relatively expensive when it comes to food. But, even though you pay about 10% more than we’re used to, most of the time you also get something for ‘free’ as well. For instance, in almost every restaurant or bar there’s a place where you can get free water (and it’s totally not weird when you don’t even order something else to drink, but just have free water all night).
Oh and there’s also Gateau, a small stand in the middle of the corridor, selling Princess Baksele, or as we know it from IKEA: Swedish princess cake. One of my favorite cakes! Of course we had to try it and it was delicious (fluffy cake, sweet marmalade and cream inside and tasty marzipan wrapped around it)! I also noticed this American Cookies stand, where they bake cupcakes, muffins and brownies all day long, looking totally mouthwatering. We ‘only’ had a jummy icecream (in Sweden they make real good ice cream, did you know that?), but next time I’m definitely trying some of their baking.
Don’t worry, my trip to Stockholm wasn’t all about food again, I’ll post more about other things I liked later ;)
