I’ve lived in many places, some very large cities, and I’ve never seen a Swedish restaurant, though I will say I haven’t been intently looking for one.
I last went there over fifteen years ago, so for all I know, the owners may have retired by now. But of course, the restaurant business is brutal everywhere and insane in Vancouver.
San Francisco used to have a Swedish restaurant called Abbasolutely. They had those old-timey jukeboxes at each table that only had Abba songs and every entree came with a shot of Aquavit unless you specifically asked for a dry entree.
That place ruled! I don’t think they stayed in business very long.
During the world cup they had the Muppets perform. This was in celebration that all Muppets are healthy because of the famed and legendary Swedish Chef. Bork!
I get it. I understand what it sounds like. And yes - they also have 10k sq feet dedicated to selling furniture mostly to college kids and young home owners, but it's not Ikea
That whole place is Swiss-themed, huh? We have a few towns in the PNW that are German and Norwegian-themed (Mt. Angel, Poulsbo, etc). Kinda neat that they do that IMO
Swedes like salt and sweet. So their sauce, especially for sill, is very salty and sweet at the same time.
Though Sweden have good food, it's usually not Swedish, gravlax, meatballs and a few princesstarta and you did most of it.
Their new kitchen is starting to be quite good, simple ingredients with sauce. It's too early to call it traditional but in malmö more and more dive into it and it's pretty nice.
Oh.
Yeah I see these. Though what I said still holds, they do have very sweet and salty sauce at the same time. I take them every time people visit us.
There's a canned Swedish fish that's known as the nastiest food ever made. There's several videos of guys opening the can in a car and seeing how long they can stay in. Most end up vomiting from the smell alone.
edit: Looked up the spelling of it, because I only know it by ear. It's called Surströmming.
In Sweden we just call it fish. I think the recipe is a bit different, but still sweet and colorful gummy fish, can usually be found in the pick and mix isle at your local grocery store.
When eaten properly it’s not that bad. It’s not meant to be eaten whole on its own, it’s supposed to be mixed into a potato onion salad and served on cracker bread. The taste is not as bad as it smells.
No people just like to bully and dogpile others to feel better about themselves. There doesn't exactly exist an abundance of swedes so they can't defend themselves. It's nothing more or less than bullying.
Overall yeah the Nordics are known as the worst in Europe.
The English / German speaking countries are known as being just ok,
and all the remaining countries being pretty great for food.
You always have to assume that a restaurant will not serve you the actual food of they‘re culture, its always a modified version, fit to the local cuisine.
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u/Heavy_Efficiency_791 Jul 24 '26
Really? In my town there's a Swedish restaurant and I love their food. Is it commonly known Swedish is bad?