How to eat like a Norse

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10 April 2012

If the closest you ever get to Scandinavian food is a plate of meatballs on a trip to Ikea, it's time to eat out more. Luckily, with the cold weather on the way, you've an excuse to develop a taste for the hearty and sustaining fare favoured by our fur-wearing friends: creamy cheeses, oily fish and piles of stodgy potatoes.

Scandinavian food might once have been a recipe for waving goodbye to your waistline, but these days there's more to it than smorgasbord (a Swedish lunch buffet) and smoky herring - and right now there are Nordic fusion menus cropping up all around town. But there's still a place for old-fashioned comfort foods, too. Here's our pick of those Scandinavian soul food outlets to cheer you up when winter hits.

Deep (Swedish)
This modern restaurant is an impressive backdrop to Swedish owner-chef Christian Sandefeldt's take on haute cuisine.

While there's a pleasing touch of retro about the starters - prawns in mayonnaise on toast and herrings served with crispbread (£8) - after that, it's all fusion.

Favourites include tuna tartare with chilli mayonnaise, Arctic caviar and crispy squid (£7.50), and warm smoked trout with horseradish and braised beetroots (£13).
The Boulevard, Imperial Wharf, SW6, (020 7736 3337, deeplondon.co.uk)

Garbo's (Swedish)
With its venerable name and faded photographs of celebrity diners on the walls, this Marylebone outpost for all things Swedish is unapologetically nostalgic. At lunchtime, there's a hearty, old-fashioned smorgasbord (£12.95), or go à la carte in the evening. Long-standing favourites include braised elk in chanterelle sauce and meatballs in cream sauce (£7.95).
42 Crawford Street, W1 (020 7262 6582)

Upper Glas (Swedish)
This Swedish gem is tucked away above Islington's antiques market. Starters include smoked eel with bacon and red wine sauce (£7.50), a herring selection flavoured with vodka and lemon, sour cream or mustard (£6.50), and crayfish tails with red onion (£8.50), pictured below.

For mains, try the biff rydberg, beef hash with potatoes and onion (£15), or kottbullar, Swedish meatballs with mash, lingonberries and pickled cucumber (£13).
359 Upper Street, N1 (020 7359 1932, glas restaurant co.uk)

Lundums (Danish)
The only all-out Danish restaurant in town is a casual affair. All dishes are simply prepared but the menu is hearty and sustaining: the veal and pork meatballs come with potatoes, red cabbage and gravy (£14.75), while the wine-marinated venison is served with steamed leeks, rosti potatoes, apple compote and crispy shallots (£19.50). The fanciest dish, though, is roasted duck with white asparagus, oyster mushrooms, mustard cress and horseradish sauce (£25.75).
117-119 Old Brompton Road, SW7 (020 7373 7774, lundums.com)

Elk In The Woods (Danish)
Dressed up like a Nordic hunting lodge, this cosy gastropub has a mish-mash menu. Amid the char-grilled ribeye and halloumi-stuffed pitta, the odd Danish dish stands out. But if salt-grilled mackerel with home-made chips (£15) is too "modern European", go for the frikadeller, meatballs served with roast bacon, gherkin, apple sauce and potato salad (£12).
39 Camden Passage, N1 (020 7226 3535, the-elk-in-the-woods.co.uk)

One-O-One (Norwegian)
This is one of the few places in town to try "new Norwegian". The ocean-faring menu includes several taster dishes with a distinct Scandinavian influence. Much of Brittany chef Pascal Proyart's seafood is Nordic-sourced and comes swimming in a variety of sauces. Delicacies include red king crab from the Barents Sea (£11) or the pan-fried Norwegian scallop served with quail eggs, pork belly and truffle potato mousseline (£11).
One-O-One, 101 Knightsbridge, SW1 (020 7290 7101, oneoone restaurant.com)

Nordic Bakery (Finnish)
If the Scandinavians had invented Starbucks, this Finnish deli-bakery is how it could have looked. The décor is best summed up as "sauna chic", with dark wooden benches and walls lined with shed-like planks and signage done out in classic helvetica.

The menu is equally minimalist: staff serve open sandwiches made just-so with long, dark ryebreads topped with a variety of goodies: sliced egg, cheese and gherkin, salmon tartar, gravadlax, anchovies and herring, from £2.80 each.

If you're looking for somewhere Soho-ey to catch up with friends over coffee and cake after work, this is the place; it serves cinnamon cake, Karelian pie, flat savoury pastry topped with pudding rice and munkki, a sweet, hole-less doughnut, all from £1.50 each, until 8pm on weekdays.
14 Golden Square, W1 (020 3230 1077, nordicbakery.com)

Scandinavian Kitchen (Danish/Swedish)
Run by a Swede and a Dane, this just opened deli north of Oxford Street is a good spot to get to grips with Scandinavian staples in your lunch break. Cue cards show novices the different ways to eat smõrrebrod, the rye bread open sandwiches offered as a smorgasbord.

Various toppings include sliced egg with cod roe, liver paté, oak-smoked salmon and crayfish tails. Make yourself a platter with three pieces (£4.50), pictured above right, or five (£6.50). Or try the Viking Wedgie (£3): salami, brie and tomato between slices of super-thin Arctic bread imported from northern Sweden. Nip in after work and try a Danish hotdog (£1.75), served with the usual ketchup and mustard - or with cucumber relish, gherkins and remoulade, a squeezy-bottled mayonnaise sauce laced with pickles and horseradish.
61 Great Titchfield Street, W1 (020 7580 7161, scandikitchen. co.uk)

Below Zero (Lapland)
Whether you want to eat, drink or chill Scandinavian-style, do it here.

Not only is there a Wolf bar, Moose dining room, and Reindeer lounge - nods to the venue's Lapland leanings - it's also home to London's only permanent ice bar made entirely from ice.

Start with butterscotch schnapps (£7.50) or a Midnight Seal cocktail, made with rum, apple juice and angostura bitter (£9.50), followed by saddle of reindeer, cranberry glaze, almondcrusted sweet potato cake and juniper jus (£23).
31-33 Heddon Street, W1 (020 7478 8910, belowzerolondon.com)

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