Vikings invade the London restaurant scene

London is in the grip of a “Scandivasion” of new Nordic restaurants that has called time on the region’s culinary reputation for gloomy meatballs.

Two have won Michelin stars in a cultural influence that has seen the huge success of the “Scandi-noir” novel genre led by The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and TV crime dramas The Killing, Wallander and The Bridge.

The most ambitious Scandinavian restaurant to date, a 300-seat Danish steakhouse called MASH, opens next month in the Soho basement once occupied by Marco Pierre White’s Titanic restaurant.

Peter Harden, co-founder of Harden’s restaurant guides, said Scandinavians had suffered from the same kind of inferiority complex as the British, but in the same way that our own chefs had taken the world stage “something similar is going on in Scandinavia”.

Last week saw the opening of AVEQIA in Farringdon, a Swedish “cook it yourself” concept with diners taught by Michelin-starred chefs to prepare dishes such as “spice flamed reindeer”.

Icelandic chain Tommi’s Burger Joint, owned by restaurateur Tommi Tómasson — so dominant in its homeland that it is said that even McDonald’s would not open there — arrived here in August.

Copenhagen-based chain MASH beat off competition from dozens of the world’s top restaurateurs to secure the Crown Estate site. It has spent £4 million on the interiors and a launch party on November 1 will be attended by a Danish A-list, including supermodel Helena Christensen.

Although MASH is a mix of American as well as Danish influences, its general manager Peter Trauboth said it will have “a very Scandinavian-style” service with an emphasis on informality. Ben McCormack, editor of Square Meal magazine, said there was a growing realisation that “the UK is a northern European country and perhaps we are realising we have more in common with Sweden and Denmark than with France or Italy”.

The elevation of Copenhagen’s Noma to the world’s best restaurant in 2012 marked a turning point. This summer its chef René Redzepi opened a sell-out pop-up version at Claridge’s.

Last month Swedish born Mikael Jonsson, head chef at Chiswick-based Hedone, completed one of the fastest ever ascents from opening to Michelin star, while Nordic influenced North Road in Clerkenwell was awarded its first star in last year’s guide.