Planning a city break to the Swedish capital? You’ll want to make time for a sit-down meal or two at one of the city’s enviable assortment of high-quality restaurants. The Michelin guide lists forty restaurants worth visiting in Stockholm. Here, let’s take a look at six of the most luxurious ones.

Mathias Dahlgren-Matbaren

You’ll find this trendy little bistro inside the Grand Hotel Matbaren. It offers excellent quality Scandinavian dishes, but it remains on the affordable side. You’ll get an excellent view of the open kitchen when you’re ordering from the bar.

Smak

This cheerful little restaurant offers patrons the ability to shape their own tasting menu, with up to seven distinct flavours mingling across three courses. There’s also a vegetarian menu on offer, too. If you pay this place a visit, then you’ll also benefit from an extensive drinks list, which covers everything from pilsners to craft lagers.

Oaxen Krog & Slip

The name of this eatery comes from its original home on the island of Oaxen. It’s single moved to another of Stockholm’s islands, Djurgården. A combination of Nordic style and technical mastery has earned it a Michelin star. You can expect a ten-course tasting menu that’s highly informed by traditional Scandinavian foods, like reindeer, as well as locally-sourced vegetables and herbs.

Operakällaren

As you might expect from the name, this restaurant is sited in the same complex as the Royal Swedish Opera. With a history stretching back to the late 18th century, it’s now split into several locations. There’s the main dining room, the opera bar, and the Bakfickan (or ‘hip pocket’) counter restaurant. The Swedish meatballs alone are worth the trip!

Ekstedt

This restaurant actually has quite an interesting history behind it. It’s the brainchild of a former TV chef, Niklas Ekstedt, who has helped the country to rediscover its gastronomic roots. Combining the technical refinements of fine-dining schools in France and Italy with traditional Nordic ingredients and methods, Ekstedt is a restaurant with something different to offer. All of the food is cooked over a real fire, just as it was in the old days.

Frantzén

If you really want to push the boat out, then a trip to this ultra-luxurious restaurant might be in order. It’s the first Swedish restaurant to be awarded a third-michellin star, and you can expect to pay several thousand krona for a seat. Make sure that you book as far in advance as possible – two months should be considered a minimum.

Again, this is a restaurant that embraces traditional Nordic cooking, which means that there’s a real fire roaring in the kitchen. As for the food, it’s extremely refined, with a touch of the Japanese about it.