Lunch at Gro

Elna Nykänen Andersson
Posted January 13, 2014 in Food & Drink

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The name of this new lunch restaurant on Kungsholmen makes you think of something growing and sprouting, and accordingly, the focus here is on vegetables. But carnivores will also find something to eat here – it might not be something that used to have legs, but at least it’ll be a new vegetarian favourite.

Your best chance of landing a table at this much-hyped restaurant right on the northern side of Sankt Eriksbron is if you arrive right when it opens at 11.30, or alternatively after 1 pm. Surrounded by heavy traffic and ethnic restaurants of varying quality, it doesn’t have the best location – it’s a good distance from the trendy, restaurant-packed Rörstrandsgatan – but it may well have the best menu. For 100 kronor, you get to eat food prepared and served by two chefs with a past at top eateries such as Rolfs Kök and Fredsgatan 12. Magnus Villnow’s and Henrik Norén’s first restaurant has only 20 seats, and while the small dining room is tasteful and right on time in its urban roughness – think white, tiled walls, kitchen work benches in concrete and a few green plants as colour injections here and there – it’s clear that the chefs put most of their efforts into the gastronomic side of things.

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The menu, which changes daily, is handwritten on a black chalk board, and always features just four dishes: a soup, a bread-based dish, the day’s special and a dessert. All the food is seasonal and locally produced. On the day Totally Stockholm visits, the choices are a carrot soup, a chili with beans and chuck, and a herring sandwich. Wine and beer – from a microbrewery, of course – are also on offer.

Both dishes turn out to be excellent choices, even if the sandwich gets higher marks. The chili is clean and fresh with firm beans and tender meat, but could have benefitted from some more bite. The open sandwich, in the style of Danish smørrebrød, is probably the most delicious of its kind we’ve ever eaten. Layer upon layer of delicacies – soft-boiled egg-halves, cherry tomatoes, pickled red onions, thin slices of herring, mayonnaise and dill – form a winning combination that I for one will be trying to replicate at home (in vain, most likely).

The dessert (75 kronor), may seem a little expensive compared to the main courses, but it’s worth it. Beautifully presented, it’s a light and not-too-sweet combination of roasted hazelnuts, thin leaves of meringue, yoghurt and sea buckthorn jelly.

Gro currently only serves lunch, but the owners have plans to extend the opening hours to include dinner as well. At the moment, however, those working in the vicinity of Sankt Eriksgatan can look forward to some of the best lunches in town.

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Photos by Mattias Fornell
Sankt Eriksgatan 67, grorestaurang.se

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