How to eat on a budget in Stockholm
Stockholm is a city that knows no boundaries and time limits that should be taken to visit it. You want to stay awake in it all 24 hours, and even if you lie down for an hour to restore shape, then certainly against the backdrop of some sight. The only thing that can stop you from a permanent high in the cleanest city in Europe is the archaic beliefs about the benefits of three meals a day. And someone has a personal calorie counter, which gives annoying signals, making a person sharp and easily excitable. All in all, we all need our favorite buffet.
And it is the problem of finding it or creating it from improvised material that we will discuss. I will have to bring information from my store of knowledge and stocks of more advanced travelers who, unlike me, managed to find a balance between food and sightseeing.
My calls to switch to an apple diet and not to clutter up the mind with everyday gluttony usually do not break out in the presence of even close people, and remain a personal prerogative.
I recommend not to bother the Swedes at all about this, since the availability of food and the ability to quickly access it is their number one task no matter what. If there is no opportunity to disturb the acid-base balance on a boat along a bay, a museum, a park, then this place should be cursed, a fine should be imposed, and in general you should think about the need for its existence. But let's leave the Swedes with their complexes and focus on the ways and methods of eating in foreign territory.
My request on a couple of sites for help in this matter and practical advice did not give much results, focusing on the basic possibilities of buying food in a supermarket and visiting 7-eleven more often.
English-language sites call the main solution to the problem an attempt to drink local tap water, and not spend money on "expensive" plastic containers.
Unfortunately, this is not enough and you will have to reveal the topic yourself. If you have any good suggestions, then I sincerely ask you to help me with this issue in the comments.
Let's start with perhaps the most unassuming pro-American type of food - sandwiches. You can make them yourself, or ask someone to make them for you. For an independent option, I recommend contacting the Lidl store, relatively high-quality and cheap products, even in the Swedish aura of high prices. I found the only store in Stockholm on Sodermalme along Folkungagatan street. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then go to the first ICA or Coop that comes across. There will be no global difference.
By the way, the Swedes themselves do not recommend buying canned or bottled beer with meals in such stores, referring to its low quality and high water content.
If the option of self-catering is not for you, then queue up at the nearest fast food stall. The cheapest sausages sticking out of rolls will be sold to you for 15-20 crowns. If you choose a more serious filling, then this is already 25-35 crowns. Here you can take coffee, juice or soda for 15-25 kroons. Well, I think you won’t have to learn where to settle down for tasting non-haute cuisine dishes. Until you reach the stall with shawarma, you yourself will count such places.
Fans of drinking sandwiches with a glass of store-bought wine should be careful, as not all parks allow this.
If you don’t want to turn on fantasy or mess around with food cuts, then you can contact fast food organizations following the example of McDonald’s. The prices here are the same as in the take-away trade.
There are Turkish kebabs and immortal 7-eleven shops.
For demanding customers to choose fast food, I recommend visiting Hotorget Square near the central station. There, on the ground floor of the building at Kungsgatan, 25, there is a Mecca for fast food lovers - as many as 11 food courts.
There is also the only food market in the center of Stockholm nearby, where they sell fresh vegetables and fruits. This is the only place where bargaining with the seller is not only possible, but also necessary. At the same time, look at the magnificent building of the concert hall, where the Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded.
Speaking of the market, one cannot ignore such an event of the gastronomic past and present of Stockholm as Saluhall. When I first saw this word in the list of noteworthy places, I did not understand which sights it belongs to. And only after our date everything fell into place.
In 1888, the popular food magazine Bon Appetit ranked Saluhall as one of the top 7 food markets in the world. Since then, he has not lost his title. In 2013, the market celebrated its 125th anniversary, which justified the need for its restoration. Restoration will begin in 2015, so hurry up.
For the past 7 years, the market has been included in the mandatory recommendations of the Michelin Guide. 17 different companies are represented here, among which the majority of fish, butchers and seafood boutiques. Buying expensive products here is mainly the prerogative of gourmets and culinary connoisseurs. That is, it’s so easy to come in from the street and buy yourself a cut of smoked sausage for a loaf, it will be a little expensive, but you can always take a walk or taste a little tapas. Ostermalmshallen. se
For more mature couples who include children and who are not attracted by the opportunity to spend happy days in Stockholm harbor eating only sandwiches, I will try to give advice on restaurants. I will definitely warn you that a frivolous fall at the first tables that come across is fraught with damage to the budget - vegetable salads for 135 kroons and meat plates for 180, unfortunately, this is a reality in Stockholm. Therefore, such falls must be carried out consciously, with the availability of information about the runway.
It's no secret that in any European city it costs at least 2 times cheaper to dine than to have dinner. We will deal with lunch now, but for dinner I recommend choosing restaurants in the Sodermalm area. In addition to the fact that I generally recommend it, the same locals refer to the fact that the average price tag on the island will still be lower than in other parts of the city, and especially in the Old Town.
There you will also find chic beer pubs with more or less tolerable prices in the price list.
So lunch. There are 2 search options - buffets (Swedish for "buffet": ) and various "menu of the day". There are many options for the menu of the day around the city, and although it does not include, as in Southern Europe, a three-way with a set of bread, there are various "salad of the day" and "soup of the day". On average, such shortened menus cost 80-100 crowns. You don’t need to search for them and you can stumble upon such offers everywhere.
Exclusively Swedish feature is food in various museums. Each museum in the city has in its arsenal a restaurant with quite interesting and not very expensive cuisine. In almost any of them, be it Vasa, the Museum of Photography, the Mint or Junibacken, you will be offered something in the form of their “cheap lunch” option. By the way, in the last two you will definitely be able to fit in 100 crowns.
The preference of many is the cuisine of the Museum of Modern Art.
Here, for 120 crowns, excellent Swedish delicious lunches are served. In addition, there are children's options for only 55 crowns.
My idol in Scandinavian restaurant food is Jensen’s Bofhus restaurant chain. Jensens. com. They have branches in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany. And if in Germany his visit can be excluded from the mandatory program, then in the steppes of Scandinavia it is the number one savior from severe hunger and incredible waste. Well, how do you like a steak for 49 crowns at lunchtime? ! And my version with a salad buffet and a baked potato for 89 kr? ! I don't think there will be any objection. Moreover, all restaurants are at a very high level, stylish and with good locations. Of course, once inside, there will be a desire to spend more, but I simply did not meet lower prices to start. 5 restaurants in Stockholm, one of which you simply must visit.
Well, and something else from my personal notebook.
The Olgas restaurant in the Old Town, where you can not only taste salads for 59 kroons, washed down with coffee for 17 kroons, but also, without any hesitation, order shrimp, salmon and fish soup with croutons loudly and in Russian. Osterlanggatan, 8 right behind the mint.
Restaurant Sallys in the same Old City at the foot of the German church. Here you will be offered an Italian lunch at a price of 100 CZK. sallys. se
Not far from the Nobel Museum is a traditional Swedish restaurant with the incredibly complicated name Stortorgskallaren. Here, too, they promise to serve lunch no more than 100 kroons + an interesting atmosphere. Stortorgskallaren. se
Next to the Mediterranean Museum is Pickwick's Restaurant & Pub. Dine here will cost from 89 crowns. You can also try the beer. There are over 100 varieties of it. Pickwick. nu.
The public also recommends the Vapiano restaurant chain. se. Five restaurants throughout the city, including the Old Town, where interesting Italian dishes start from 80 CZK.
Well, for a snack, I left probably the most interesting option.
This is no longer my baggage, but the only interesting option gleaned from the forum. The Scandic Malmen hotel, on Sodermalm (there are several of them in general in Stockholm), on the square named after the Medborgarplatsen metro station (by the way, not far from Lidl, which I mentioned at the beginning). A buffet with an endless supply of food and drink, linen napkins, classical music and, in general, complete chic. For 95 crowns, you get yourself a travel card up to 1400, after which the overeaten lovers are kicked out from behind the tables.
There is also a Pizza Hat opposite. This is if suddenly after 1400 you will still feel empty in the stomach: )
I recommend remembering the hours of the Swedish lunch from 11 to 14. After this hour, the carriages turn into pumpkins, the cute waiters into bloodthirsty minnows, and the bills are tripled due to evening extra charges.
I have everything for now. Bon appetit and bright impressions in search of culinary happiness!
