Restaurants
As is our custom we booked dinner reservations at each of our destinations so that we always have a place to go at the end of a long and thirsty day of sightseeing.
Of course Scandinavia is fish-forward so much of the selection was seafood but they have moved well past herring four ways. Asian fusion was also a thing in all three dinner cities.
In Copenhagen we loved Kødbyens Fiskebar. Such a great ambience and the food was stellar, especially the oysters!
Some of the oysters were so juicy and delicious that it might be worth going back for more. The best part of Fiskebar was the sun chairs they had sitting out front in the parking lot.
You can see the menu at this very address https://www.fiskebaren.dk/en/contact/
We also had a ton of fun at a bar called The Barking Dog in Copenhagen.
Not our picture of the bar (not sure what happened…) but definitely our drinks. The wheels very nearly came off the wagon at The Barking Dog. You can read more at http://www.thebarkingdog.dk
In Stockholm we enjoyed our meal at Lisa Elmqvist. It’s a restaurant inside a market hall in central Stockholm.
They had a Kalix Bleak roe appetizer that made us want to lick the plate. Kalix is a small fish in the salmon family that is unique to the waters off the east coast of Sweden. Very tasty.
Lisa Elmqvist is at https://www.lisaelmqvist.se
We visited a very hidden bar in Stockholm called Lucy’s Flower Shop. There is no sign outside and you have to know where you’re going. The only reason we found it is because we were standing outside the building and someone walking by said that the place we were looking for was downstairs.
Lucy’s really had some challenging drinks, which were interesting to see. More about Lucy’s at https://www.lucysstockholm.se
Another restaurant we enjoyed in Stockholm was B.A.R.
On more than occasion we were served bread with butter and a small dish of salt or with kosher salt sprinkled on the butter. Try it, you’ll never, ever, ever go back to plain bread and butter.
You’ll find B.A.R. at https://restaurangbar.se/en/
In Helsinki our favorite restaurant was Gaijin in the Japanese quarter of Helsinki.
Gaijin was a very cool space and the menu was great. The meal we had was terrific.
They offer tasting menus as well as a la carte. We ordered a la carte. Their menu changes regularly and can be seen at https://www.gaijin.fi
Hotels
We stayed in three different hotels on this trip, one in each major city.
In Copenhagen we stayed at the Hotel SP34 in the Vesterbro neighborhood. The hotel is situated on the famous Sankt Peders St.
Our room really wasn’t that great, but hotel was nice and breakfast was lovely. The view from our balcony sort of made up for room shortcomings.
In Stockholm we stayed at the venerable Hotel Reisen located in Gamla Stan, the old city.
The Hotel Reisen is situated right on the water in the oldest neighborhood in Stockholm. We had a beautiful room with a water view.
The Hotel Reisen can be booked via Hyatt hotels. We used points for our stay.
Our last hotel was the Hotel St. George in Helsinki. Another beautiful hotel and it was right in central Helsinki, walking distance to everything.
We somehow forgot to take a picture of the room but do have a picture of the view from the room which was of a park. The weather was lovely so we were able to leave the windows open the whole time and enjoy the Finnish summer weather. Hotel St. George is a member of Marriott.
One more post coming on observations from our trip.
