Gro

The term "hole in the wall" can't be more accurate when it comes to this tiny restaurant on Sankt Eriksgatan in Stockholm. Only 18 seats and the open service kitchen take up a good 40% of the dining room.

                                     


Gro means grow and here vegetables play the main character. This doesn't mean it's a vegetarian restaurant but fish and meat rather play in the background of the locally-grown veggies.

The chefs and owners Magnus and Henrik does everything here; cooking, serving and I bet they even take care of the pile of dishes after each lunch as well, because this place only serves lunch from Monday to Friday.
As a guest you don't have much of choices, the three courses are written on a small board on the wall and apart from various juices they serve one beer.

First dish was the raw dish of the day where most of the ingredients are uncooked. Might sound like a boring salad but this dish was great. Black kale with cauliflower and toasted hazelnuts. The cauliflower puree was very light and not made with a lot of butter and milk or cream which might be more common. I think it was mixed with a light vegetable stock and it fitted the dish better. If someone was served raw dishes like this I can understand how someone can become vegan, very good.

Second main was carrots with fennel, new potato, onion and a smoked mayonnaise with fish roe. Another great dish, but half way through the plate it became a bit too much. I accidentally run into my blogger-friend starfood scout who's been here various times and he told me that the carrot dish was his least favorite so far.

For dessert we had cheesecake, but not to be confused with the American version made of Philadelphia cheese on a digestive base. The Swedish cheesecake is made by adding rennet to milk to make it coagulate and later form a "curd cake" that is normally served lukewarm.

The cheesecake in Gro was good but maybe a bit too dry to be perfect. It was served with cherries and chamomile. The crunchy bits on top was quite pointless though; no taste and way too tough to bite.

Nonetheless I will definitely come back to Gro and when each main is only 100kr (15 us dollars) I must say it's an amazing bargain.

http://grorestaurang.se/