Stockholm: Pelikan Restaurant

On Friday night I ate at the Pelikan Restaurant in Stockholm. It was recommended on the site Spotted by Locals as a good place for typical Swedish food. So I thought I would try it.

The wait was about half hour for a table, but it looked good so I enjoyed a very nice local beer called Wisby Hansa Pils at the bar on the left side. It was really great because the restaurants and bars in Sweden are non smoking - what a relief from the crazy Austrian system!

When it was time to eat, I was led into the dining room, a very nice bistro-like room with very high ceiling, ceramic tile floor and nice decorations. It was quite loud, but very pleasant space, and they gave me a very nice table.

My waitress was not really friendly (my greeting: "You're not from Sweden are you?") or efficient, but maybe it's because the restaurant was very busy. I ordered the Swedish meatballs and another beer. Unfortunately my waitress did not take the time to understand which beer I wanted so brought me the wrong one and she was so inattentive that I never had a chance to ask her to change it, so I simply drank it.


The Swedish meatballs were huge and tasty. I really like meals where they mix flavours like sweet (lignon berry jam), sour (pickles) and meat/gravy together. (Austrians do that with schnitzel and cranberry sauce.)

In summary, my food was very good and everything else looked great too. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, although I noticed that others were a bit frustrated by the service as well. I would recommend the restaurant, especially with a group, but be patient.