Food: Scandinavian flavors inspired by Japanese cooking methods
Address: Vegagatan 50, 413 11 Gothenburg, Sweden
Phone Number: +46 (0)31 13 80 50
Website: www.bjorkochbambu.se
Guide Michelin: No stars
What I paid:  87€ (tasting menu per person including beer-pairing)
Visited: April 19, 2014 

Restaurant Björk och Bambu is located in Gothenburg (west coast of Sweden) and it opened its doors relatively recently. The name translates to “Birch and Bamboo” and reflects the food served here, which is a cuisine, based on Nordic flavors with inspirations from Japanese cooking methods.

The interior of the restaurant is pretty simple but still stylish and given its location and region (a popular one in Gothenburg) you may think this is just another typical neighborhood restaurant, but that is definitely not the case.

Björk och Bambu

There are two tasting menus to choose from, one smaller (a 315 SEK) and one “big” (i.e. 4-course menu a 585 SEK) but since the menus are not that big you could also supplement those with dishes from the a la carte menu (or just go with the latter one…). There were two pairing alternatives for the menus to chose from, one with wine (a 495 SEK) and one with beers (a 200 SEK).

I opted for the big menu with beer pairing (no extra from a la carte) and this is what I had:

Amusement (a small, very taste soup):

Amusement

This little amusement may not look that impressive but it tasted really good!

Bread and butter (x2):

Bread and butter

The bread was okay but what really stood out was the butter! One of the butter had a taste of a popular Swedish herring “mix” and even though this may sound awkward, it was really good. Even better though was the lemon butter that I think was really delicious and something I never tasted before.

Jerusalem artichoke, pear, buckwheat, goat cheese foam, coriander:

First dish from the menu

Very tasty!

Grilled zander, savoy cabbage, teriyaki, oyster mushrooms, lingonberries:

Fish

This dish is basically the only one I had a remark on though I experienced it a notch to salty. That said, I still appreciated it but it was not as enjoyable as all other dishes served.

Blade-bone, cauliflower, smoked and pickled onions, miso, veal gravy:

Meat

Very good!

Toffee Cream, red tea and lemon sorbet, star anise, verbena meringue:

Dessert

A very good dessert and final of this dinner!

To summarize: I visited “Björk och Bambu” completely unplanned and was not sure if we could have a table without any prior reservation but it turned out that the restaurant had very few guests this evening. That said, my friend and I went there late and on a “strange” day (i.e. Easter Saturday) but I have also heard from other people that the restaurant is seldom full. That’s very sad though they serve very good and interesting food. Also, it is easily the best restaurant in this popular neighborhood (“Linné”) in Gothenburg that houses quite a lot of restaurants. Therefore I think “Björk och Bambu” deserves better attention and recognition from the local crowd in the region though I really enjoyed my dinner there!