Restaurant Mother

Chefs Melker Andersson and Danyel Couet, as restaurateur partners, have been responsible for some of the best restaurants in Stockholm over the past 20 years or so... running one of the city's first gastronomy empires. A few years ago, they downsized and changed direction a bit, selling off quite a few of their restaurants and changing the concept of some others.

Market & Bar, heading to Restaurant.

Their latest restaurant venture in Stockholm is Mother, which opened earlier this year. The restaurant has a very central location in the downtown area, just in between the NK department store and the Mood shopping center. This makes it a great restaurant to combine with a day of shopping, whether for lunch or dinner. The space is quite large and they have tweaked the concept and design a bit since opening... so I was happy to dine there with my Les Clefs d'Or colleagues and see the changes.

Lounge area.

As I mentioned, the space is quite large. But it doesn't feel as large as they have split up the space into two main areas... one called Mother's Market & Bar and the other Mother Restaurant. In Market & Bar you can get a quick breakfast, lunch or take-away while in the restaurant you have a la carte lunch and dinner. They also have a nice bar with lounge area and the overall design is industrial but still warm.

Part of the Market.

When it comes to the restaurant's cuisine... the ingredients are a mix of local and Asian (following the latest trend: "Scanasian") and dishes are medium-sized and the idea is that you should order 2 to 4 dishes, depending on how hungry you are. We went full in and tried their 5 course tasting menu which was very good. They also have a few sharing dishes on the menu where you have to be a minimum of 2 persons.

Crab salad with avocado, yuzu, kamu kamu, tomato and chili.

But the main distinctive feature of the menu is that it is devoid of lactose and refined sugar. There is also very little gluten on the menu. They were quick to point out that they don't consider themselves to be a health food restaurant, but more a restaurant with interesting flavors and creative dishes yet with a healthy concept. To be honest, the food was very good and I didn't miss the lactose, gluten or refined sugar at all.

Peanut pancakes with marinated raw tuna, galangal, oat tahini and lime.

In December (up until the 22nd) they will, as many other restaurants, serve the traditional Swedish Christmas smorgasbord ("julbord"). They promise both traditional dishes on the julbord as well as new dishes playing with traditional holiday flavors. If you are staying at the Rival Hotel, contact me for more information or help reserving a table. To get to Mother from the hotel, it is either a 7-8 minute taxi ride or else a quick subway ride (4 stations on the red line to Östermalmstorg, exit to Stureplan). For more restaurant recommendations and reviews, click here.

Figs, red wine ice cream and flower honey.

Dining area.