Restaurant Tak

The view from the rooftop bar

A friend of mine turned 60 last week and a group of us decided to go out to dinner to celebrate the milestone... so I booked us a table at Restaurant Tak. Tak is relatively new and, before this dinner, I had only had a chance to visit their rooftop bar a couple of times in the summer. The bar was a lot of fun, with great views of the city, so I was curious to visit the restaurant as well.

Street entrance to the elevator which takes you up to... 

"Tak" is Swedish for roof, which is very apropos considering the restaurant's location on the top floor of the building. The restaurant itself is on the top floor, while the bar, lounge and raw bar are located upstairs on the actual rooftop. This restaurant is part of a larger urban renewal project in the middle of the city called Urban Escape, which is a full city block completely renovated & rebuilt, containing new hotels, restaurants, shops and office space. This block, while very central, has always been a bit of a no-man's land, in-between shopping districts, so this revamp is very welcome.

...the subtle entrance.

When you enter the building from the square Brunkenbergstorg, you will see Tak's own marked elevator there to take you up to the restaurant. When you exit the elevator, it is easy to miss the restaurant's subtle entrance and continue up the stairs to the rooftop bar. Nothing wrong with that! You can enjoy great views of the city while sipping your pre dinner cocktail. During the cooler half of the year, they have closed down part of the outdoor area (for obvious reasons), but during the warmer months they have quite a large set-up covering two rooftops with bars, lounges and sun chairs.

Another view

The subtle entrance is quite a contrast to the large and lively restaurant within, decked out in earth tones with gold touches, all surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over Stockholm. The restaurant is divided up using a type of sporadic-latticework walls that makes Tak seem both intimate and open at the same time. As you find in most new restaurants these days, there is an open kitchen in the center of the restaurant.

The restaurant's diningroom

The cuisine is a fusion of Swedish and Japanese flavors and dishes. Each dish, in fact, has a pairing recommendation of both a wine and a sake. I chose the roll-it-yourself Temaki sushi for dinner. I have eaten hundreds of sushi dishes in my lifetime, so this deconstructed variety was a fun version to try. The ingredients (rice, deep fried pollock, marinated trout roe, pickled cauliflower, cucumber, curry emulsion and more) came to the table along with seaweed to wrap the sushi with and a handy "how to eat me" booklet. Very delicious.

My "make your own" Temaki sushi

We had our dessert and coffee in their comfortable lounge. For dessert I took the almond ice cream with hazelnut Dulce de Leche and topped with rowanberries and apple granité. Sweet & sour... a nice way to finish the evening. Tak, as I mentioned, is located in the downtown area. To get there from the Rival Hotel, you can either walk 30 minutes through the old town, take a subway three stations to T-Centralen (all lines, exit to Sergelstorg) or a 6-7 minute taxi ride. Tak is quite new and therefore popular with Stockholmers wanting to try a new restaurant... so make sure you book in advance! Contact me directly, if you are staying at the hotel, for help. Click here for more restaurant reviews/recommendations.

My friend ordered the Donburi

Dessert!