Scandinavian Hotel Restaurants: Where to Eat and Stay
Prices and details checked .
In Scandinavia the restaurant worth travelling for is often inside a hotel, and the kitchen is frequently the reason to book the room. The seven places span Sweden, Norway and Denmark, from a lunch buffet beside the Norrbotten rapids to an 18-course omakase in the Hemsedal mountains.
Five Swedish kitchens, one Norwegian, one Danish
Sweden holds five of the seven kitchens worth planning a trip around in Scandinavia, Norway one and Denmark one, and that imbalance shapes the itinerary before you look at a menu. The Swedish five sit in Malmö, Stockholm, Umeå, at the Storforsen rapids in Norrbotten and on the High Coast, so a Swedish food trip means choosing between a city dining room and a northern one rather than stringing them all together. Norway's is at Skigaarden, high in the Hemsedal ski centre, and Denmark's is on the island of Møn.
Summer is the season that makes the case for eating your way north. Sweden gets long, light-filled days from June through September, Denmark is at its sunniest in summer and windy for much of the rest of the year, and in the far north of Norway the sun does not set at all. Winter reverses every part of that: short days, snow, and the northern lights in place of the midnight sun.
Norway's one kitchen is the most ambitious
Skigaarden sits at 1,013 metres in the middle of the Hemsedal ski centre and runs three restaurants in one building. The ambitious one is Omakase by Skigaarden, where chef Pedro Farinha serves a set menu of Norwegian and international fish and shellfish: 12 courses at lunch for 1,190 NOK, or 18 courses at dinner for 1,950 NOK with a 10% service fee added on top. By contrast, the seven-course menu at Gotthard's Krog in Umeå is 950 SEK and the dish of the day at Ellevilde on Møn is 249 DKK.
The other two rooms are less formal. Storstugu is the grand hall, à la carte at lunch and a grill restaurant in the evening, with après-ski every Saturday through the winter. Dagligstugu, on the third floor, is the family one: homemade meatballs with mash and lingonberry, apple cake with cream, and stone-oven pizza topped with local ingredients. Underneath both is the part that surprises people, a cellar holding more than 100,000 bottles and 5,000 references, close to 40,000 of them Champagne with vintages back to 1943, and bottles selling from 650 to 2,000 NOK. It was named Norway's best wine list for eastern Norway in 2025 and the country's best Champagne and sparkling list the same year. Rooms are open year-round; the restaurant opens for summer on 28 June, when Dagligstugu switches to a shorter menu of pizza, sandwiches and cakes.
In Sweden the north eats differently from the cities
Sweden's two northern kitchens build the meal into the stay. At Glamping Höga Kusten, dinner is cooked over an open fire at the farm in Undrom and comes included with an overnight booking, with lunch at 350 SEK and dinner at 450 SEK for anyone ordering separately, and the summer location beside the High Coast Distillery adds a distillery tour and a whisky tasting, with a one-night package for two at 5,250 SEK. Hotell Storforsen includes breakfast in the room rate and opens its restaurant to everyone: a lunch buffet every day at 152 SEK, a breakfast buffet at 189 SEK, à la carte dinner in the evening, a wine bar, and windows over the rapids.
The city kitchens are more conventional and more varied. Gotthard's Krog at Stora Hotellet in Umeå is the most serious of them, with a five-course Grown and Harvested menu at 750 SEK, a seven-course version at 950 SEK, and an avec cart at the end. Kulturbageriet, on the same indoor square, bakes the bread for the 245 SEK breakfast and serves stone-oven pizza Tuesday to Friday from 16:00 to 20:00 and Saturday from 12:00 to 18:00. In Malmö, Såjja at TwentySix Hotel cooks for guests and visitors and carries food out to the courtyard, with breakfast at MJ's a two-minute walk away for 185 SEK on weekdays and 200 SEK at weekends. In Stockholm, Kung Carl Food & Bar on Stureplan mixes cocktails with the hotel's own punsch, and La Cour is the quieter room for a glass of wine first.
Denmark has one kitchen, and it is the reason to be there
Ellevilde Boutique Hotel on Møn is the Danish kitchen, and the restaurant is not a side facility. Kenneth, who runs the hotel with Kirstine, cooks a dish of the day from local and seasonal ingredients for 249 DKK, Saturday to Thursday, with a tapas menu for two at 395 DKK. The dining room is open to people who are not staying, but hotel guests get first call on tables and everyone else goes on a waiting list once it fills. Through September the kitchen serves tapas only on Fridays.
Breakfast is a mostly organic buffet at 175 DKK, served 08:00 to 09:30, and it comes included only when you book direct rather than through a third-party site. The kitchen works to a target of more than 90% local and organic ingredients, which is why the dish of the day is built from what the island has, and the hotel holds Møn UNESCO Biosphere Ambassador status.
Match the kitchen to the trip you are already taking
The seven kitchens sit in five Swedish towns and landscapes, one Norwegian valley and one Danish island, so the first filter is geography: you take the one on your route, not the one with the best menu. After that it comes down to how much of the day you want the meal to take. An 18-course omakase in Hemsedal and a dish of the day on Møn are not the same kind of evening, even though both are hotel restaurants, and neither resembles a lunch buffet beside a rapids that you can finish in an hour and spend the rest of the afternoon on the boardwalks.
Two practical notes before you commit. Book the tables that need it: Ellevilde gives hotel guests priority and runs a waiting list for everyone else, and the private dining rooms at Kung Carl and the Chambre Séparée at Stora Hotellet are booked separately from the main restaurant. Then check the season against the kitchen, because the summer café Kaffestugan at Storforsen opens only from May to August, the Skigaarden restaurant opens for summer on 28 June, and the Møn dining room runs its Friday tapas service through September.
Frequently asked questions
- Are restaurants expensive in Norway compared with Sweden and Denmark?
- Yes, at the top end. The 18-course Omakase dinner at Skigaarden in Hemsedal is 1,950 NOK per person with a 10% service fee added, and bottles from the cellar run 650 to 2,000 NOK. Against that, the lunch buffet at Hotell Storforsen in Norrbotten is 152 SEK and the dish of the day at Ellevilde on Møn is 249 DKK.
- What is the best time to visit Scandinavia for food?
- Summer. Sweden gets long, light-filled days from June through September, Denmark is at its sunniest in summer, and in the far north of Norway the sun does not set at all, so the evenings run long. It is also when the seasonal kitchens open: Kaffestugan at Storforsen runs May to August, the restaurant at Skigaarden opens for summer on 28 June, and the distillery location at Glamping Höga Kusten takes guests from June to September.
- Where should I stay for a food-focused trip to Sweden?
- Umeå, if the restaurant is the point of the trip, because Gotthard's Krog at Stora Hotellet serves a five-course Grown and Harvested menu at 750 SEK and a seven-course version at 950 SEK. In Stockholm, Hotel Kung Carl puts you on Stureplan with its own bar downstairs. In Malmö, TwentySix Hotel has the in-house restaurant Såjja and breakfast at MJ's two minutes away for 185 SEK on weekdays.
- Are there hotels with good restaurants in Sweden?
- Yes, and the kitchen is often the reason to book the room rather than a convenience attached to it. Stora Hotellet Umeå has Gotthard's Krog and the bakery café Kulturbageriet on its indoor square, Hotell Storforsen runs a restaurant, wine bar and summer café with a view over the rapids, and Hotel Kung Carl in Stockholm has Kung Carl Food & Bar alongside the smaller wine bar La Cour.
- What are the best restaurant hotels in Denmark?
- Ellevilde Boutique Hotel on Møn is the one to book. Kenneth, who runs the hotel with Kirstine, cooks from local and seasonal ingredients with a target of more than 90% organic produce, and the dining room serves a tapas menu for two at 395 DKK alongside a breakfast buffet at 175 DKK. The restaurant is open to non-guests, but hotel guests get priority and everyone else joins a waiting list.
- Are restaurants open on Sundays in Scandinavia?
- Sunday service is normal at Hotell Storforsen, where the lunch buffet runs every day, and at Gotthard's Krog in Umeå, which is open daily. Ellevilde on Møn serves its dish of the day from Saturday to Thursday, so Sunday is covered there too. The day to watch is Friday at Ellevilde, when the kitchen serves tapas only through September.
