Culinary

Under: A Culinary Meditation Beneath the Atlantic Text Jawhanna Berglunds  Reaching Lindesnes, at the southernmost edge of Norway, feels like traveling not just across distance, but toward a new state of awareness. The road unfurls through pale landscapes and sea mist until it meets the calm, glassy waters of the Skagerrak. After five hours of travel and a restless night, I arrived at Lindesnes Havhotell, a coastal sanctuary that whispers comfort rather than declares it. The hotel’s devotion to hygge that distinct Scandinavian warmth wraps around you from the moment you enter. Soft lighting, clean lines, and rooms overlooking the sea create a cocoon against the wildness outside. It is both base and balm, a place to prepare the senses for what comes next: Under.   Just 200 meters away, on the rocky shoreline, Snøhetta’s architectural masterpiece breaches the boundary between sea and sky. The building seems to have slipped deliberately from land into the depths, a concrete monolith half-swallowed by the Atlantic. This is Under, Europe’s first underwater restaurant, where the natural world becomes both setting and soul. Inside, the oak-clad interior glows with a subdued warmth. Dining five and a half meters below the surface should feel confining, but the opposite is true it’s almost meditative. The space breathes, and so do you. Opened in 2019 after five years of design and construction, Under is the vision of brothers Stig and Gaute Ubostad, modern pioneers of Norwegian gastronomy. Their concept is less about indulgence and more about communion with sea, with season and with craft. The service is hushed yet intuitively present. The staff move with confidence and restraint, anticipating needs rather than responding to them. It’s seamless, almost telepathic – yet never impersonal. As the final course fades, a quiet melancholy takes hold. Joan Didion once wrote of “the ordinary instant of an ending,” and here beneath the Atlantic, I understood exactly what she meant. I found myself lingering reluctant to surface, to leave the stillness behind. Its achievement lies not in classification but in emotion in its ability to connect architecture, cuisine, and nature into a single, resonant experience. Dinner begins not with a dish but with a gesture: a palate cleanser of blueberry and spruce needle. The blueberries, fermented for two years, taste of both forest and time, an invitation to slow down. It’s the sort of detail that signals what’s to come: food as reflection, not performance. Before you stretch an eleven-meter panoramic window, an underwater horizon that shifts with every ripple and school of fish. The ocean becomes part of the conversation. Each course, each sip, feels synced to its rhythm.   A 2023 Smaragd Riesling from Austria grown on steep, sun-struck slopes opens the experience with bright minerality. It’s followed by a biodynamic Catalan white, paired with Norwegian bluefin tuna caught just hours away, the cleanest expression of “local” imaginable. A 2016 White Rioja, aged in three oak barrels, follows alongside langoustine, its freshness amplified by the wine’s soft oxidation. Then arrives monkfish, tenderized for ten days to achieve an almost otherworldly texture, complemented by an elegant Red Rioja whose lineage reaches back to the 1700s. Even the non-alcoholic pairing, Meadow, a series of handcrafted local juices feels deeply considered, a pastoral echo beneath the waves.   Would I return? Inevitably. Under is one of those rare places that doesn’t simply feed you, it transforms you. Like a film whose final scene haunts you long after the credits, it leaves you suspended between memory and awe, surfacing slowly, carrying the ocean with you. www.under.no/en/ www.havhotellet.no/  Image courtesy of Odalisque Magazine, shot on Leica.

Villa Valentina opens in the heart of Stockholm A Spanish farmhouse opened its doors on 28 May in the centre of Stockholm. Villa Valentina opened in Slussen, occupying a building with panoramic windows on all sides and a west-facing terrace overlooking Stockholm’s waterway and Gamla Stan. The restaurant seats close to 400 guests, 150 of them on the terrace, and represents the new flagship for Urban Italian Group, which operates 17 restaurants across Sweden and Spain including Basta, Florentine, and Lola Maria. The concept draws on Andalusian and Mediterranean food culture, with an interior of mosaic floors, hand-painted walls, Murano chandeliers, and an open kitchen and bar that runs in a 360-degree arc through the space. The menu is built around sharing plates from land and sea: gambas with sobrasada, squid with chorizo and salsa verde, pluma ibérico, alongside a Basque cheesecake with brown butter and a dulce de leche with rum among the desserts. The wine list spans accessible to more exclusive selections; cocktails follow a Mediterranean thread from aperitivo to closing drink. “There is something in Spanish cooking I have always been drawn to – the simplicity, the respect for ingredients, the ability to create a great deal of flavour without complication,” says Kristjan Longar, Co-owner of Urban Italian Group.  For founder and CEO Brazer Bozlak, the location at Slussen, one of Stockholm’s busiest transit points, was central to the vision, which developed during the group’s years of expansion in Marbella and Madrid. Villa Valentina opens 28 May at Mälarterrassen, Slussen.

NENI and Rex Bar Open in Stockholm this June NENI Stockholm and Rex Bar open on 15 June at the top of the new Miss Q development at Fridhemsplan on the isalnd of Kungsholmen. The two concepts share a continuous rooftop space, restaurant, bar, and terrace flowing into one another. The bar and restaurant are designed around the idea that an evening here should shift naturally rather than be divided into distinct parts. NENI is a premium-casual restaurant inspired by the culinary world of Haya Molcho, led here by head chef Ergent Durici, who previously ran the kitchen at TAK. The menu draws on Eastern Mediterranean flavours and is structured around sharing – dishes placed at the centre of the table rather than ordered individually. The kitchen is open, the terrace stretches across the rooftop, and the 230 seats are arranged to encourage movement throughout the evening. Adjacent to the restaurant, Rex Bar is the social anchor of the space. The cocktail programme is curated by Vasilis Kyritsis and Nikos Bakoulis, the bartenders behind Line in Athens – currently ranked 8th on the World’s 50 Best Bars list. The bar is conceived less as a destination in itself and more as a place that extends the evening: from golden hour on the terrace to something that runs later into the night. Both open for dinner from 15 June, with lunch and brunch service to follow later in the year.

Stockholm Welcomes Brasserie Astrid Set to open at the end of May in the heart of Slussen, Brasserie Astrid positions itself as a new all-day destination where international brasserie culture meets the rhythm of Stockholm. Located in the heart of Stockholm, the restaurant aims to capture the city’s flow, offering a space that moves effortlessly from long lunches to late evenings. With generous opening hours, the vision is to create a social hub where guests come to stay. Behind the concept is restaurateur Napolyon Sürer, a longstanding figure on Stockholm’s dining scene, joined by partner Marius Kababji. Together, they bring a focus on the full experience, where food, music, and energy intersect. “It’s not just about the food, but the rhythm of the room and the feeling when you walk in,” Sürer notes. The kitchen is led by head chef Robert Lindberg, working alongside Magnus Karlqvist to deliver a broad, approachable menu. Classic dishes are reinterpreted with modern touches, while Swedish ingredients take centre stage, particularly in fish, seafood, and carefully selected cuts of meat, many of which are prepared on the grill.  Spanning three levels, each floor of Astrid carries its own identity. From the lively entrance bar to more intimate dining spaces below, and a lower level with panoramic waterfront views, the design encourages both spontaneity and extended stays. The interior, developed in collaboration with Millimeter Arkitekter, draws on the timeless character of global brasseries while embedding references to Stockholm’s urban history. With its combination of location, scale and ambition, Brasserie Astrid sets out to become an iconic meeting point in a rapidly evolving part of Stockholm.

OMAKA Opens a New Beer Bar in Stockholm OMAKA, the craft brewery and restaurant concept founded in 2020 is opening its first outpost on the south side of the city. OMAKA Ölbar opens on 27 March inside Restaurang Ponti on the island of Södermalm, a collaboration with restaurant duo Oskar Larsson and Eloi Berthelin, the team behind Schmaltz, Galinas pizza, and Tengu. It marks the brewery’s first move beyond Östermalm and a new context in which fresh craft beer takes centre stage. OMAKA was founded by brewmaster Hedda Spendrup with a stated ambition to shift how beer is understood as a flavour experience, experimenting with taste rather than playing it safe. The new bar is something Spendrup has had in mind for a while. “OMAKA Ölbar will be a place entirely on beer’s own terms, without rules for how it should be. Come in for a quick beer after work, or stay and taste your way through the evening,” says Spendrup. The bar serves OMAKA’s fresh craft beers alongside a simple menu of pizza and selected snacks. The format is deliberately accessible, equally suited to a quick stop or a longer evening spent working through the range. For Oskar Larsson, the draw was straightforward – “We have created a bar where you can drink fresh, quality beer without it getting too nerdy.” The interior was designed by Jeanette Didon, known for her work across restaurants, bars, and clubs in New York and Paris. Raw materials, concrete and steel, are offset by wood, textiles and art for a relaxed, living-room atmosphere.