Tavolo

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A tribute to Italy, with a New York state of mind

Tavolo occupies one of Göteborg's most striking rooms: the Artilleristallarna, a hangar-like former stable dating to 1835, on Magasinsgatan 19. The space is vast, and it knows it. Mosaic floors, original entrance doors, scattered statuary, and wide timber planks set the scene before a single dish arrives. At the centre of it all stands the conversation piece that has reportedly been photographed over a million times – a nearly seven-tonne stone horse, a copy of Leonardo da Vinci's Cavallo di Forcione, carved over four years by stonecutters Peter Apelgren and Sven-Ingvar Johansson. The original sketches were discovered beneath the marble floor of the Duomo in Siena in 1971.

Italian cooking, rooted in every region

The kitchen draws inspiration from all regions of Italy, sourcing authentic ingredients directly – cheeses, tomatoes, charcuterie, olive oils – and rounding them out with carefully chosen Swedish produce, with a strong commitment to organic sourcing. It is Italian cuisine taken seriously, without the formality that sometimes comes with it.

Restaurateur Stefan Karlsson, one of Göteborg's most experienced operators and the force behind the Götaplatsgruppen, built Tavolo as a place where the crowd is genuinely mixed: families, couples on dates, groups sharing an Aperol at the bar, colleagues catching up, birthday tables breaking into applause. The White Guide recognised it at Fine level for 2026, noting it as one of the most talked-about restaurant openings in Göteborg in recent years – a "sympathetic living room where everyone seems at ease."

The room, the energy, the table

That ease is the point. Tavolo is set up for sharing and lingering – tavolo means table in Italian, and the name is a small statement of intent. The New York influence shows less in the food than in the scale and confidence of the room: high ceilings, bold design choices, and a buzz that builds through the evening. Saturday opens at noon; the rest of the week starts at five. Either way, the horse will be waiting.