Macelleria

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

Kärlek och Kalorier – Love and Italian Tradition in Hagastaden

Macelleria plants itself firmly in Stockholm's Hagastaden neighbourhood with a straightforward proposition: real Italian cooking, quality ingredients, and zero pretension. The restaurant's own motto says it best – counting calories is not the priority here. Love for food is. That honesty runs through everything, from the depth of the wine list to the time spent slow-cooking a ragù for 24 hours.

Recognised by Gambero Rosso in 2025, Macelleria earns its place among Stockholm's notable Italian tables not through novelty but through conviction. Italian cuisine at this address means San Marzano tomatoes, Prosciutto di Parma aged 36 months by Sant'Ilario, fior di latte, and buffalo mozzarella – ingredients chosen for what they are, not for how they read on a menu.

What to Eat

The menu moves confidently across all the registers of Italian cooking. Starters include a charcuterie board with Prosciutto San Daniele and alpine ham alongside melon, a burrata with artichoke cream and Valencia almonds, and a carpaccio of thinly sliced beef fillet topped with Kalix bleak roe and mascarpone – a small Nordic flourish in an otherwise classically Italian kitchen.

Pasta is made seriously: Bigoli Frutti di mare brings together scampi, mussels, and calamari in a San Marzano tomato base; the Lasagne Macelleria uses a veal ragù that has spent a full day on the heat. The Tortelloni d'Aragosta, filled with lobster and crayfish, arrives in a lobster reduction.

From the grill, the Bistecca Fiorentina tradition is honoured with a 250 g grain-fed Hereford/Angus entrecôte from Uruguay, while the Osso Buco – here a lamb shank braised for 24 hours – comes with saffron risotto and oven-baked fennel. The pizza section covers the full range, from a simple Napoletana with anchovies and capers to the house Macelleria pizza with salsiccia and friarelli.

The Wine and the Room

The wine cellar, as the restaurant puts it, is full of favourites and interesting new discoveries – but without snobbery. Staff are there to match a bottle to your plate, with the same unpretentious enthusiasm you'd find in a good Italian trattoria. The experience is designed to feel precisely like that: a proper Italian dinner, transplanted to Vasastan.

Macelleria also runs a sister restaurant, Portofino, in Gamla Stan, and welcomes private parties alongside its regular dinner service.