The story
Crafted with passion, served with love
A Bar That Outlasted the Hype
When the gastropub wave swept through the mid-2000s, many restaurants rode it briefly and moved on. Mathias Dahlgren's Matbaren, which opened in 2007 inside the Grand Hôtel on Blasieholmshamnen, did something rarer: it defined the moment and then simply kept going, unchanged in the best possible sense.
The original concept was conceived as a deliberate counterpoint to the adjacent fine-dining room. Where that space was strict and formal, Matbaren was faster, looser, and more alive — a bar with an open kitchen, well-crafted small plates, and a room designed to encourage conversation and loud laughter in equal measure. The adjacent dining room has since reinvented itself more than once. Matbaren has not needed to.
Small Plates, Serious Cooking
The format remains what it always was: fairly priced, carefully made small plates anchored in high gastronomy but served without ceremony. The open kitchen and bar layout mean you eat in full view of the action, which gives the room a particular energy — social and relaxed, yet precise. It is the kind of place where a solo diner at the bar and a large group celebrating feel equally at home.
White Guide, which has tracked Swedish restaurant culture closely for decades, recognises Matbaren at a very fine level and puts it plainly: "Then as now, it all worked absolutely wonderfully." That consistency — nearly two decades of it — is the real achievement.
Stockholm Dining at the Grand Hôtel
The setting, within one of Stockholm's most storied hotels, adds a layer of occasion without tipping into stiffness. Facilities include private rooms, outdoor seating, and full wheelchair access, making Matbaren a practical choice as well as an inspired one. But the reason to come is simpler: a bar kitchen that got it right in 2007 and has never given anyone a reason to look elsewhere.
Recognition