Surfers Stockholm

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A love story that started on a surf bar

Surfers describes itself plainly and honestly: "a love and life journey that began as a surf bar almost 20 years ago on what we sometimes call 'Limestone Hawaii'." The name stuck, the soul stayed intact, and the restaurant has since moved through several addresses before landing at Norrlandsgatan 24 in central Stockholm. That continuity — same spirit, evolved form — is something the team says they are "enormously proud and grateful for."

The stated ambition is equally unambiguous: to approach one of the world's oldest food cultures, the Chinese, with reverence and humility, and to share it with Stockholm on its own terms. Dishes arrive together, meant to be passed around the table, and the staff is ready to guide you through what pairs with what.

The food: hot, sour, numbing, precise

The menu moves across regions — Sichuan, Hunan, Shanghai, Xinjiang — without pretending they are all the same thing. White Guide awarded Surfers its Very Fine Level recognition, and the review captures the kitchen's range well: edamame beans tingling with Sichuan pepper, hand-pulled biang biang noodles beaten on the bench and stretched into wide ribbons before meeting a lamb ragù fragrant with cumin, scallops steamed al dente in their shells over the thinnest garlic-laced glass noodles, and Hunan enoki mushrooms — pale and slender — laid under a spoonful of spicy chili ragù.

The printed menu reinforces that breadth. Twice-cooked pork comes with doubanjiang and fermented black soybeans. Gongbao prawns arrive with chili, spring onion and cashew. A whole steamed fish is served with ginger and spring onion. Sichuan pickles change daily. The kitchen also produces its own sauces, now sold beyond the restaurant through Surfers Market.

Chinese drink, taken seriously

Surfers claims Scandinavia's largest selection of Chinese alcohol. Baijiu — the world's best-selling spirit — is listed by region and producer, from a Red Star Classic out of Beijing to a Feitian Moutai from Guizhou. Shaoxing rice wine sits alongside it as the natural companion to fish and shellfish. Ludvig Sääf, the restaurant's Chinese culinary and beverage expert, leads tastings and also guides the full team through the cultural and regional context of every new dish before each menu change — a detail that shows in how the service staff explain what you're eating.

The room and the ritual

White Guide describes stepping inside as entering another world: steam rising from rice cookers, a display case of sausages and pork cuts, red accents throughout, cinematic lighting that makes the dark tables glow. The atmosphere is deliberate, not accidental. Order two or three dishes, let them arrive almost simultaneously, and start — as the guide suggests — with the edamame.