February 15, 2005
The Gondola
The manager of Gondolen, Erik Lallerstedt, has driven restaurants for thirty years now, and in the eighties his establishments all had stars in the Guide Michelin. Plus I had already been at Gondolen to drink their delicious drinks, so the expectations were sky high. We'd reserved a table for seven, but arrived twentyfive minutes early. The Maitre d' quickly made the necessary arrangements and we were whisked to our table at lightning speed nonetheless.
Gondolen is situated in the middle of town, but it's built as a metal construction that juts out of a rock face, and you have to ride an elevator to get up there. The whole restaurant and bar have glass walls, which means that at all times you're overlooking Stockholms Gamla Stan, the old city with its large amounts of sixteenth century buildings. Added to that, the ambience of the place is classy yet not too formal. Lush carpets, hardwood floors, heavy silverware and friendly staff surround you at all times.
We ate rather similar things as there was a menu of seasons' dishes. So we started out with some lovely smoked salmon with crayfish in a light curry dressing, and then went on to eat duck breast on a Jerusalem artichoke gratin with cardamom and ginger sauce, after which case I finished it off with a coffee-creme brulee and Lisa took the home made orange ice-cream with chocolate and hazelnut sauce.
All of the food that passed our silver plate was immaculate. Tastes were subtle without being wimpy, textures were just right and the presentation was beautiful. That didn't make the evening though.The service did. It wasn't just that waiters and waitresses were dressed as professionals, with black and white attyre, a vest and bow ties respectively scarves and even the white cloth over the arm, they excelled in making one feel welcome.
A friend of mine dropped by for drinks at the bar rather early, so a chair appeared out of nowhere so he could sit with us. Since he had some flowers with him, the waitress immediately came out with a vase with some water and put them up on the table. When we'd eaten and were heading for the bar, she came by with the flowers re-wrapped in their original paper and said she was going to leave them at the exit in some water for us to pick up when we'd leave. All of this automatically and with an enourmous polite friendliness.
If you ever find yourself in Stockholm with a few Euro's to spare, you should visit this place. It's always a wonderful experience, wether you're just there for drinks or the whole nine yards.
Posted by Chris at February 15, 2005 10:06 AM