Food in Sweden

There is a lot of seafood in Sweden (I personally LOVE all the pickled herring) but there are also plenty of red meat and potato meals. The meatballs are delicious!

You didn't specify where in Sweden you will be, so I will make some assumptions. Stockholm is a big cosmopolitan city. As such it has a reasonable array of ethnic (non Swedish themed) restaurants. Here's two examples from our time there. We saw several examples of "tapas bars", popular imports of the Spanish concept of grazing on many snack-sized items. We ate at one and it had a fairly broad array of meat/cheese/veggie items arranged on breads. My favorite "find" was a Cuban bistro Paladar de Cuba at Tegnérgatan 19. Sure there was some fish on the menu but it had plenty of pork, chicken and beef dishes too, all with a Caribbean twist. Looking online, I see that address is 10-12 blocks from the central train station. It is slightly uphill but fairly walkable IMO. I also see that within a 5-6 block radius of that address there is a barbeque place, a taco place, a Mexican place, a Hard Rock Cafe, a burger place and 2 Italian cafes. Outside of of the city, you'll find fewer ethnic choices (just like at home) but unless you go into a fish-only place, there will be some kinds of meats. I recall seeing reindeer on one menu in Uppsasla, but I declined to munch on Rudolph so I can't comment on the goodness. I probably had the chicken.

I just got home from Sweden and was able to eat no problem as a vegetarian. While many restaurants offer seafood, and include it on things like pizza, there is always the option to order something else. Along the lines of the previous commenter, not sure where you are going, but the food in Stockholm was yummy and we had a huge variety to choose from, and the options in smaller towns was slighly more limited, but still no issues!

Thank you for the replies about food choices other than seafood. Some of you asked where we would be visiting in Sweden. We haven't set an itinerary yet, but besides Stockholm and some of the surrounding cities, we will likely visit Gotland where my great-grandfather emigrated from. I see that Visby is the main city on the island. Again, we hope to have diverse food choices other than fish:-) Any restaurant recommendations would be appreciated.

Why do you think it will only be fish?

Responding to the question about why I’m asking about non-fish restaurant choices, my husband heard that the food choices in Sweden were predominantly seafood and therefore he wouldn’t enjoy travel there. I’d like to be able to reassure him that he will have lots of enjoyable meals in Sweden.

Responding to the query about where we would travel in Sweden: besides Stockholm, we are thinking of visiting Visby in Gotland, Kalmar, Helsingborg, Ystad, Uppsala, and Sundborn.

Its a wealthy European country with the same amount of choice as you would have at home. Fish may be high up in their favourite food, so if roast beef or chicken tikka masal in England, but it is not the only food choice you can get. Doing a quick google I found definitely reference to pickled herring but more to meatballs, cinnamon buns and Jansson's Temptation!

Of course Sweden has food other than fish and seafood (not the same thing but I assume both are not desired). There may be some restaurants that specialize in fish and seafood, but those are easily avoided (European restaurants tend to post their menus). And it doesn't have to be "ethnic" restaurants, Swedes eat quite the variety of foods. Enjoy your trip.

Of course there are other options than fish and seafood (but it is very popular): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_cuisine

A few recommended restaurants in Uppsala:
Messob (Ethiopian)
Bierhuis (Belgian)
Villa Anna (New Nordic)
Stationen (French)
Peppar peppar (Swedish)
Jay Fu's (Asian-American fusion)
Aaltos (Italian)

I would love to recommend Hambergs as well, but they specialize in fish and seafood so you should probably avoid them…

I took a look at the menu for a traditional Swedish restaurant our Swedish friends had recommended on Djurgarden in Stockholm. Ulla Windbladh. I saw several beef dishes, meatballs, chicken, venison, beef burger. This just an example. They had an equal amount of fish. We did not dine there but looked at their website to more clearly answer this question. We usually eat fish over meat but understand your dilemna.

Janhart,
I went to Ystad last summer and I loved it. When I was there I ate Spaghetti Bolognese, a hamburger and fries, cold cuts, cheese....no fish or seafood.

If you have any questions about Ystad let me know. I stayed at Sekel Garden Hotel.