Review of Bönan & Prinsen – by Elof B.

Item: Bönan & Prinsen
Rating: 5
Author: Elof B.

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Elof B. Apprentice

Bönan & Prinsen

23 October 2015

Super cozy hipster café serving stews, soups and sandwiches at very reasonable prices, considering Stockholm's inflated café prices. With decor straight out of a 60s vintage shop, this family owned hideaway is the perfect place to get have a quiet lunch or just grab a coffee.

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Elof B. Apprentice

Surfers

23 October 2015

Great Sichuan cuisine served in a wonderful environment by an attentive and polite wait staff. The restaurant operates in a small-plate method, where you pick a few dishes that look interesting and they portion it out based on the number of people in your company. Sadly this leads to pricing not really being readily available, and the staff did not inform or confirm the price for what we were ordering. Slight warning for eaters on a budget.

The food was a nice break from the standard and quite uninteresting westernized Chinese food common in Sweden. Our evening began with the waitress explaining the idea and brief history of the restaurant, which was a nice touch. From the seven dishes we ordered, three were memorable and delicious while the rest were passable, but not exceptional:

The wonton soup, served as the appetizer for the meal, was the best, offering an harmonic combination of flavors and spices. The duck breast in broth and the fried tofu in ginger were both excellent as well (the latter with a supposedly ´secret recipe´, but the waitress did not hesitate to spill the details about it when asked).
The other dishes we had were the pork ribs, shrimp and chicken balls as well as the twice fried pork, which were all good but not memorable. Our final choice was the mapo dofu, which was a disappointment.

The locale itself was fantastic, managing to balance modern decorating details with classic 19th century furnishing, all with a distinctly Asian feel. Especially nice was the umbrella'd ceiling, which I suspect is the subject of many instagram backdrops. Despite being a busy sunday evening, the atmosphere was calm and dinner conversation could be had without shouting at your table partners.

We did not try any desserts, but we did peruse the cocktail menu which was all the more interesting, offering a fun selection of custom Asian-inspired fusion drinks. The ginger and mango gin cocktail I sampled proved an ample replacement for dessert, and given the chance I would not hesitate to try more of the menu.

In summary, Surfers offers great Chinese cooking, luckily not very reminiscent of the Chinese food us Swedes are used to. The concept with sharing small dishes provides a social and fun eating experience, but the restaurant could do a better job of being up front with the pricing. The atmosphere and cocktail list were wonderful, and Surfers makes an excellent place for a few drinks or a full dinner.