Ekstedt

Humlegårdsgatan 17, Stockholm

In the centre of Stockholm, chef Niklas Ekstedt – who incidentally is planning on opening in London later this year – has a restaurant that goes back to basics by cooking with fire. From just a traditional early 20th-century stove, a small wood-fired oven, and apparatus for smoking in a cramped kitchen, he creates tasting menus of four or six courses that are served in a cabin-chic dining room where lots of wood meets lots of copper.

It’s a simple concept, but the diversity is impressive, with not a barbecue rib in sight. Mini flatbreads and fluffy tinned oven-fired breads kick the meal off, then there’s a dish of ever so slightly charred sea cucumber, with cooling avocado, the crunch of slivered almond and a salty oyster kick; followed by a luscious sole fillet with bronzed langoustine and onions three ways, pickled, fried and charred. A hunk of tender beef cooked on pear wood is topped with shaved duck liver and smoked tomatoes, while calvados-flambéed apple on sourdough pancake, with salted caramel ice cream and toasted hazelnuts is, frankly, divine. Grab a seat at the pass and peer into the fiery depths of the kitchen. AM.