Oaxen Skärgårdskrog review

For those of you unfamiliar with Oaxen, this world class restaurant is found in a somewhat random location, around 80km from Stockholm on a tiny island somewhere in the Swedish archipelago. Now in its fifteenth season of plating locally sourced and inspired dishes, head chef Magnus Ek has become one of the highest regarded chefs in Sweden and the restaurant has spent the last few years edging its way up Pellegrino’s contentious ‘50 best’ list.

Unlike Heston’s eternal tasting menu at the Fat Duck, Oaxen has a seasonally transient menu. Not only does it change on an annual basis (I’m sure being closed for six months of the year helps – El Bulli style), but it also changes with the seasons and even weekly to keep regular diners and the local population on the island happy. This means that your meal and ours might well be different experiences – as such it seems pointless to analyse each dish in turn.

Being a Sunday night, barely into Spring and only the first weekend of the 2009 Oaxen season, the restaurant was very quiet the evening we visited – in fact there were only two other guests in the otherwise silent room. At first this was a little awkward, but as time (and the wine pairings) progressed, we relaxed and it made the experience feel all the more unique and cosy. We were sat at a table by the window, overlooking our floating accommodation for the night and the waterways and islands beyond.

My first advice is to bring a good appetite to Oaxen because the urge to fill up on bread is irresistable. Not only does the bread flow endlessly from the kitchen (in tiny individually fresh baked pans), but four radically distinct varieties were delivered. Our favourites were the crumpet-like pancake bread and the obscenely sweet and crunchy pigs blood bread. Mmmmm pigs blood bread. You really had to be there. Spectacular.

Barely nudging ahead of the other dishes was the final main of kid, or to give it it’s full title seared herb spiced roast of kid with deep-fried brisket of veal and molasses bread, cauliflower and loan lichen with sweetbread fried in garlic ash and red wine jus. Phew. Kid had been the star dish in our trip to El Celler De Can Roca (probably still our all time favourite restaurant… just) so we were looking forward to this one, and Oaxen did not disappoint. Strong sweet meat flavours, well balanced with the buttery cauliflower and sweetbread textures.

To say that this was the best course is really a disservice to the rest, as more so than any other meal we had had, all seven main courses, the handful of amuses and even the petit fours really felt like they flowed into one another – building from subtle raw shelfish, through beautifully cooked fresh cod into the rich kid dish before culminating in a light and fresh series of sweets.

Sadly we didn’t didn’t do our best work with the camera on this one – the quiet restaurant made us feel a little self concious and the plentiful wine definitely affected the focussing… Oh and the food was so appealing that the occasional dish was gone before I even remembered the camera.

In fact the wine and champagne also contributed to a very embarassing (and thus all the more amusing) situation that left us giggling uncontrollably when we both misheard ‘trotters’ as ‘tortoise’. Childish hilarity ensued… well you can never be too sure at these modern restaurants can you? We really have to apologise to the waiter and the other couple in the restaurant for the poorly concealed giggles…

Whilst on the subject of the wine – the selection was beyond superb and well worth the indulgence. Unlike the rather tame pairings of the Fat Duck, here each course brought something that not only matched the food, but also provided an interesting experience in itself – for example one wine had the unmistakable odour of blue cheese, and yet when combined with the food, tasted exquisite.

At the end of the meal it was great to get a chance to speak to the manager and somellier Angete Green about the ethos of the restaurant – a case in point: the food is so fresh and local that she had been out in the garden with a torch to collect fresh mint and herbs for the pot of tea we had ordered to conclude our meal. We were then priveldged to meet Magnus Ek himself who showed us his nifty smoking device and then around the kitchen – a series of rooms that allowed the cooking staff to expand as the season got busier and busier.

After an almost flawless meal we were so stuffed that we wrapped up our petit fours along with a few other fun souvenirs and retired to our cabin to be sent to sleep by the gentle waves rocking the boat. And the wine. Mostly the wine.

Food
Service
Decor
Value

Oaxen
Tasting menu around £200 per person including wine pairings
SE-153 93 Mörkö
Sweden