Food The Luleå Way

A small White Guide galaxy

Something’s going on in Luleå. The city boils, fries, night-bakes, deep fries, sautés, braises, pickles and preserves, eats, drinks and enjoys every day of the week. Meet Luleå’s thriving restaurant culture. A small White Guide* galaxy, well worth a visit for any food lover.

Slow-cooked ox cheek braised in red wine, or tuna tartar gyoza tacos. Duck breast spring rolls or reindeer veal and black pudding. Local horse, beef or reindeer blood sausage with roasted winter apples. Elk carpaccio or smoked, rimmed arctic char. Guinness boiled ox cheek or lavaret roe blini. Grilled deer sirloin and homemade, lightly smoked deer sausage or a pâté made with self-caught pike. Lamb knuckle with local archipelago sausage or ptarmigan, pan-fried on the bone. Blue mussels with smoked potatoes or deep-fried small lavaret on flatbread. Swedish Mountain Cattle from a meat locker or 150 degree hung beef from Norrbotten County farms. Ptarmigan breast with ptarmigan blueberry sausage, reindeer topside and whisky gravy or just simply Kalix lavaret roe. This is just a small selection of the items offered on Luleå’s menu.

The fact that many have dared to find their own niche makes for a varied restaurant city with exciting offerings. Seemingly, all of Luleå has found its own unique way of doing things.

– We have a calm that is quite typical of us. It is relaxed and natural. Combined with creativity, skill and local ingredients, Luleå becomes a very special restaurant city that suits everyone, explains Petter Nyberg at Restaurang CG.

Ingredients are prepared from the ground up and more and more kitchens strive to do as much as they can on their own. The local ingredients are hard to beat, found in nature’s own pantry where everything is allowed to grow slowly. This results in real and intense flavours.

– The food is like the people up here; things are allowed to take time but they end up being better. Also, many of us have grown up in close proximity to hunting and fishing, with vegetable plots and berry bushes in our gardens or berry and mushroom picking in the forest. This gives us an understanding of flavours and raw ingredients, says Petter Nyberg.

Many of the restaurants are found close to each other in the city centre. This has created a culture where more and more guests visit several different establishments in one evening to mix half and full courses, pre-dinner drinks and desserts, simply to experience more. There is a classic steakhouse with relaxed finesse. A lively food bar or a bistro right next to the quay. A pleasantly simple café atmosphere with the smell of roasting coffee. A homely atmosphere, open kitchens and continentally bustling dining halls. A sky bar with a view of the sunset.

Something’s going on in Luleå. Welcome to a small White Guide galaxy well worth a long detour. Even by Swedish Lapland standards.

Luleå's White Guide restaurants

Bistron

Bistron. You’re eating. You’re opening a door to the local food supply. A cross-over kitchen. Ever in motion, never predictable. With local ingredients as building blocks, Bistron creates a gastronomic experience tailored for you. Visit Bistron

Hemmagastronomi

A bakery. A studio. A deli. A restaurant. An abundance of choices at your disposal. Everything made with care at Hemmagastronomi. Close to nature. No, really. The ocean is right outside. You can see it. You can feel it. Visit Hemmagastronomi

Restaurang Cg's

It's about love, expertise, and respect. For the food. For you. A meal made with you mind. Tastes like home home. Really home. And really good. Visit Cg's

*About White Guide: Since 2004, the White Guide has been a driving force in the evolution of Nordic gastronomy, promoting culinary arts and a thriving, responsible restaurant scene. The guide openly supports innovation, sustainability and the many unparalleled joys of eating out. White Guide’s selection and scoring criteria are entirely transparent, restaurants are reviewed anonymously, meals are paid for and the reviews combine serious food critique with inspiring journalism and up-to-date guiding information in various formats.

Several good restaurants

Taverna Gusto
Nine
Ego Bar & Restaurang
La Bottega
Panelen Steakhouse
Kazoku restaurant
Råvara
Bastard Burgers

– I hope to spread knowledge and understanding about the Sami culture and give my guests a meeting that is felt in the heart, says Marita Sikku, who just a few months ago made a career change from high school teacher to self-employed.

– Anyone who visits Dálvvas should get an authentic Sami experience, which gives them a greater insight into the Sami lifestyle.

The reindeer graze freely in the Kiruna Mountains from April to December. Then some of them are moved to First Camp and Dálvvás in Luleå for winter grazing.

Marita Sikku changed her career path from high school teacher to self-employed in tourism to give visitors an encounter with Sami culture.

Sami delicacies and Sami culture are shared by the crackling árran

The close encounter begins right out in the reindeer pasture, where the animals wait to be fed from the hand. Some are still more shy than others as they have just arrived from the mountains in Kiruna to the winter pasture in Luleå. Dálvvás means “over the winter” in Sami, and when spring comes, the reindeer move up to the mountains again to graze freely.

– After the visit to the pasture, I invite the guests into the traditional lávvun (tent hut), where I serve Sami delicacies such as my mother’s homemade gáhkku (flat bread) by the árran (fire), along with boiled coffee, lingonberry juice, cloudberries and reindeer meat that my partner has salted, smoked and dried.

Here, by the crackling fire, Marita Sikku tells us more about the Sami language, clothing, food and traditions.

– I share my own experiences based on the Sami culture that I grew up in. It is important to make knowledge visible and spread and give as accurate a picture as possible of Sami life.

– To give an insight into what reindeer herding is, visitors can try throwing a lasso! I hope that Dálvvás remains a lifelong memory from their visit to Luleå.