I’m a pretty big foodie, if you hadn’t already guessed, so sometimes I like to post about food in London. This is an ongoing series (you can find the series here) as my love for food and discovering new bars, restaurants etc. continues to blossom. Lately I’ve decided to do special feature posts for places that really stand out to me. Today is Fika – a Swedish ‘Bar & Grille’ that has an amazingly relaxed atmosphere.

I’ve been before for Fika (Swedish for coffee break), when I had tea, gorgonzola & ginger biscuits. We were so impressed that I decided to take my fiancé back there for a post-Valentine’s Day meal. This time we had lunch and a very special treat of Semla, which is a traditional sweet roll eaten at Lent. It’s basically the Scandinavian version of Pancakes for Pancake Day, so I wanted to reserve a couple and enjoy it. The roll is very much like a bread roll (spiced with cardamon seeds), but hollowed out and filled with almond paste & whipped cream. It was certainly something different, and I didn’t dislike it, in fact it was nice as it wasn’t too sweet, although I think I would have enjoyed it slightly more if there had been extra almond paste – but it’s a favourite of mine, so I’m biased.

Before our Semla, we indulged in some lunch where I had Swedish Meatballs and the fiance had Lax Planka Salmon both of which were wonderful, and full of flavour! The meatballs came with the oh-so Swedish traditional accompaniment of mashed potato, red wine sauce and lingonberry jam. You might think that the lingonberry and red wine would counteract each other, as they’re both strong flavours, however both complimented the other, and the dish, very well. The portion sizes were perfect and left me feeling full, but not enough that I couldn’t fit in something sweet.

Fika are offering Semla for the whole of February, but you’ll need to book.