Grythyttans Gästgivaregård

M and I finally did it. We dropped N off at the babysitters (the grandparents) for her first over the night visit. More importantly though was the fact that it was the first night/evening/pretty much minute we have had alone in the past 7 months. So the evening had both an exciting edge to it along with being a little frightening. Leaving N was actually a small part of it. So I will just go ahead and say that she was fine, as to be expected. She actually had 4 babysitters, M’s brother and girlfriend stayed home to help.

For our anniversary in June (the 7th, if you are wondering), I had given M a weekend away. It was actually my 2nd choice. I won’t mention what the first choice was going to be, since Christmas is just around the corner. For my birthday (31st, yes I am getting old) she gave me a weekend away as well. Since N was born, we have decided that it is important to do things together, not just sit around. So this was a perfect opportunity. When we started to talk about it, we learned that the two of us had given each other the exact same thing. I know what you are thinking, “Duh, a weekend away!” The thing is, it was the exact same weekend. Same hotel, same restaurant, same everything- like they say, great minds think alike!

The premise to the gifts were a night away in a nice hotel and restaurant, the location was Grythyttans Gästgivaregård (or we will just call it GG for short). GG is part of the Countryside Hotels in Sweden (http://www.countrysidehotels.se/) which include old estates and palaces. GG is more famous for its restaurant then anything else. Though the hotel part has been around for a very long time, the oldest sections are from the 1600’s.

We arrive and check into our room. The hotel is not just one building, it is actually several different buildings dating back to the 1600´s. Each room is decorated differently and no two rooms are supposed to be alike. Normally I might find this hard to believe, but considering we had an original Anders Zorn in our room, I choose to believe it. The room itself was ok, nothing spectacular. It was clean and good sized, but it did not have the “wow” factor. Originally we talked about bringing N with us, so the 2 of us were in this building all by ourselves. So perhaps the other rooms have the “wow” factor. The fact that it did not just stop me in my tracks is ok. We were not there for the hotel per say, we were there for the food.

I had been saving myself all day. I had a very small breakfast and lunch. So by the time we checked in, my stomach was already growling. Good thing we started with a little fika (fika is a Swedish tradition. It is mainly just coffee/tea with something sweet). It was two different types of cakes. The first was a chocolate one and the other was a lemon pound cake. Not sure what the deal was, but I really liked the chocolate one and M liked the lemon one. By all normal accounts, the opposite should be true. This was at 3ish. Our dinner reservations were not until 7.15.

You could decide if you wanted to go with the 4 course dinner or the 7 course dinner. We went for the 7 course meal. Even though it was a lot more expensive, we determined that the experience would be worth it. Besides, at this point we were starving! In the end it would actually be a 9 course meal, since they always bring a couple of extras.

The meals went as followed:

Pre course sampler- A small crab pie thing (M and I disagree a little on this. I say that it was cold, she says hot)

Course #1- White asparagus soup with a small rolled up piece of Swedish pancake (think thin) and served with a brochette topped with freshly diced tomatoes

Course #2- Cold duck breast served with two different types of sauces, a pea sauce which was excellent with the duck and a goat cheese sauce which was just fabulous. The duck was accompanied with a warm red beat salad topped with a homemade balsam vinegar

Course #3- This was the first of the main courses, the seafood plate. Catfish (which I had only ever had served deep fried), a sea crawfish, a crawfish sauce along with potatoes

Mid-course course- Another little extra. This was a white wine pineapple slush

Course #4- Veal wrapped in Italian ham, wild sausage, lamb sausage and potatoes

Course #5- The cheese plate. Four cheeses, three of which were French and the 4th was Swedish. The idea was to start at the far left with a brie and work your way over to the far right which was a Bredsjöost (which they say is the most expensive cheese in Sweden). This would allow the person to taste the different strengths of the cheeses. It was also served with walnuts covered with honey and balsam vinegar and apricots

Course #6- The first dessert. A lemon tart with marinated strawberries on top. The strawberries have been marinated in the same fashion as they are for the royal family

Course #7- The final course! This was the second dessert, a chocolate muffin (no it was not actually a muffin, but it looked like one in shape) filled with fresh strawberries and raspberries on one side of the plate. On the other side was homemade chocolate ice-cream. Then all of it was covered in a curry sauce (yes, that is correct, it was a curry sauce which actually complimented the chocolate and fruits amazingly well I think)

Two wines were served. A Riesling, which was not sweet at all, but rather dry (a nice change to the normal Rieslings I have had) and a French red wine which complimented the veal and cheeses.

I have to say that nothing we had at dinner was anything but excellent. When we left the restaurant, we had to go for a walk because I was so full, I thought that I was going to explode! Needless to say, I did not, though I did have dreams about me trying to sell curry milkshakes to a couple of little kids.

In the morning, we took a walk before breakfast. I was still too full to think about eating anything. My thought was that I would just have a piece of dry bread and a little coffee. The breakfast spread was amazing. In fact, I went on to stuff myself even more (I ended up not eating much lunch, birthday cake or dinner later in the day). My father would have loved the selection of different sausages, as did I. We walked over to the chef school (which also has activities if you are interested) and to an art gallery which focused on art which was created with the local slate.

Overall, I would give GG a rating of 5 out of 5. It is located about 2.5 hrs out of Stockholm/Uppsala and about 30 minutes out of Örebro. So in other words it is in the middle of nowhere. That is about the only negative. Though perhaps it is only one of the positives, if it was in Stockholm then we probably could not get a table to it or it would not be as special.