Scandinavian Kitchen W1 - revisited

I have already written about the wonderful Scandinavian Kitchen but after attending their bloggers' night a few weeks ago I decided that they were worthy of another shout-out.  Why?  Let me count the ways - (1) The food is delicious - if you haven't tried Scandi open sandwiches (known as smorgasbord) then you need to rectify that situation and fast.  Plus these guys have amazing cakes and all sorts of other goodies.  (2) I love love love the Scandi groceries they sell - I am a sucker for foreign supermarkets and products so this sort of shop was always going to appeal to me but beyond the funky packaging and snigger-inducing names (try asking for Plopp or Spunk with a straight face) there are some delicious Scandi goodies for sale - my new favourite breakfast is dark crispbread with delicious Danish cheese and organic raspberry and blueberry jam, all bought from the Scandi Kitchen. (3) These guys are just really lovely people - Jonas and Bronte put so much love into this place and that was evident at their bloggers' night.  They are passionate about their region's food and keen to pass on that passion to the people of London.  It was so refreshing to see their approach - it was actually a marked contrast to another event I went to the following week (which shall remain nameless...) where it felt super corporate and you really got a sense of the money men behind the scenes.  Long live the Scandi Kitchen way of doing things.  Anyway - this is a super cool place with great food in a really cool part of London - Great Titchfield Street in Fitzrovia has become a real food/coffee destination with Scandi Kitchen, Kaffeine and now the Riding House Cafe all in close proximity.  Have I convinced you yet?  Get down there!

Scandinavian Kitchen - W1

I had walked past the Scandinavian Kitchen on Great Titchfield St many times (often after having an excellent flat white at Kaffeine) and wondered what it was like.  Well, yesterday I went there for lunch and found out - and the verdict?  Me likee.  I have to admit I am a bit of a fan of the Scandi - love Scandi design, love the countries themselves (Copenhagen is right up there as one of my favourite cities) and love the whole ethos (or at least my perhaps naive assumption of what that is).  Anyway, my first impressions of the Scandi Kitchen were good - yummy looking food on display, plus a sort of mini Scandi supermarket going on, with all sorts of tasty looking products, rye crispbreads, chocolate, pickled herrings, roe, squeeze bottles of funky mayonnaise etc.  I am a sucker for foreign sweets - preferably with weird, retro looking wrappers and there were plenty on offer here, however I am trying to seriously reduce my chocolate/sugar intake so I just looked.  When it's time for a binge though I will be back!  The deal for lunch is that you can choose either 3 (£5.75) or 5 (£8.25) items from the smorgasbord - it was a little bare when I got there (must have been rush hour) and I noticed several other tasty treats as I left so I will need to return to try some of the things I missed.  Having said that I had three really great dishes - a carrot, red cabbage, sultana & citrus dressed salad, "pizzasalad" of white cabbage with an oregano vinaigrette and some rare roast beef on dark rye bread with crispy onions & horseradish.  It felt quite healthy but was also full of flavour.  The tables were a little crowded together - this place is obviously popular so they are trying to cram in as many punters as possible.  Overall I really liked this place and it slots neatly into my rose-tinted view of all things Scandi.