Oh, how the mighty have fallen. A year ago, we celebrated Midsommar at the whimsical Studio Frantzén, an absurdly priced behemoth of a restaurant sitting atop Harrods as its aptly flashy Swedish crown. A year later, amidst an apartment purchase and counting every penny until the vagaries of how much this is going to cost become agonizingly clear, we celebrated The European’s home festival on a shoestring budget.
After a comparatively unsuccessful day in London – a dreary day that should have been spent snuggled up and gaming – where we tried to find Bone Daddies in Bermondsey for lunch and then enjoyed dry chocolate cake and a glass of wine in an arch on Druid Street, we made our way West to Skål, a Nordic restaurant on the legendary Upper Street in Islington. The restaurant is cute and Nordic enough, but concerningly empty for Midsommar dinnertime. The European assured me it was because the festival’s main meal is traditionally lunch, followed by Swedish games in the park and partying into the evening.
The food was a little disappointing, tasting like much of it was bought in. Starters of gravad lax and skagen on rye were nice enough but so small they could have been canapés. The mains were where it really fell apart. The lemon sole with lobster sauce tasted very frozen and was drowned in a watery and bland lobster sauce. My meatballs were substantial and comforting but were not tasty enough to be worth the £seventeen price tag. They also tasted a little Ikea-ish, but then again maybe conjuring up nostalgic feelings of hitting the café after a hard day’s furniture shopping was Skål’s target zeitgeist.
Service was pleasant and cocktails were Swedish enough, but it was a hard meal to love. The straw that broke the camel’s back was a side dish of mashed potato topped with a rye crumb that turned out to be Leksands (a Swedish crispbread typically used as a cracker for hushållsost cheese or Kalles), lazily broken up and thrown on top. The European’s face said it all. We swiftly scurried back to the PlayStation.
The food thing. 
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