Rut på Skäret: Restaurant in the Embrace of Nature

Rut pa Skaret restaurant

I came across Rut på Skäret restaurant purely by chance when looking for Flickorna Lundgeren – a renowned café situated between Arild and Jonstorp villages heading towards Kullaberg national park. Back then it was late autumn and the café appeared to be closed for the season, jus like many other businesses in Sweden that go for a long winter sleep, but we spotted a restaurant Rut på Skäret nearby, which surprisingly enough was still open and serving lunch.

scandinavian restaurant

The wooden house surrounded by a beautiful nature where we spotted the restaurant was established in early 60’s by one of the sisters of the same family that founded Flickorna Lundgren. The generations changed and Rut på Skäret was nicely maintained, serving food made of locally sourced seasonal ingredients – fish, lamb, vegetables and fruit and a bit of creative twist.

During our first visit not even knowing what this place was famous for we ordered their legendary dish – Scanian egg cake baked in a cast iron pan and served with lingonberry jam. It seriously impressed me and some other options on the menu sounded quite appealing too, so we decided to come back here some other time.

swedish egg cake

Our next visit happened in summer. This time we saw The White Guide 2015 award sign at the entrance, so it seemed that the place was getting some exposure. When we came for dinner the sun was setting behind the trees and the setting in the front yard surrounded by blooming jasmine was a perfect place to settle in.

Swedish restaurant

In a compact la carte menu there were a few light starters – salad, caviar toast and soup, two types of fish and lamb for mains and a three types of desserts.

We were particularly impressed with the wine list containing a decent selection of champagne including magnum and jeroboam bottles for special occasions, quite a few decent French and Italian drops and some options from a couple of local wineries (yes, they do make wine in Sweden). Food menu had suggested wine pairings and while I agreed with most of them, I would have liked this part to be more personalised and recommendations made verbally by a waiter since there were surely much more possible combinations that could work nicely together, especially when talking about desserts.

A plate with bread and butter was served, containing soft bread and their own baked crisp bread made of sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds – a real mouth watering goodness that instantly disappeared from the table.

seed cracker bread

The service was top notch with an extremely helpful waiter attending to us. He brought us chef’s compliment – a slice of young potato with a piece of spiced matjes herring, dill, chives and melted butter. As simple as it was, were couldn’t had wished for more Swedish greeting illustrating that they do know their herring.

swedish herring

We were not that hungry, so we ordered our meals to share and were pleasantly surprised when the meals – even the soup – arrived divided into 2 plates.

Soup with wine cooked blue mussels was mild and creamy, with a few thin strips of fresh fennel in it for the extra crunchiness. Having more mussels in the broth could had made a perfect evening feast, but we were yet to receive our main dish.

mussel soup

The main that we ordered was all things lamb: it contained pieces of slow cooked lamb leg, lamb neck and deep-fried sweetbread. It was served with rosemary infused gravy and accompanied with locally grown young potatoes and baby carrots, zucchini, beats, sprinkled with roasted walnuts and decorated with fresh thyme that we saw growing in the herb garden next to the restaurant. The presentation on the plate looked somewhat chaotic, but it is always  hard to judge the plating effort when you get half of the serve. Nevertheless, the lamb was very tender and the difference of textures in combination with a good assortment of vegetables was nice.

lamb with vegetables

We decided to hold back from desserts since crème brûlée that we had seen on the menu last time was not available any more. We made a resolution to come over for a fika (Swedish coffee and a sweet treat break) to the neighbouring Flickorna Lundgren instead with a hope that our third attempt to get to that place will be a success.

Swedish flowers

 

Rut på Skäret, Gläntan 6, Skäret, Sweden

 

Summer season opening hours:

Daily 12pm – 11pm

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