Bjork Cafe in the Scandinavia House in NYC

I passed in front of the Scandinavia house so many times and never noticed that there is a restaurant tucked inside: Bjork Cafe proposes Nordic cuisine in a minimalist decor. We found it on Opentable.com, as we were looking for a place to go on a Friday evening few weeks ago.

We started off our meal with ordering some drinks. I admit that I was a bit disappointed that they did not have any aquavit, and so, I settled with elderflower margarita that was quite fruity, while Jodi ordered their elderflower spritzer.

The menu is definitely interesting with classics such as herring or gravlax, open face sandwiches aka Smörrebröd, potato wrap, soups or salads. I had to try their fish and shellfish bisque that was quite good, hearty, with lots of fish and shellfish in it. The bisque was not as thick as I expected, but it was pretty good.

I then tried their Smörgåsbord Plate that is a sampler of various dishes they serve there: it was composed of gravlax, mustard sauce, pickled herring, herb herring, Jansson's Temptation, red beet salad, three meatballs, lingonberries, pickled cucumber and boiled potatoes. I thought it was ok, the gravlax being a bit disappointing as very sweet, smothered by a sauce that was too sweet. And I admit that the meatballs were not as good as…Ikea!

They have a few vegetarian dishes and Jodi ordered their roasted cauliflower that was served with wild mushrooms, pickled onion, roasted sweet pepper coulis and Coleman mustard sauce. The presentation was exciting with all these colors, and the taste was quite nice, better than my dish for sure…

For dessert, we tried the crispy Swedish waffle that, although small, was really good: thin, slightly crispy, it did not even need the jam or whipped cream. This is a must have. The second dessert was the Marängsviss, a traditional Swedish dessert made with made with meringue, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, ice cream, bananas and blackberries. This was also a nice dessert, a bit decadent, with a beautiful presentation. The meringue was the highlight of the dish, the sweetness being tamed by the whipped cream and vanilla ice cream. The fruits are a good justification to indulge such dessert.

Overall, this was interesting to try, but I admit that this is not the kind of place I would die to go back to.

Enjoy (I still did)!

If you like this post, the photos or the blog, please feel free to share it or post a comment. Merci!

Bjork Cafe - 58 Park Ave, New York, NY 10016

I Just Want To Eat!