The Best Bars in Stockholm Right Now

The most important bar in Stockholm and one of the most important bars in Europe. Himkok produces its own aquavit, gin, and vodka on site, makes its own bitters and syrups from Nordic botanicals, and serves a cocktail list that is genuinely impossible to replicate anywhere that does not have access to Norwegian cloudberries and Swedish birch sap. The distillery is visible from the bar and the production team and the bartenders are in constant conversation about what goes in the glass. Reservations required Thursday through Saturday.

Order: The Himkok Sour, house aquavit with cloudberry and birch. The house signature for a reason.

A sprawling restaurant and bar operation in Ostermalm that occupies a beautiful 1930s building and does it justice. The bar section operates independently of the restaurant and runs a cocktail list that takes Swedish aquavit seriously as a cocktail base, which fewer Stockholm bars do than you would expect. The terrace facing Stureplan is the best people-watching seat in the city. Expensive by any standard, but the production quality matches the price.

Order: Aquavit Sour, made with Linie aquavit and lingonberry shrub

Built into the space of Stockholm's oldest pharmacy on Stortorget, Pharmarium is the best argument for themed bars that we have encountered. The 17th-century apothecary cabinets are original. The bottles behind the bar are arranged like medicinal preparations. The cocktail list is built around botanicals sourced from Scandinavian herb gardens and presented with descriptions written in the register of pharmaceutical labels. It is theatrical in the way that great theatre is theatrical: the artifice serves the experience rather than distracting from it.

Order: The Elixir of the Day, a rotating house original that changes with the season

A cocktail and dim sum bar on Sodermalm that brings an Asian lens to Nordic ingredients in a way that is either confusing or revelatory depending on which drink you order, but mostly revelatory. The bar team spent time in Hong Kong and Singapore before opening here, and the influence shows in cocktails that use fermented ingredients, umami-forward syrups, and a structural logic borrowed from Asian cooking. The dim sum is excellent and the two things together at a bar on a Wednesday night is one of the more pleasurable combinations Stockholm offers.

Order: The Miso Sour, brown butter washed whisky with white miso and citrus. A genuine original.

The bar at Stockholm's historic spa complex on Drottninggatan operates within an Art Nouveau building that opened in 1904 and has not been spoiled by any subsequent renovation. The bar is accessible without using the spa, and the cocktail list is calibrated for an audience that has just spent an hour in 38-degree water and wants something restorative. The selection of Swedish aquavit by the glass is the best in the city. The atmosphere on a winter evening, when the building is warm and the street outside is dark at 4pm, is incomparable.

Order: A flight of Swedish aquavit, selected by the bartender to cover the main regional styles

The taproom for Omnipollo, Stockholm's most internationally recognised craft brewery, occupies a converted space on Hokens gata with 18 taps of their own production and a pizza program that Neapolitan purists would object to but hungry bar crowds consider indispensable. The beer quality is consistent in the way that only a bar with direct access to the production facility can achieve. The experimental beers, pastry stouts, and fruited sours are not to everyone's taste, but the core lager and pale ale are among the best in Scandinavia.

Order: Noa Pecan Mudcake Stout if it is on. Otherwise the core pale ale is the reliable choice.

The bar at the Hobo Hotel on Brunkebergstorg runs a cocktail program that uses Swedish spirits exclusively, which sounds like a constraint but operates in practice as a curatorial brief that produces more interesting drinks than most multi-spirit menus. The room is large and well designed in the Scandinavian manner: warm materials, considered lighting, furniture that is comfortable rather than architectural. The bartenders explain each drink with the right amount of context: enough to be informative, not enough to be exhausting.

Order: The Swedish Negroni variation, made with local gin, vermouth from Gotland, and Swedish amaro

A natural wine bar and deli on Sodermalm that operates as a bottle shop, restaurant, and bar simultaneously and handles all three functions without appearing to try. The wine selection focuses on Scandinavia and Central Europe with a depth and accuracy that reflects real buying relationships with the producers. The staff know every bottle on the list and the charcuterie and cheese is matched to the wines with the same attention. Open from noon until midnight Thursday through Saturday.

Order: A Swedish natural wine by the glass. Ask what is currently open behind the bar.

A neighbourhood cocktail bar in Vasastan that serves a rotating menu of 8 drinks, all made from Swedish spirits and seasonal ingredients, to a crowd that is almost entirely local. Nook has the smallest footprint of any bar on this list, seats 20 maximum, and runs with 2 bartenders who do everything from the welcome to the production to the goodbye. The standard of care per guest is the highest in Stockholm outside Himkok, and the prices are significantly lower. Walk-ins only, no reservations.

Order: Tell the bartender what you like. The 8-drink menu is their starting point, not your limit.

The best late-night cocktail bar in Stockholm and the one that proves the city has a genuine 2am bar culture when you know where to find it. Linje Tio opens at 5pm and stays open until 3am Thursday through Saturday, serving a full cocktail list to a crowd that arrives after dinner and the early evening bars. The drinks quality does not drop after midnight, which is the key test. The bar team here has worked in Copenhagen and London and the influence on the list is evident without being derivative.

Order: A Martini variation, they make them well here and they have a view on the format worth hearing