Excited to be continuing my “Vegan on Tour” series!
I’ve decided to break my Scandinavia trip into three parts so as not to overwhelm you all with pictures! I’m going to be posting about each of the cities we visited (Gothenburg, Oslo and Stockholm) once a week for the next three weeks rather than all at once, seeing as I’ve got recipes I want to share as well. First up is Vegan on Tour: Gothenburg!
It was just me and my friend, H, traveling together. I flew out to Gothenburg to meet her as she’d been in Copenhagen and Malmo already. I would love to see those cities some day too, but seeing as I’ve got a dissertation to be writing I could only really justify 2 weeks away.
Gothenburg was a lovely start to the holiday. It’s the second largest city in Sweden but was still pretty walk-able. 3 full days there was the perfect amount of time to see all that we wanted and get a good feel for the place.
One day we jumped on a tram to the harbour just outside the city and caught a ferry to the island of Branno (pictures above). There’s a collection of little islands and the boats go regularly between them. Branno is a pretty tiny island with just a few permanent residents but with lots of charm. We walked to the far side of the island to an adjoining, completely deserted island, Galtero. It was eerily beautiful and inhabited only by a family of sheep. I could have stayed there all day staring out at the sea and soaking up the silence.
This is a food blog after all so of course I’m going to talk about what we ate on the trip! My friend, H, is also vegan which made things easier and also meant that we could try more food as we often got 2 dishes to split! [ N.B. I don’t really like whipping out my big camera at restaurants so most of these pictures are taken with my iPhone]
Our favourite dinner place was Hagabions Café. Part of a quirky cinema, it has a huge terrace which is packed with locals eating and drinking in the evenings. It’s all vegetarian and there were always a couple of vegan options on the menu.
Our first evening, we had pumpkin soup to start which had these amazing chewy mushrooms in it and warm bread on the side. We split the Chickpea Coconut Curry with fruit salsa. Good but nothing to write home about. And then we shared the raw strawberry cheesecake which I’m sorry to say I forgot to take a picture of! If you’re at Hagabions and it’s on the menu, definitely get it!
Another time we weren’t too hungry and had vegan ice cream back at our hostel to eat for dessert…so we just got gazpacho with ciabatta and grilled vegetables.
We had actually planned to go back to Hagabions a third time but when we got there they told us that they had run out of food! Luckily Gothenburg isn’t a very big city so we only had to stroll on a few streets to find a tasty Korean dinner at Yammy Kitchen. They serve meat but also have a separate vegan menu with lots of choices. We had miso soup, kimchi, pickled cucumbers, vegan bibimbap and a silken tofu dish which had edamame, shitake mushrooms and leeks.
It was my first time trying bibimbap and I loved it. If anyone knows any restaurants in London that do a good vegan bibimbap, send your recommendations my way please! No pictures again, sorry!
The morning before our island trip we went for brunch at Raw Food Baren, an all-raw restaurant not far from where we were staying. Another must-visit if you’re in Gothenburg. We had tasty juices to start and then shared a couple of different things:
Raw courgette noodles with a creamy dill sauce and mushrooms which we both especially loved; a raw pizza with pesto, cashew cheese, veggies and olives from Omega Pizza & Wings; and a raw brownie for dessert. It’s a shame the restaurant doesn’t open on Sundays or Mondays as I would definitely have gone back.
We kept stumbling across juice bars in the city and one we tried was Juice Källan where I had the Kanelbulle (Cinnamon Roll) Smoothie- banana, mango, apple, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom & homemade almond milk (They swapped the vanilla dairy yogurt out for me).
It happened to be right next to a gorgeous bakery and café, Da Matteo, which we ended up going to for breakfast for 2 of the 3 mornings we were in Gothenburg.
They had gorgeous sourdough and rye bread. I’m one of those people who carries an avocado around in her bag…and I guess a jar of peanut butter by the looks of things! PB, jam & avocado on that delicious bread was a perfect breakfast. I’m not a coffee drinker but my friend, H, reports that it was excellent. I can’t remember what that pictured juice was except for it having mint and spirulina in, but it was good too.
I found the nicest part of the city itself to be Haga. Formerly the workers’ district, the charming wooden houses have been turned into pretty boutiques and cafés. It’s all cobbled streets and is a fun place for a wander.
We walked up the hill to Masthuggskyrkan where you get the best view of the harbour, sea and city and also up to a castle (whose name I’ve forgotten) which seemed to be a popular picnic spot.
The Botanical Garden (Botaniska Tradgarden) is Sweden’s largest and really special. It’s also attached to a nature reserve of forest and lakes where we had a great afternoon hike.
We really liked the vegetarian café Two Little Birds and went twice for lunch. They serve good meal-size salads, sandwiches, soups and a selection of vegan sweets.
First time around I got the Grilled Tempeh & Aubergine Salad, which came on a tasty base of salad greens, shredded raw vegetables and fruit, with orange-miso dressing and warm Ciabatta bread with olive oil. Yum.
On my second visit, I had the Red Tofu Salad with sunflower seed & sun dried tomato pesto, pickled vegetables and other goodies. I also got a slice of the lemon cake to take away for later but again forgot to snap a picture of it!
Their dishes were also really reasonably priced, especially compared to most eateries in Scandinavia. Though I did find that Gothenburg was a little cheaper than Oslo or Stockholm.
Other places you might want to check out are:
En Deli Haga - a little deli with all your classic Middle-Eastern/Greek food, a lot of which is vegan by default
Halsobaren Sushi (Melangatan) - Better than your average sushi place for vegan options- avocado and tofu maki, inari pockets, etc.
Condeco - Chain of restaurants across the city. They have a salad buffet and several vegan options including sandwiches, muffins and smoothies. All vegetarian on Mondays.
That’s it for Gothenburg! Stay tuned for part 2 of my Scandi trip recap- we’ll be in Oslo, Norway!
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When exactly are they going to invent the program which allows you to pluck food from the pictures on screen and eat it? Plus, if I were you, id of gone to Copenhagen, dissertation or no!
Ah yes! I’m still waiting for that progam too 😉
Apparently Copenhagen was amazing but money was also a factor in my decision, not just the dissertation!
Great guide, and fab that you found so many Vegan options! I went to Oslo a while back and found it hard, so will be keen to see what you found!
Oslo did end up being a little harder but only because places were closed for summer. I’ll be sharing what we found next week.
Thank you so much for sharing your Gothenburg trip with us ♥ It looks so pretty and I love how many vegan options are available there
I’m amazed at how crisp your photos came out considering you used your phone. I would never have known!
Thanks Sharon. So pleased you enjoyed the recap. It was pretty amazing how many vegan options we found. There weren’t enough meals in the day (nor enough money..) to try everything.
I’ve wanted to go travelling in Scandinavia for years now so this recap is a nice preparation for my trip there ‘someday’
I’d heard that Sweden is becoming quite vegan-friendly, which is great news. Hopefully the rest of Europe will follow. I’m looking forward to the next instalment in your holiday recap! xo
Thanks Clem. Hope you can make “someday” some time soon!
Sweden is definitely pretty vegan-friendly, I think it’s due to the green and health movements being strong over there rather than anything to do with animal rights, but whatever the reason, it’s a good thing!
1. I know 3 places for good bibimbap (one of them is my flat
)
2. Pretty sure the cheesecake was raspberry
3. You actually tried and approved the Da Matteo coffee
4. Skasen Kronan
Miss you xx
1. I’d love for you to make me bibimbap! We should set a date
2. Oops, just checked my notes and you’re right. Raspberry.
3. 😉
4. Tack!
Speak soon x
Beautiful! Travelling vegan isn’t nearly as tricky as I feared!
Certainly not in Sweden anyway! But there’s always a way to manage whatever we’re faced with
All sounds just delicious. That vegetarian cafe in the Botanical Gardens sounds great - I imagine the views were great too. I also am intrigued by the sound of peanut butter, avocado and jam. I particularly love peanut butter, avocado and tomato.
The botanical garden was so gorgeous. There was so much green space in the city too.
I didn’t do the PB, avocado and jam all together…pb and jam and avo and jam on separate slices of bread 😉
Wow - so much amazing food! I love the sound of all of it and would have struggled to move away from place number 1 to try the other options 😛 It is perhaps helpful that Hagabions Café wasn’t open the third time, so you could experience some new things. I also love the pictures from the Botanical Gardens - it sounds like a really beautiful city with lots of sights to soak up.
Also, as a side note, I’m glad I’m not the only one to be hesitant about using bulky cameras in restaurants
My camera phone tends to come out then too.
It was a wonderfully green city. Lots of parks and gardens to explore.
And yes, I don’t think I’ll ever not feel awkward getting out my big camera in a restaurant, unless it’s empty of course!
I’m new to this blog but really enjoying it! I tend to find the absolute worst vegan food in the world when I’m traveling so im really impressed!
Aw, bad luck! I’m not sure I’ve ever had much trouble traveling vegan. I tend to do quite a lot of research in advance which does definitely makes things easier.
Thanks for reading
Oh my Emma! The food you ate has me drooling:) And wanting to travel. I can’t believe all the health options, so inspiring! Nicely done and thanks for sharing.
P.S I think it’s time to recreate some of those recipes!
I’m definitely already starting recreating some of the meals we had 😉
My friend and I had a lot of fun exploring and eating!
Omg, everything looks absolutely amazing! I am dying over that raw brownie and that botanical garden…my 2 favorite things about the post! Even though you said the chickpea curry wasn’t that great, it sure got my tastebuds interested. Looked so creamy! Such amazing pics and loved reading about it all, thanks for sharing Emma!
I’ve had many a raw brownie in my time but that one was particularly fudgy and delicious!
The botanical garden was so stunning. I love exploring parks and green spaces, even in cities. Thanks for reading Brandi
Oooh I’m very excited for your post about Oslo! My partner just so happens to be going there on an exchange trip from August to mid-December. (Huzzah. I’m going to end up eating baked beans out of a tin again.) He’s not a vegan so I guess the food-related aspects of the post won’t be relevant to him, but they will be to me if I can manage to get over and visit! Besides, it’ll be interesting to know how you coped money-wise - from what we’ve heard Oslo is crazy expensive.
Although that having said, from my most recent trip, its very difficult to tie both sight-seeing and vegan eating places into the same visit - how do you do it?? When I was in Paris last week, despite the fair number of vegan places to go visit, I didn’t get the opportunity to find a single one… Although it didn’t help that our hotel was on the wrong side of Paris - all the vegan-friendly places seem to be clustered Eastwards if Google speaks the truth. Plus I was travelling with my pescatarian mum and three highly carnivorous omnivores. Being with with another vegan must help a lot.
Gorgeous post, it looks as if you had an amazing time. I love the look of the botanical gardens especially - I really like the Edinburgh gardens but the one you visited in Swedish ones look particularly amazing. And what on earth is bimibap? XD
Thanks for your comment Shonalika! I think you’ve inspired me to write a post on my tips for travelling as a vegan. I have a lot to say on the subject- too much for here. How exciting that your partner will be spending all that time in Oslo. I’m sure it will be hard to be apart but you should definitely head out there for a bit yourself.
)
I didn’t get to the Edinburgh botanical gardens when I was there sadly. I definitely want to go back though so I’ll make sure I visit. I try to go to as many greens spaces as I can, even on city breaks!
( You’re right that most veg places in Paris are in the East- that’s where I was living so it worked well for me
Oh, and Bibimbap is a Korean dish. There are tonnes of variations but it’s typically a rice bowl with veggies, meat/tofu/soy meat/, mushrooms, spicy sauce, pickles and kimchi. So good!
So happy to see you got around Gothenburg
Do let me know if you visit again 
Thanks Veronica. I really enjoyed my time there!
Thanks so much for sharing! I was just googling for some vegan options in Gothenburg/Stockholm for our holiday next week and I’m so glad that I found your blogpost
Your pictures and writing are awesome! Keep it up 
So pleased to hear that! Did you see my Stockholm blogpost too? http://www.coconutandberries.com/2014/08/13/vegan-tour-stockholm-sweden/
Have a great trip. I’d love to hear if you make it to any of these places
Hi Emma,
can you by any chance also recommend an ecological and or vegan-friendly hotel or b’n’b in Gothenburg? I have been searching for quite a while now, but didn’t find anything.
Thanks for your help!