Sweden Restaurant

Sitting in the heart of Hua Hin and only a couple minutes from the Hilton Hotel where we were staying for our 5 day holiday from Bangkok, we found this lovely eatery with a casual atmosphere that offered a menu of items a bit different than what we found at most places around town. The interior offers an open-air atmosphere and upon ariving we were warmly greeted by a staff member and shown to our table.

The restaurant has been here for about 12 years, owned by a Swedish gentleman, Mr Lasse Nilsson, that oversees the daily operation of the business and the quality of food that comes out of the kitchen. After taking a couple minutes to review the menu, we found that it offers a selection of more than 30 Thai dishes which pleased us as my girlfriend's friend and her husband had accompanied us and they are not fans of cuisine other than Thai Food and this place had a nice list of Thai cuisine to choose from.

The menu starts with snacks, salads, and soups. Snacks include chili peppers stuffed with cheese, a couple hamburgers, shrimp cocktail, and fried chicken pieces in spicy sauce along with a couple other appetizers we decided to share. We started with the open-face Herring Sandwich, with four pieces of fresh herring that is imported from Sweden that sits on top of some boiled potatoes and bread and each of us enjoyed a piece of the herring and it was delicious. The other item we enjoyed was the Fried Shrimps in Garlic on Toast and of course there was a war between us for the last tasty shrimp on the plate.

The menu then offers 6 popular salads, including a caesar, a tuna and a chicken salad along with a ham & cheese salad.

Although we only chose to try the Goulash Soup, which was a nice choice, there are 4 or 5 soups available.

Next are the European selections with about 14 favorites that include, the Porkschnitzel, which was one of our choices. It offered a very generous piece of schnitzel with a mound of potatoes and the schnitzel received a thumbs-up from all in our party. There is also fried pork with onion sauce, sausage strogranoff, meatballs with curry sauce, pork fillet with mushroom sauce, cordon bleu. Swedish Meatballs, was another of our selections for dinner that offered meatballs with some hand-mashed potatoes. The meatballs were delicious and this dish was also, like most, a great value as well.

There is a page of grilled items that range from Imported strip-loins with onion and herb butter or red wine sauce to grilled lamb chops with garlic butter, a mixed sausage kebab and Grilled Spare Ribs with BBQ sauce which was our third choice for a main course. The ribs were tasty and loaded with meat and definitely a dish I'd return to enjoy in the future. Each European dish comes with choice of boiled, mashed, baked, fried potatoes or rice.

Choices move on to dishes from the sea and there is Grilled Sea Bass with Lemon, Garlic & Chilli which was our only fish dish. The fish was not only tender but obviously very fresh and served at a bargain price. There is also fried sea bass with sweet & sour sauce, boiled sea bass with lemon, pan-fried sole fillet with hollandaise sauce, boiled cod fillet or fresh pan-fried salmon fillet with basil sauce.

The Thai menu starts with fried rice with either chicken, pork, beef, or crab. There is Fried Rice With Shrmps In A Pineapple which was one of our two Thai selections. It was loaded with shrimps and a real eye-grabber from patrons that saw the dish being brought to our table. Fried noodles is available with pork or chicken as well as meat or shrimp and vegetables in a sauce. The fried squid or shrimp is offered with basil leaves and chilli or in oil. There is morning glory in mixed fried Vegetables, as well as, Fried Beef in oyster sauce. Our second and last dish was the Fried Chicken in Sweet & Sour Sauce. It was loaded with pieces of chicken, some red and green capsicum, cashew nuts, chopped tomatoes, scallions and onions. There is also a nice choice of Thai soups, including hot soup with chicken or mixed seafood, rice soup with pork, chicken, or shrimp, hot & sour curry soup with shrimp or fish and a curry soup with beef prepared country style plus fried crab in curry sauce and grilled prawns. Finally, there are some creative Thai dishes not often found, such as; Fried frog with garlic & pepper, Fried beef or pork in black pepper, and spicy salted herring with vegetables.

The drink list is also reasonably priced as even Coca Cola is only at 30 baht with a complete choice of soft drinks along with a list of beers that includes most favorites. The selection of spirits offers 39 favorites and range mostly in price from 75 to 135 baht while the house wine offers two choices from South Africa and Chile starting at 120 baht per glass and 290 baht per 1/2 litre. There is about a dozen quality red wines from Chile, Australia, South Africa, & Argentina that are each priced very reasonably.

We found this restaurant to be a great place for families as the selection of food is quite diverse, with quality that certainly exceeds the very reasonable price. Without hesitation, we certainly recommend this restaurant to our customers.

• Grilled Prawns
• Fried Crab In Curry Sauce
• Fried Shrimp or Squid with Basil Leaves and Chilli
• Deep-Fried Beef, Pork, or Chicken with Garlic & Pepper (100 baht)
• Fried Noodles with Chicken, Pork, or Shrimp & Vegetables in Sauce