Hidden away among boring buildings at the end of the populated area before Gärdet, this gem will surprise you. You will need to enter the courtyard of Sida, go into the Sida building, pass a guard that may look weirdly at you like if you shouldn't be there, but there, hidden inside, is Restaurang Karavan.
Most of the time this is just a café, but during a couple of hours on weekdays around lunch this place is turned into a thriving lunch restuarant. While it's structured like a school canteen, even the students of the top schools in Sweden would be envious of the food served here. Swedish workers from Sida, filmhuset, the military, SR, SVT, Garnisonen & more come to be greeted by a very friendly staff for lunch.
Every day there are between 4 and 7 different dishes served here and they change them daily, ranging from typical Swedish food to various international dishes. They will always have at least one with meat, one with fish and one vegetarian. In the measly price of 85 kr (or 75 kr if you buy a 10 time card) you get a rich and fresh sallad buffé with more than just some sallad and tomato, your choice of dish of the homemade food, a variety of their own freshly baked bread and homemade butter, everything from sparkling water and milk to coke or light beer to drink. In addition to this you can go back and take more of anything you want until you are hungry no more, but belive me - you will rarely need to because of the large portions.
As a nice finish you can take some tea, coffee, cookies and fruit. On fridays they will often also have some extra dessert, like ice-cream, fruit sallad or cake. On really special occasions they have even had a chocolate fountain. You can even get a box for take away. Well, maybe excluding the chocolate fountain though.
However, beware - this place is very popular and will likely be full around 12:00 and they have tendency to start cleaning up and putting stuff away already around 12:45, so I can recommend to take an early lunch or come around 12:30 if you want to find a place to sit easily. But if you do come here between 13:30 and 14:00 you can get a take away lunch box of the remains from the lunch for 40 kr.
Often the food is very good, sometimes it's just okay, but you will never be disappointed. While this place has self service and simple in many ways, it provides home cooked food like few others and if you either long for that, want to experience the school canteen again, the way it should have been, or just want a good lunch in the area this is the place to go.
And remember: don't be afraid of the guard - he is nice. read more