Bars and restaurants in Piteå

Eating and drinking in Pitea is a bit like being stuck in a time warp. For the most part, the dining scene here is still limited to traditional, café-style places and a few Asian restaurants and pizzerias that wouldn’t look out of place in the 1970s.

There are a couple of exceptions, though. Järnspisen, right next door to the tourist office at Bryggargatan 14, is surprisingly swanky. This place specialises in wild food from Norrbotten and sells everything from reindeer meat and chanterelle mushrooms to gingerbread snaps with blue cheese and cloudberries.

Every now and then Järnspisen offers a gourmet menu with five courses served up in its classy restaurant area. It’s not cheap though; even on an ordinary night a three-course meal here will set you back around 360 SEK per person, excluding drinks.

The more relaxed brasserie and deli on the right-hand side of the entrance at Järnspisen sells meat and cheese to take away. There are a few bar stools in this area too and if you ask staff they’ll be able to rustle up a tasty charkbricka (a wooden plate loaded with olives, flavoursome cheeses and wild meats) for around 100 SEK. It’s a good way to get a feel for local flavours without going overboard.

You’ll find more Arctic food at Karina’s Viltbutik, just near the Ica Kvantum supermarket at Aronsgatan 1. It’s more of a shop than a restaurant or café, with shelves and refrigerators loaded with northern Swedish delicacies like elk meat, crisp bread, hard cheese, jam made from local berries and even bear-meat sausages. Souvenirs take up a big section of the store too – this is the place to come if you’ve promised the folks back home a reindeer skin or an elk-shaped candle.

At Piteå Stadshotell, the smart-looking Restaurang 1906 serves up a European menu with plenty of regional ingredients such as Arctic char and Västerbotten cheese. The house special is a smouldering slab of rock, which you can use to cook your own chunk of raw beef or elk meat.

For less adventurous eats head to Ekbergs Konditori at Storgatan 50. It’s a really old-fashioned place with wood-panelled walls, chintzy glass lampshades and even carpeted floors – as rare as hen’s teeth in Sweden. It’s very popular with local pensioners, and the coffee is okay. The full meals (like pasta salad with chicken) are pretty cheap, but certainly nothing to write home about. Fresh cakes and newly baked loaves of bread are sold in the attached bakery.

As with many towns in the north, options for a sociable drink are severely limited. For decent beer your best bet is the Bishop’s Arms, the English-style pub near Rådhustorget. Järnspisen (mentioned above) is a reasonable option for a glass of wine or two.

Map of places to eat and drink in Piteå

 

Last updated: May 2015