Aifur — Restaurant in Stockholm

Before Covid-19

One of the popular restaurant as the "viking" themed restaurant. The interior is just amazing and it will grab your attention that makes you want to dine here. Of course, there is a small bar just before the dining area which can be interesting as well. It was a coincidence to find this gem while looking for a theme restaurant. There were quite a mixed comments as I have done general research such as Yelp and TripAdvisor (which were more on a negative side). From my experience, I enjoyed the "concept" restaurant, the way staffs are dressed and you can try out the viking hood with bale... Other then that it was quite disappointing since it ended there. I can't recall if they had any entertainment part. The foods were good (not wow just ok) but portion isn't big and you will be paying a lot for it (it was the case for the bars). But remember, you are at the very touristic area and most of the people either come here for that purpose (Sweden = viking). Overall, it was okay and the person who go through reservation was great as we didn't make any reservation but made a spot for us (after waiting there for 2 hours of course). On the other hand, during our dining experience went nice to worse as it took ages for staffs to take our orders and take the check as well. When we finally get to pay after long wait, the staff first wanted us to hand over our credit card and ask for the pincode for it. Not sure what it went wrong as we were with my sister and her boyfriend who is from Sweden. So he just asked in Swedish to bring the card reader for the payment then she brought the machine with her. However the things got even more awkward when she was looking at the machine when my fiancé' was about to give in his pin (instead of looking away as he needs to give in his private code). I understand she might wanted to see how much "tips" we were going to give it to her (she didn't serve our tables but I felt as she was the one who was getting the tips for it). Either way it made us all feel uncomfortable.

Either way, I don't stop people from visiting this place to dine or go for a drink at the bar. I do like the interior in the end and that was my intention (I recommend reviewing Yelp or TripAdvisor as things probably changed especially time like Covid). Also if you are planning to dine there, I will recommend you to make a...

Definitely an "experience" meal, with Viking(ish) decor, bench tables, costumes, and Viking(ish) food and drink create a meal unlike any other.

FOOD: First off, any place with several meads leading off the drink menu gets bonus points. All were good, if sweet. Dinner menus have cutely topical names to go with their contents (with pseudo-mythological stories behind the names at the back of the menu).

Overall, food was pretty good. We had a wide sampling, both of starters and entrees, and it was all fine.

SERVICE: Service was friendly, but the waitstaff were very busy with different parties sitting at common tables. There were some places where they excelled in pushing the meal forward, and then odd gaps where (for example) we finished our drinks before we were done with the starters, but never asked if we wanted something else until we were done with our entrees.

ATMOSPHERE: Well, this is why you come here, and it doesn't disappoint. The rune-work may offend a scholar (like my son, who was with us), but they certainly present as being a big Viking mead hall. Sitting at common benches with other groups was fine, except folk in the middle against the wall were kind of trapped until parties on one side or the other left. Dark, gloomy, candle-lit (with real candles!), with service on wood planks or stoneware, and utensils right out of the Middle Ages.

It may be worth noting that this is definitely a restaurant for tourists -- of the groups at our table, plus others announced by the bellowing maitre d', almost everyone dining there was from somewhere other than Sweden (most from the US and Canada).

NET-NET: I wouldn't go back and eat there tomorrow, but I'd definitely recommend it to folk visiting Stockholm, and I'd expect to return again some time when visiting the city in the future.

PRO TIP:...

Dreadful sexual harassment by staff, unsafe, dimly lit hallway. Vikings did not sexually harass their own women, & I am certainly not a slave. This place was recommended on an audio tour I bought. I walked in on Friday early evening and was asked if I was here to drink, eat or (I forgot what the 3rd thing was). When I said eat, I was asked if I had a reservation. When I said no, the young woman said “you’re just one person” and told me to ask Marcus, the head waiter at the top of the stairs. I told her I couldn’t see because the hallway was dark & she laughed. 😡 I shuffled my way along a dark hallway to the staircase down to the dining area, where I could see long bench tables, including spaces at the end of several tables. I asked if the man was Marcus and he said it depends on whether I want to give Marcus a lot of gold. When I said I wanted a table for dinner, and how to get that, he said “flirt with Marcus”. I said that I wouldn’t be doing that, and how could I make a reservation for another night. Then he gave me a long speech about how they often have empty seats (as I could see) but he has rejected so many other people it wouldn’t be honest if he didn’t reject me. I asked again about how to make a reservation for another night and he said he was only here Friday & Saturday, they’re closed on Sunday and next week he’s having surgery for cancer. I didn’t care about his schedule, but I empathetically wished him well with his surgery. I still was trying to find out how to book a table for dinner! The speech continued by telling me to come back on Saturday and say “you promised”. I asked if we should take a selfie to prove that he promised and he walked away. So I left. I found a website for the restaurant. To make a booking you must provide name, address, phone, email etc so I didn’t bother doing all...