Tre Valv — Restaurant in Stockholm

NOTHING SHORT OF THEFT! I can’t put into words how shocked and taken advantage of my family and I feel after eating at Tre Valv Restaurant tonight! My husband, 2 daughters, and I arrived in Stockholm 2 days ago and are still tired and jetlagged and wanted a relaxing dinner. I saw this restaurant and it looked nice, in an open square, so I knew it might be more expensive....boy did I not know what was coming!

Our waiter immediately started schmoozing with the typical "What a BEAUTIFUL family" comment, and calling me "the queen", and "the youngest one there”, and just going over the top saying he was going to give us “all his time and all his love”! (RED FLAG #1!) He was just overbearing! He then proceeded to explain how they prepare each dish on the menu, literally, in detail! By the time he’d finished explaining 2 menu items in 10 minutes, and was about to start with the next, I jumped in with questions just to get him to stop!

Now, we are not ones to usually get appetizers, but we decided to order their garlic bread, at $9.00. But before we could tell our waiter, he began to try to upsell us on a “starter” that was not on the menu (RED FLAG #2!) that would have the classic Swedish shrimp toast, and some smoked salmon, among other things. He was indicating what I had come to believe would be small finger food like Italian “crostini”. He then actually said “If we didn’t like it, he would pay for it”! (RED FLAG #3!) What BS is that? It’s not a matter of liking it, it’s a matter of whether or not we wanted to spend that much!

In any case, my husband and I thought, what the hell, let’s splurge a bit. OH MY GOD! If we only knew what we had just done! I suppose we are partly to blame because we didn’t ask the price, but there were no starters on the menu for more than $20 so we thought it would be in that area, or maybe a little higher.

Lo and behold, this beautiful tray comes out with a lot of food, and now I am thinking, how much could this tray cost? It included 8 very large fried shrimp, 2 shrimp toasts, 2 salmon toasts, 8 small pieces of garlic bread, and dipping sauces. With every bite we began to take bets on how much this could cost. I said $50 but my husband said $70. Now I was starting to worry!

We come from a small town in Georgia with some of the lowest cost of living in the US. But so be it, we thought! We knew Sweden was one of the most expensive places on earth, but exactly how expensive was still to be seen!

I ordered Schnitzel, one daughter ordered tagliatelle, and the other ordered Swedish meatballs. The food tasted good, I will give it that. But when the bill came, I read it because I was curious to see how much they charged us for this “starter”. I see 5 beers and wine on the bill that was not ours. I pointed this out to the waiter that brought the bill (not the schmoozer that talked us into that starter), he apologized and redid it.

I wish I never saw his mistake, because when I saw the correct bill my mouth hit the floor! They had the nerve to charge us $135 FOR THAT STARTER! Then there was an extra $19 for bread that we didn’t order and didn’t receive, that unfortunately I didn’t catch with the first mistake! The entire bill for 4 people was $250!!!! So instead of a $9 starter like we wanted, we ended up paying $144 for food we didn’t ask for, didn’t want, and some we didn’t even receive….and all the while with their smiling faces looking at us as if a $135 starter was normal!

I am very well traveled, (I’ve studied, taught, lived, and led tours all throughout Europe for decades) and usually don’t fall for this kind of tourist trap, but I was honestly so tired from the jetlag and walking for 10 hours, I let my guard down and paid dearly. I just think it is lousy to literally trick us into ordering something that there was no way in hell we would have ordered if we even had a clue it would cost this much!

BE WARY OF THIS PLACE! And don’t fall for the fast-talking young waiters that will try to upsell you a starter that will cost more than your four...

What a disappointing rip off portraying itself as an "Italian" restaurant. I wish we had had more time to check out other restaurants nearby before entering this one, but as we were checking out the menu outside the waiter welcomed us and ushered us in and we thought ok, why not since the menu looked ok (if rather on touristy price range). A lot of effort is put in the show that the waiters put on tittering around outside on the patio luring customers in. They chatter about and flatter you and innocently suggest to have a small something while waiting for the food. For us they asked if we would like some garlic bread before the main dish arrives and we said yes, thinking it's like a bread basket thing that most restaurants offer for free in Scandinavia while waiting for the main dish. Not here. They charged a ridiculous amount extra for the starters which were few slices of bread and some olive tapenade.

The service could be called nice, if you enjoy the sort of theater show put on for tourists. I doubt the locals ever eat at this restaurant though. We ordered beers for the adults and just water for the kids, and some more water as we were eating. For those who do not know, Sweden has clean drinking water straight from the tap, so this is not a country where the water served, even in restaurants, needs to be bottled water. We suspected it was just a gimmick serving the tap water from refilled Italian spring water bottles, since they were all already opened and ready under the waiters podium with different levels of water. But they actually charged us for the water. A premium price. Ridiculous.

They say they can make any dish on the menu into a children's portion, a half-portion, and they indeed did do this. Except for the price. It was not half price for the half portion, but only 40 Krona less than the adult portion. Child friendly portions, but not really wallet friendly.

The biggest thing worth mentioning however, is not the overcharging or the show, but the fact that I actually got food poisoning from the Spaghetti Frutti di Mare. Within an hour of eating here, I got the cold sweats, stomach pains and severe nausea. I ended up having to hop in and out of public restrooms for the rest of the afternoon and finally having to throw up violently. Needless to say this seafood lunch at the Tre Valv ruined the whole vacation day in Stockholm and even the planned and prepaid buffet dinner we had, since I was unable to eat anything for the rest of the day.

I strongly recommend to avoid this place if you do not enjoy being overcharged and tricked into paying more than you planned, and if you like a healthy constitution. If only the chef put as much effort into hygiene and freshness of the food as the waiters do...

Unfortunately, my recent visit to Tre Valv restaurant left us deeply disappointed. From start to finish, the evening was marked by a series of unpleasant and stressful incidents that ultimately detracted from the dining experience.

Within the first 10 minutes of being seated, we were asked to place our order no less than five times. This created a sense of stress and urgency that was entirely unnecessary and made us feel rushed. It is understandable that restaurants want to serve their customers in a timely manner, but this approach felt overbearing.

Things went from bad to worse when the staff removed our starter course from the table while we were still eating. This was done to make room for the main course, but it left us feeling pressured to eat faster than we would have liked. It is not unreasonable to expect to enjoy each course at a leisurely pace and to finish one before the next is served. This hasty approach to service made us feel rushed and uncomfortable.

When our main course arrived, we were disappointed to find that it was not warm enough. It seemed as if it had been prepared as if we had not ordered a starter course, which was disappointing given the hefty price tag attached to it. The food itself was of decent quality, but the temperature issue detracted from its overall enjoyment.

To make matters worse, the staff were disorganized and inattentive. Several different waitresses came to ask if everything was okay or if we needed anything, which felt intrusive and unnecessary. This lack of organization made it difficult to communicate with staff and to feel like our needs were being met.

Finally, to add insult to injury, the waitress "forgot" about the 50% discount that we were entitled to via TheFork booking. I had to correct the bill twice, with the first correction resulting in no discount at all, and the second resulting in a discount that was 20% less than what was promised. This mistake left a sour taste in my mouth and made me feel like the restaurant was trying to take advantage of me.

Overall, our experience at Tre Valv restaurant was extremely disappointing. While the food itself was of decent quality, the service was rushed, disorganized, and ultimately detracted from the overall experience. The temperature issue with the main course and the discount confusion only added to my dissatisfaction. I cannot recommend this restaurant to others and will not be returning...