Since I moved away from the town I had called home for the past 14 years I had some friends from my…read morepast ventures to come up and visit me. The restaurant of choice for the evening fell on Kitchen & Table by Markus Samuelson located at the top floor of Clarion Hotel. If you didn't know it, Kitchen & Table is an established string of restaurants for Clarion Hotels, and having heard both positives and negatives about this place I was both excited and slightly nervous if it measured up to the standard I was expecting. In short, it didn't disappoint. Me and my friends were seated at a round table overlooking the bay with the sun setting and just the view was amazing. The interior is grey with dark wood and modern art of different sorts placed very wel throughout the restaurant with an open cocktail-bar in the middle. It felt very stylish and modern without being posh or over the top. We all ordered some cocktails to start with, I had a passion mojito which was a great start of a long evening. Amongst laughter and wonderful conversations my appetizer "Upper East Side" arrived. This was a platter of charcuteries and cheeses together with cloudberry relish, pickles and grilled sourdough bread. Absolute yum. For main I had the entrecoté with berbere bernaise sauce, balsamico braised onion, baked tomato and SOHO fries (parmesan and herbs). Another yum that didn't let me down one bit. Ordered my meat rare and it had a great char with perfect red center. Dessert was cloudberries on a dark chocolate cake, vanilla cream and wild strawberry sorbet. Yes, and yes. Great balance of acidity and sweet while the cake and cloudberries added two different kinds of textures to the dish. I must also tip my hat to the waiter and staff on the floor. Very attentive, kind and friendly with just the right amount of everything to make the evening even better. There was no rush for us and we just sat there the entire evening eating, drinking a bit of wine, cocktails and coffee all the while the red glowing sun was setting in the bay leaving us all with great memories.

With visiting my sick brother and his wife in Lulea, I took my sister-in-law out for a meal…read moresomewhere she very seldom go. She suggested a few places and Kitchen & Table was among them. We decided to go to there since she only been there once before, when my brother took her there for her 70th birthday. In entering the hotel to get up to the 9th floor where the restaurant is, we were early and had to wait for the usual 5Pm opening; this is a common opening time for many restaurants, in Lulea and elsewhere in Sweden. The restaurant layout, design and interior is very nice and of course the view is excellent where one can see a great part of the town and Lulea River. I told her what I know about Marcus Samuelsson who apparently had done the layout, interior design and perhaps the menu as well. For an appetizer I had one of my favorites, löjrom and hard bread which we shared and enjoyed it very much. My brother used to have a fisherman friend in Lulea who used to give my brother many kilos of löjrom when helping him with his boat. I asked the waiter for olive oil and spices to make dip for my bread which I love with a glass of good red wine. My sister-in-law just loved the dip and told me she would do that herself at home from now on. I ordered duck and so did my sister-in-law since she had never had duck before; now, duck is one of my favorite dishes but, it's a dish that requires great knowledge of how to prepare so I only order it when eating at a reputable restaurant. My meal was very disappointing, it was very stringy and tough; in asking my sister-in-law of how hers was she said it was fine and by sampling it she was right. I should have complained but didn't since my sister-in-law was "up-there-in-the-clouds" somewhere just being at this place eating and didn't want to ruin her experience; that's how many Swedes are, they take pomp and "out-of-their-daily-life" events and places as something that is revered. I was indeed surprised and very disappointed in the cleanliness of the seats. They are comfortable but from the upholstering cloth you could tell many persons had seated there for their meals. All chairs at our table and the two chairs at the table immediately next to ours, had many large oily stains and food residue on the upholstering cloth. It is somewhat distasteful to see, especially in a restaurant which is claiming and promoting quality. At the end of our meal we both agreed about the cleanliness and she was disappointed I had a bad food experience; our ratings fell to a my 2 and hers 3 stars respective.

Very friendly staff. Clean and quiet room. Good value for money. Breakfast was good. I will…read moreprobably stay here next time I visit Piteå.

Food was wonderful, had the reindeer It was tender and delicious. The cloudberry soup as dessert…read morewas amazing.

We waited a little late to get our Friday night dinner booking, so we ended up at Bar CG instead of…read morea fancier sit-down spot. We got a table for 2 in the corner of the backroom, just off the wine cooler. On Friday nights, they serve a buffet (250SEK) on the edge of the open kitchen. With little plates and multiple trips, we tasted the following: white fish stew pork belly goulash pulled reindeer chili with black beans gnocchi with mushrooms and greens beet salad smoked salmon pan-sauteed duck margherita pizza mushroom soup green salad cheese carrot cake Our server explained the buffet when we arrived, and as long as one of the other groups wasn't all up there together, it was easy enough to get through the line. A chef was working the area, keeping it restocked and the food warm. Everything was tasty, especially the mushroom soup and the gnocchi. The reindeer chili wasn't spicy hot, but did have plenty of spice. The gnocchi was quite popular with the locals. We appeared to be the only Americans in the place, but the waitstaff all had excellent English and were patient with us.

After being on call for 24 hours at the emergency room followed by a couple of hours sleep and a…read moreworkout at the gym, I more than qualified as being both a bit worn out and in need of good food in a relaxing environment. Normally I'd go home, but I was invited to a friends party in the evening and had about an hour and a half to kill, and the obvious choice was food. Having previously been to Restaurant CG, and being quite impressed with their food and the whole dining experience in general, their recently opened, and practically next door to their restaurant is the new and smaller, Bar CG. This place focuses on cocktails as well as smaller dishes and even though you can book a table, they always have about 20 seats that are on a drop-in basis only. Walking in, leaving the howling snowstorm behind me, the place feels immediately welcoming. Dark interior design but still contemporary modern with small finishes of the 1950's like the leather chairs brings it all nicely together. It feels more of an upscale modern pub than an actual restaurant. I had a seat at the bar and one of the waitresses greeted me welcome and tended to me immediately. As I was driving this evening any form of alcohol was off-limits, so I had the cocktail Just Another Virgin that consisted of Jus de Apricot, cinnamon, orange, lemon, sugar and non-alcoholic sparkling wine. Truthfully? I've tasted my share of non-alcoholic cocktails that have tasted so bad that I could barely swallow a mouthful. But this? Oh man, this was so good that it made my toes curl! For food I ordered a two-course meal with the first dish being filet of lamb served with creamy polenta, tomato chips, tomato con fit and tomato jus. It was delish. The fatty side on the lamb nicely rendered and crispy, meat moist and pearly pink. Polenta have the potential of being a swing and a miss, but they nailed it. Continuing my non-alcoholic extravaganza I asked for a suggestion for a suitable drink to the lamb. They recommended a lingonberry juice since there were a lot of tomatoes in the dish to complement the acidity. Said and done, I had that, and it was an absolute perfect pairing! For dessert I went for somewhat of a classic, a tarte tatin. Creamy apple, flaky puff pastry and rich vanilla ice-cream was an excellent finish together with a creamy cup of cappuccino. For once it was nice just sitting down at a bar by myself, eating a smaller meal and enjoying some drinks and the occasional chat with the staff. Bar CG may be a smaller sibling to its big brother restaurant, but it does an excellent job providing good food with great flavors and excellent drink to round out the company. Next time I'm coming here I'm checking out that drink-list in more detail cause it looks really impressive. I wouldn't mind spending an entire evening here again with friends, cocktails and also some food. Great place worthy of a visit (or two)!

This place perplexes me to be honest. While the dining room breathes and speaks "modern…read morescandinavian dining" with restrained furnitures and contemporary elements of modern art such as a reindeer pelt, a small orange background wall, sporadic placed bright colored lounging chairs among the mostly white brick plaster walls. Though the dining experience in itself is far below par, it borderlines on bad. Our youngest son was at dance practice for a theater show he is part of so the rest of family - meaning me, my wife and the remaining two children - went here for dinner as it's closest to where they were practicing and we were hungry to say the least. The greeting serving staff (actually, there was only one waitress there that managed everything) was neither enthusiastic or inspiring, she felt more bored and like she didn't even want to be there in the first place. But looks may be decieving, and hungry kids tend to be very persuasive, so we sat down and started going over the menu. And once again this place perplexes me. The menu is stylish in white and grey and many of the dishes sound both amazing and creative. Taking into account that we had the kids with us, it's almost standard to get some plates of garlic bread on the table and this was no exception. When the two plates arrived they had the bread, green baby leaves, sundried tomatoes, olives and ai....no wait, no aioli. On either plate. But there's supposed to be aioli. My wife called upon the waitress and kindly pointed out that there was no aioli and she came out with two small bowls quite quick. For main course my wife had the hot stone beef tenderloin that you cook yourself at the table. It may be a thing of the 90's, but the meat was really tender and delicious so she was happy. I ordered a butcher's cut with basil butter, tomato sallad and red wine jus together with sweet potato fries. The meat was cooked to a nice medium rare like I ordered it, but to call five cherry tomatoes in a small bowl of oil for a salad is over the top even for me. The basil butter was an ok addition, but a different kind of dip would have been a better choice when it's served with sweet potato fries. The fries however were delicious (honestly, when are sweet potato fries ever anything but delicious?)! The red wine sauce was overly sweet, and I can't stand sweet red wine sauce, it makes my skin crawl. So what perplexes me is the percieved level of ambition they are implying with the style, decor and menu that they ultimately fall far short of. There's no connection between what I see and what I taste, and it leaves me torn. Either own up to a lower standard and go pub-style, because truly that is the category the food they currently serve belongs in, or up your game to fine dining standard. At the moment, this place is neither of it, and with this current concept I have no desire to come back at all.