Once you arrive to Oaxen it feels like you have arrived to a secret gem only known to connoisseurs of good food and wine.
The 45 minutes drive from Stockholm, takes you through a charming landscape and the closer you get to Oaxen the more breathtaking the landscapes becomes. The 5 minutes boat ride to get to Oaxen will leave all your stress behind on the mainland. On this little island in the southern Stockholm archipelago, you will find Oaxen Restaurant, one of the Worlds 50 Best Restaurants and their newly opened boutique hotel M/S Florence.
Oaxen restaurant and M/S Florence is founded and managed by Magnus Ek, one of Sweden's most awarded chefs and his wife Agneta Green, who is a dedicated sommelier but also a great interior designer and one of the very few who masters Chinese tea ceremonies, which no less than Madame Thsseng in Paris has taught her.
M/S Florence is an old Dutch houseboat, which Magnus and Agneta has converted into 6 double rooms/suites and 1 single room. Each room is very unique with handpicked furniture and products that they have found on different auctions around the world The decoration is made with oak, ebony, Brazilian rosewood and 5 different sorts of marble. It is without doubt the most beautiful hotel I have visited in a long time. There is a very nice lounge/saloon on the 2. floor with great books that will keep you occupied for hours.
We stayed in the Chief Mate´s suite which gives you a panoramic view of the sea and it has its own little terrace on the deck, where you can sit in total privacy. This suite is located on the 2. floor and is spacious and very stylish. Every room has its own IPod; all bathrooms are light and very comfortable and all the products and amenities has carefully been picked by Agneta herself.
We arrived to Oaxen in the afternoon and were given a warm welcome by Agneta, who showed us around in their garden and veggie garden from where they produce a lot for the restaurant. The rest of the afternoon we enjoyed on the main deck with a drink in the sun, before dinner.
In the evening we walked up to the restaurant which is located on top of a hill with a great view of the archipelago and a 2 minutes’ walk from the M/S Florence.Oaxen restaurant is famous for its creative cuisine, but also for using local and organic products. The restaurant was awarded the Ecological restaurant of 2007 in Sweden. We went for the tasting menu, which cost 1350 SEK. The restaurant is very minimalistic in its interior; the focus is purely on the food. The guests are a mix of connoisseurs and sailors that have come from far away to enjoy a nice meal. We got a flow of exquisite and interesting plates full of surprises. The best was the suckling pig, which was cut at the table. The dessert was a play for the eyes, almost too beautiful to eat, but once you got started, impossible to stop. We finished with a Chinese Tea ceremony served by Agneta herself, a perfect way to end a perfect meal.
We walked back to the boat in the moonlight and watch the kitchen staff taking a dep in the sea after a hard day at work and it didn´t take us long to fall a sleep among the huge soft cushions in the bed.
Next morning we woke up to a beautiful sunny morning and a breakfast that had been served on our private deck. The breakfast felt like a miniature of a gourmet tasting menu. We were served bio dynamic yogurt from Järna, the bio dynamic and organic capital of Sweden with homemade müsli, freshly baked bread with organic butter, homemade jams, and best of all, slowly cooked eggs that has been prepared for 2 hours on 65 degrees. We left Oaxen on a full stomach and a happy smile and cannot wait to come back for more.
The rooms and suites cost from 900 SEK to 3400 SEK, breakfast 150 SEK
Oaxen Restaurant and M/S Florence is open from April 30th to October 31th.
From November 28th to December 21 they are serving their famous Christmas buffet and M/S Florence will be open too.
For more info http://www.oaxenkrog.se/
Thursday, October 2, 2008
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