Ven Restaurants

Ven ice cream belongs to the best I have tried in Sweden! It is nice and creamy and still full of flavour - and those are several: nougat, vanilla and other common ones but also unusual ones like brambles and saffron. The saffron one is also used widely in restaurants all over the island. It is located in a tiny kiosk in Bäckviken harbour and only open weekends in May and September but all day summertime.

Favorite Dish: Brambles...having failed to taste saffron as it was not ready yet - we were early.

Mildahn's is a combined cafe and B&B in an old farm. This makes the B&B look marvellous but I haven't tested it. What I have however tested is the cafe with Swedish waffles and homemade jam and I have nothing to complain about. We were offered more coffee in already large mugs and had a generally snug time. If you like the jam, you can buy a jar to bring home.

Favorite Dish: Waffles!

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Belonging to the hotel with the same name, the restaurant is open for lunch Saturdays and evening meals after 19.00 (they also have a bar and pizza corner opening at 18.00) and this turned out to be a great place. There is a big veranda outside (see second pic) with views across meadows full of hares and pheasants, for your pre-meal drink or even the dinner itself. Back inside, we though the pizza and restaurant mix would be confusing to the kitchen but they manage to separate the two quite nicely and of course you can mix them if your children would like a pizza rather than something more grown-up. You however should try the local food! Local fish, goats cheese and other things are on the menu but you can also chose typical international steaks etc. There is a great value-for-money three course meal for less than SEK 300 when we visited. We were so full we went to sleep straight away after this birthday meal - when our daughter gave daddy's birthday away to staff, his dessert came with table fireworks :))) Service came with a smile though having said that, it wasn't the busiest part of the season. They were also classy enough to ask if we wanted to wait for a while with the dessert and didn't just shuffle the dishes out as and when they were ready :) I feel we tipped them far to little for this memorable experience.

Favorite Dish: The starter! A terrin of the local goats cheese on a piece of toasted, sweet rye bread and with drizzlings of balsamic vinegar and honey (at least that's what we think the "vinegrette" was). I might have said the raspberry gazpacho with saffron Ven ice cream but the ice cream factory was just starting up for the season...had a great white chocolate dessert still (see photo).

The most upmarket place in little Kyrkbacken, the harbour inn serves just a set dish for lunch (but it is nice!), at least before high season, along with a childrens burger option. In the evening however, the a la carte comes out, including fish and other local specialities and an impressive wine list. All in a nice house by the harbour and in summer you can sit on the harbourside veranda, overlooking just about anything that goes on down there.

Favorite Dish: Fish with fennel and yummy boiled potatoes.