My birthday this year was a Wednesday. Rather boring, but a good excuse to have bubbly mid-week. I was in Sweden on holiday and wanted to have supper with my closest family and best friend.

Mum, dad and I met at Emma (said best friend) and Claes’s for a class of bubbly and some nibbles, before walking to the restaurant of my choice; Atmosfär.

In general I am not very impressed with the restaurants in Malmo, but there are a few good ones, Atmosfar included. You can tell that they have a passion for food there, and on the walls hang lots of certifications.

The menu is not very long, but it doesn’t matter as you want to eat it all. They have smaller and bigger plates, but no proper maincourses, so you can mix and match the dishes how you like. This makes the atmosphere less stuffy and it is all about enjoying food.

We started with the fabulous ham (top photo), Jamon from Spain. It was melt-in-the-mouth fantastic and we all loved it. We also had some marinated olives, white wine and plenty of water as it was a really hot summer’s day.

There were also several baskets of bread and we ate and ate. I don’t want to think of how many loaves our table of five went through, but it kept on coming. The bread was airy and light in the middle and had a lovely buttery crust all around it. Addictive!

When we started with the smaller plates (not starters, mind you) both mother and I were very indecisive and ended up sharing two. The first one was the lovely scallops with crisp vegetable and a lovely jus.

The second plate was a Swedish all-time classic, a plate of caviar (löjrom), creme fraiche, chopped red onions, lemon and toast. Yum!

When it was time for the larger plates, the whole table settled for two varieties. I had this lovely lamb fillet with jus, fried button mushrooms and girolles and a thin thin crisp slice of bread. It was wonderful; meaty and light at the same time.

Dad among others had the beef with jus, chickpea creme and roasted tomatoes. Lovely as well and the meat was great produce.

We skipped pudding (had too much bread anyway) and went back to Emma and Claes’s to enjoy a cake my mother had made. After a slow walk and a good rest of course.

This restaurant never disappoints me (as Malmo restaurants often do). For being in Sweden the prices are very good, the produce and cooking amazing and the service and atmosphere good. It reminds me of smart casual restaurants in London, which definitely is a good thing.