Knystaforsen (1* + Green Star) in Rydöbruk, Sweden

I posted a few weeks ago about opinions on this restaurant and I just wanted to thank the community for not leading me astray. This restaurant is truly a masterclass in unique concept + truly good food done right.

Located in a very remote village, inside of an old saw mill in rural Sweden, their main "gimmick" is that all of their dishes have some element of being cooked over fire. I put "gimmick" in parentheses, because it's way more than that. Every dish we had was truly balanced and creative in its use of of these burnt, smoky, fried flavors. One of my partners thought that this would overwhelm him, as he usually doesn't enjoy smoky tastes, but he said that it opened his eyes. It was truly astounding how versatile the effects of fire on each individual dish was.

Furthermore, while it's very often so that one star restaurants have that one dish that isn't quite so perfect, I didn not find that to be the case with Knystaforsen. Every dish was inspired and memorable for me and I will truly be looking back at this meal very fondly.

A few hightlights. I won't talk about all the dishes because there was a lot:
– The burnt leek dish with whey sauce and pike roe. Truly amazing how beautiful this tasted. I also recommend the non-alc pairing from the bottom of my heart because it made the dish sing.
– The amuse was already amazing off the bat. Perfectly cooked chantrelles on this tree with smoked cheese, moose tartar and pike perch on dried lingonberries
– This miraculous burnt onion. I won't elaborate as I really don't want to spoil it for you.
– We ordered the extra cheese course because we truly didn't want the experience to end. And this was such a great idea. All cheeses are made less than 20km from the restaurant and the depth in flavor of all of them was astounding.
– The casual, but attentive service that truly made us all feel at home.
– The remote location in this beautiful forest rounded up the whole experience.

I'm truly astounded that this restaurant only has one star. I'm going to bet that this is going to change in the next few years and won't be surprised if it becomes a destination dining location like Faviken or Hisa Franko. I am already dreaming of going back.