Totally Stockholm 1
GASTRO Aleks Y Filip There’s a popular brand of b
aby food called Alex&Phil, who sell squeeze pouches consisting of flavours of mush, which could, if you’re feeling extremely generous, be interpreted as tapas for children. But that’s, along with the name of course, where the similarities to the new restaurant that’s opened up on Bjälbogatan end. As well as the restaurant, the whole block of buildings it’s located in, part of the real estate development at Rosenlundsparken, is completely new too. The Andrejic family has run the Italian eatery O’Pizzicato at Södermalm for almost two decades, but now the brothers Aleksandar and Filip are ready to open up a new venture. Their dream of a Spanish restaurant was born during a trip to Madrid, where they both visited several noisy restaurants and felt they had found something that Stockholm lacked. The result was the Spanish-inspired restaurant Aleks Y Filip. We enter the space and immediately order a Inedit each – a Spanish beer, a mix between a traditional malted-barley beer and a wheat beer. Inedit was created back in 2008 by Damm’s master brewer, together with 18 the legendary chef Ferran Adria and the sommelier team at El Bulli in Catalonia, to serve as an ideal drink to accompany their meals, but it certainly works as well as an aperitif. At the same time, we kind of regret not ordering a Kalle Mucho, as they call their calimocho (a Spanish combo of red wine and cola) from their cocktail list. When the menu arrives, our eyes quickly fixate on the classic croquettes de iberico, something of an acid test for any Spanish restaurant. This version, for 85 kronor, comes with kasobushi and kimchimayo, and meets our pretty high standards. The second appetiser comes in the form of a yellowfin tuna Tiradito - a cevichelike dish with raw tuna filets topped with a sour sauce. As the dish is quite stripped down in its execution the raw produce is of the utmost importance. Unfortunately, this time it’s not quite there, as the tuna have a slightly watery texture, even if the taste is ok. Lomo Bajo, the first main of the evening, is a hearty dry-aged beef from Galicia, garnished with chimichurri and pimientos de padrón. A generous meat fest for 350 kronor, that without a doubt is hearty enough to feed several people. With a glass of well-chilled Cara Nord (carignan, grenache), we can feel the kitchen get into the flow. The Lomo Bajo proves to be the high point of the evening, as the last dish - a grilled octopus for 285 kronor – is merely fine. There are no problems with the octopus, but the accompanying sweet potato purée, in combination with the condiments, makes the composition of the dish a bit dry. Some tartness and freshness wouldn’t have gone amiss. We might sound a bit too whiny now - on the whole Aleks y Filip is actually a really nice Spanish neighbourhood restaurant, and one that we suspect has a bright future, especially as a spot for Sunday family dinners. The service is impeccable, and the atmosphere might well have been shipped in directly from the winding backstreets of Madrid. We’d just like a little work on the finer details, if only to justify the price. Aleks Y Filip Bjälbogatan 32, aleksyfilip.se