Kungsbacka, close to Gothenburg at the northern tip of Halland, is the home of the restaurant Cosa Table, where a set menu with four or six dishes is the best way to experience the kitchen’s interpretation of Nordic cuisine. Ingredients are primarily sourced from small-scale, very local producers, combined with a few additions from neighboring Skåne, Småland, and Östergötland. You can also just pop by for a snack or a bottle from the restaurant’s list of nonintervention wines. The light, bright Scandinavian-style chairs, tables, and other interior details are for sale in the sister store, Cosa Home Stories, across the street.

When the wine bar Glou Glou opened in the same building as Kustbageriet, in the port of Varberg in June 2022, the idea was to create a sustainable space for an easy glass of wine. Much of the interior is constructed from Euro pallets, old fridge doors, stainless steel tables, and whatever was left by the previous tenants. The wine list features easy-to-drink, nonintervention wines from artisanal producers, partially focusing on Central and Eastern Europe. The shareable dishes are prepared in the Italian wood-fired stone oven, mostly from local vegetables.

Bakery Kustbageriet is located in an old fish export warehouse in the port of Varberg, next door to the wine bar Glou Glou. All the bread is baked with organic flour from millers Bengt Nybergh and Andreas Nielsen at the nearby family-owned mill Limabacka Kvarn. One of the bakery’s signature breads is the Bamberg, a beautiful three-pound loaf of sourdough rye. There’s also a long list of classic breads and pastries that take turns on the shelves, like chausson au poire; caramelized apple doughnuts; cookies with burnt butter and Valrhona chocolate; pizza with chanterelles, cheddar, and Breckland thyme; and cinnamon and cardamom buns.

Once upon a time, one could buy fish right off the boat in just about any port in Halland. The depletion of the sea, not only in Halland but just about everywhere, put an end to that. However, there are still a few fish shacks along the coast with their own fishing boats offering fresh delicacies. Björkängs Fisk, in Tvååker, is run by two brothers, Mattias Larsson and Mikael Bernhardt, who sustainably catch fish using a seine-style net. The selection of seafood changes daily. Occasionally, there are exquisite but underestimated mackerel, which lose their delicious flavor by the minute after they’re caught. Some days, there are flat fish, like sole, plaice, turbot, brill, and European flounder. Most often, there’s a selection of shellfish prepared in-house like langoustines, crabs, lobsters, and shrimp, all ready to bring to picnics and beach parties.

Owners Eva and Nicolai Tram turned a derelict 1870s sawmill in Rydöbruk, in the Halland backwoods, into a Michelin-starred restaurant. They made it their home too, living upstairs with their two sons. At Knystaforsen, opened in November 2020, the kitchen team cooks all the food on the open fire outside the restaurant. Most ingredients are local, including fish from nearby lake Bolmen and game like pheasant, duck, and fallow deer. All the beverage pairings on the multicourse menu (which can stretch past 15 dishes) are Swedish, including wine, mead, cider, and innovative nonalcoholic alternatives made in-house from local herbs, fruits, berries, and weeds. Rydöbruk is a brukssamhälle, or company town, a small community where everything is owned and operated by a single business, including sister pizzeria Knystaria and a manor where guests can stay the night.

Few restaurants announce the courses of a tasting menu quite like Lis Mejeri. The staff distributes ear protection to small children and cranks up the music (chosen to suit each dish), before one of the owners bursts in dancing hard in an animal suit (also chosen to match the food). The setting for this gastronomic spectacle is a historic two-storied brick building that was once a dairy and now serves as the home of the owners’ family. Despite the modern theatrics, they have kept much of the original charm of the place intact and added plenty of vintage decorations and furniture to create a surprisingly homey feeling.

Stedsans used to be located in a greenhouse on a rooftop in the middle of Copenhagen, serving food based on plants and vegetables from its own farm and nearby producers. In 2017, the Danish couple who owned the spot, chefs Mette Helbaek (twin sister of Eva Tram at Knystaforsen) and Flemming Schiøtt Hansen, decided to move to the backwoods of eastern Halland. They reimagined their business as a sustainable resort featuring 16 wooden cabins, a floating sauna, lake water showers, and a forest gym. Dinner is served family-style around a large communal table, and the menu is mostly based on produce from the property’s regenerative garden, combined with whatever else the team has foraged, caught, or shot locally. The beverage list is made up of natural wines and alcohol-free choices, also made with ingredients from Stedsans’ own herbal garden and forest plants.

One of the toughest reservations in Halland is at Lilla Napoli, a hugely popular pizzeria housed in a shack with tables in a parking lot. The place serves high-quality, moderately priced pizzas based on delicacies from near and far, like mushrooms, pecorino, ’nduja, pancetta, smoked pork belly, and oregano. Make space for the dessert pizza, made with Nutella, mascarpone, hazelnut, strawberries, and ice cream. Half of Lilla Napoli’s popularity is due to the wine festival the pizzeria hosts each summer, when the most successful wine importers focusing on small-scale producers show up on weekends to take turns pouring wines and playing music.

The micro-roastery Slöinge Kafferosteri supplies coffee to the bustling cafe Solhaga Stenugnsbageri across the street. But the team at Slöinge Kafferosteri was also inspired by their neighbor to open their own venue featuring coffee, tea, bespoke chocolate bars, and cakes. Set in a well-preserved mid-1900s hotel, Slöinge Kafferosteri sources single-origin beans from estates across the world and roasts them in small batches. Enjoy the coffee with a chocolate bar from Standout Chocolate in Kållered, an hour north of Slöinge, which produces exquisite, handmade bean-to-bar chocolates made from organic beans and cane sugar.

The village of Slöinge used to have one single culinary attraction, Sia Glass, the largest Swedish-owned ice cream producer, whose factory outlet is still a favorite among visitors. But the area’s turning point came when bakers Sara and Anders Wennerström decided to transform their summer house in the middle of the village into a cafe, starting by renovating the old stone oven in one of their outhouses. Today, Solhaga is one of the most talked about bakeries in Sweden. The menu showcases a long list of classic breads and pastries with Swedish and French influences. Don’t miss out on the frukt and nöt (fruit and nut) bread packed with apricots, muscat raisins, walnuts, and hazelnuts; the solbulle, a sweet bun with vanilla cream and jam; or the layered kouign amann. Lately, the Wennerströms have opened up parts of the property on weekends, making it possible to reserve a table to enjoy breakfast, lunch, or afternoon tea.

The coast in Steninge is particularly beautiful because of the long stretch of unexploited, protected nature reserve along the beach where sheep graze. The low, rich vegetation is filled with bog myrtle, beach rose, and wild blackberries. In the middle of this coastal range, close to the sea, is hotel Steninge Kuststation. The owners, Catarina Arvidsson and Per Carlsson, are particularly passionate about porridge, arranging competitions in porridge-cooking each year and featuring two porridges on their three-course breakfast menu (available whether or not you’re staying at the hotel). The food is certified One Planet Plate, the World Wildlife Fund’s label for restaurants working to reduce climate impact and increase biodiversity. 

Halmstad baker My Feldt has been running the city’s most well-visited bakery and cafe, Feldt’s Bröd & Konfekt, together with her brother, Patrick Oscarsson, since 2012. All ingredients are organic, the flour is primarily sourced from local mills, and local farms and forests supply many of the seasonal ingredients in the wide selection of bread, cakes, pastries, toffees, and confections on the counter. Look out for raspberry mazarin, lemon tartlets, chocolate cookies, spelt brownies, rhubarb pie, French nougat, raspberry and licorice toffee, and apple doughnuts with vanilla cream. The bakery offers a few cozy seats indoors and seasonal outdoor seating.