You don’t need to know one thing about this amazing restaurant

Over the weekend I had dinner at Folke. It opened in June 2022. Upon entry, I saw they had a chef’s counter with a view into the kitchen and knew where I had to sit:

I will tell you upfront, the meal was very enjoyable and the food was delicious. I won’t tell you something important about the theme of the restaurant because in this case, it doesn’t matter. Maybe you will be able to figure it out from the evening’s menu or the dishes to follow:

We decided to go for the tasting menu which started with an assortment of pickled veggies:

This was followed by an incredibly delicious bread stuffed with grains and miso spread. This was a recurring trend about the food at this restaurant. Each dish was put together with a lot of passion and effort. Everything was transformed and there was a tremendous amount of attention to detail. Everything was thought through and it was clear the kitchen had a lot of talent. For example, the extra effort to stuff the bread (we mentioned to our server that we loved the bread and she surprised us at the end with some to take home which was delicious in the morning for breakfast).

The first main was beets. The beets were dehydrated and then rehydrated (if I am not mistaken), and the dish resembled a carpaccio in texture. It was brilliant. The hazelnut gave good crunch and flavor and the rhubarb nice acidity. In general, I found that the restaurant was a master of using acidity appropriately in their dishes.

The second main was one of my favorite things. A house made chickpea tofu which was seasoned with Asian like spices. So delicious and a slightly crispy coating. The mushrooms were charred ever so slightly and the flavor was perfect (another example of attention to detail and putting extra effort to transform each element on the plate).

Following that, an item that was not on the menu, morels and peas.

After that, something else not on the menu: curry lentils and dosa. While the lentils were delicious, the star was the dosa. Tons of flavor and crispy.

Following that, mushroom XO dumplings.

Arancini (not on menu)

Turnips with peas, and kosho:

Chilled ramen (which I tried then I brought home as I was getting full, and had 2 days later, and it was just as satisfying and enjoyable)

For dessert a strawberry tart

…and miso caramels to finish which were so good.

Overall, service was good and the food was delicious. The only thing I did not like were the cocktails. I had the gin cocktail and the whisky cocktail and I found both too sweet. If you haven’t figured it out now, the place is plant based. However, none of the dishes pretended to be anything they weren’t. The restaurant did not use “fake” meat. They did not try to pass off or try to re-create meat textures the way many plant based places do. They simply served great dishes that happened to use only vegetable. That’s how I think of it. I will definitely go back to sample more items as the menu changes.