Monk’s Café Stockholm

September 3, 2008
Very ambitious bar and restaurant that started brewing on their own in the summer 2008. Good and varied draught beer selection, but the real treat is the bottle beer selection. It seems they have changed the original idea to always stock this or that many thousand beers (of which quite many where fairly unnecessary) to having theme periods, for example a Dutch month, then a Belgian spring and Italian weeks and so on. I think that is a much better idea. They did have some initial problems with service, but bar staff is getting quite skilled and friendly. Food is good.

June 9, 2008
Monk’s Café is loaded with rare and delectable beers. I was especially impressed by their selection of Northern Italian craft beers and rare Belgian ales. They have several beers from the famous brewery Struise and the great Swedish brewery Dugges. Overall, I am guessing they have about 500 beers, many of them not found elsewhere. I found the staff to be very kind as well and the layout of the place is pretty cool. There were also some interesting beers on draught, but I was mainly interested in the bottles. My second favorite beer destination in Stockholm, obviously behind Akkurat.

May 20, 2008
I have been here twice, and while I think the selection is decent, the service is horrible. Not only do you have to wait for the staff for ages after being seated, in most cases they have little or no clue about what they are doing. The staff seems to have a very scarce knowledge of beer and they just do not seem to see you. Go somewhere else.

January 10, 2008
A nice place to go for some beers, which they do have. Big list, and their cellar seems to contain more and more beers everytime visiting. Was quite bad in the beginning, but by my latest visit seemed to have about 1000 beers stocked. The board claims a bigger number, so that number may be the number of beer they have served in all (though not there at the same time). Good place if you look for weird countries. The staff has varied from time to time, many of the people do have interest in beer, while others don’t seem to know anything about what they are doing. Gets crowded and busy at times. which makes the staff a bit stressed. The food has been ok, not that high prices (compared to others), and the portions are quite ok.

May 30, 2007
A hugely disappointing experience. The beers they have made for them are from Riegele and frankly under average. Little selection in terms of swedish micros. The good part is that, at least on my visit, the menu seems to be updated possibly daily (I had a may 30th version anyway). So I would assume that I’m not going to ask for something they don’t have. being a bright kid, I had prepared myself from their extensive website list with 10 different candidates. none were on the real menu at the pub. I actually went for the tap because none of the bottles really interested me, I doubt they had more than 300 in there. Not a fan. the very beery decorated, modern cafe seems fake after those initial lies: the board still claimed they had 1400 different beers.

May 7, 2007
Was there on a Sunday night, not too busy. Had a good selection on tap, nothing too special and only one Nynäshamns on tap in terms of local product. I didn’t eat, and didn’t really drink too much as prices were pretty high, even for Stockholm. They also had a British beer week promotion where half the fridge was full of British beers. Staff were ok, there are probably better places to go in Stockholm.

November 7, 2006
I visited on a quiet monday evening and had a good time. The staff was friendly and knew about beer. The selection is mayve not as good as I first heard, but not many pubs in Stockholm can offer more beers. The owner also asked for some more time til he´d be satisfied with the selection. I guess that means it will get better and better...

September 25, 2006 [ Updated August 8, 2008 ]
Hmm.. A delirium clone smack in the middle of Stockholm? First off, the beer selection is good, not great ...good.. I mean seriously, who’d pay premium bucks for shitty lager, just because it’s brewed in Bongoswana or Molvania? Also, our waitress didn’t really know her way round the menu.. Plus, the whole atmosphere was more snobby than cosy (I guess that when the average beer was 6 -7 euro, you have to cater with that in mind) But, on the other hand, they did have a huge amount of beers and one of the waiters offered us a free sample of a Swedish micro and a quick look inside the beer fridge (after bragging about how drunk he’d gotten on trippels in Belgium). We didn’t try their food. So, in conclusion.... off to a promising start.. loose the cocky attitude though. 2-2-13-N/A-N/A-10 Re-rate 2008-08-08 Have to take Monk’s Cafe up a notch or two. They’ve gotten rid of the most arrogant waiters, actually started having the beers they claim to have. Plus, they’ve recently started in-house brewing (only pub in Stockholm w. brewery). I haven’t tasted the beers but with two of Sweden’s most acknowledged homebrewers at the helm I’m sure the beers will be great. They’ve also started selling beer-glasses at somewhat reasonable prices. Monk’s Cafe and it’s owner are doing great things for beer in Sweden.