Despite the cheesy name, Pio Country Club, in south Sweden along the road between Halmstad and Simlångsdalen, is a very good restaurant. Two years ago we had a very nice mid-summer’s dinner there with typical Swedish mid-summer’s dishes in haute cuisine fashion with paired wines. This year we discovered that the guy who runs it is a fan of Argentina, has visited the country and serves great Argentinian food. They have a garden where they grow their own vegetables and everything is freshly made from good quality ingredients. Reservations are required; since it is a bit out of the way they are not used to serving people who just show up unannounced.
The restaurant is located in a hotel with a nice garden where you can have an aperitif in summer. They serve a menu of between 3 and 6 courses, if desired accompanied by a wine package.
The appetizer was a ceviche of sea scallops ‘cooked’ in lime juice and olive oil, served with fresh fennel and tomatoes from the garden, fennel fronds, chile pepper and oregano flowers. A nice dish with great texture, even though the taste of the scallops was slightly overwhelmed by the other flavors. Paired well with a high-altitude torrentes from Argentina, a very aromatic wine that is imported into Sweden just for this restaurant.
Rib-eye steak from the BBQ, cooked on the medium side of medium rare, with beets from the garden and chimichurri. Again the Argentinian origins of the dish are obvious. I like it very much that they serve it like this and offer to cook it longer if you want. Both beef and beets had a lot of taste, and paired well with an oaked Malbec from Argentina.
It was not a surprise that also the dessert is from Argentina: dulce de leche with fresh berries and vanilla ice cream. Good match with a late harvest riesling from Chile.
Pio is not cheap at SEK 595 (EUR 72/US$ 89) for 3 courses plus SEK 450 (EUR 55/US$ 67) for matching wines, although I should mention that I do not know how this compares to other Swedish restaurants. This is not Michelin star level, but certainly very good and worth going to if you are in the neighborhood.
Stefan's Gourmet Blog 
I’ve impressed myself because I think I can see from the pic that the steak is the medium side of medium rare – I mean its a bit more medium than I would have it – if you see what I mean
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It was really good, but I wouldn’t have minded a bit more on the rare side of medium rare myself, too.
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I would be more on the rare side of rare but never mind that. The scallops look excellent. I love the idea of ‘cooking’ them in lime. The desert looks excellent too. In fact it all looks fantastic and I really approve of the wine matching.
Best,
Conor
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Thanks Conor, it was an excellent dinner. I would have preferred the steak to be slightly more rare too, but it was good all the same. I’ll have to post about a ceviche recipe soon (before the summer’s over, I mean).
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nice— a torrontes and a malbec. With so much Argentina on the brain, did you tango afterward?
btw, which producers of those two wines did you try?
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I don’t remember the producers. I do remember that it was from Mendoza and from vineyards on very high altitudes.
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