The 15 top spots in Malmö’s Davidshall neighbourhood

Long before sharing plates became standard restaurant vocabulary, Atmosfär was experimenting with the format. Opened on Fersens väg in 1997, the restaurant abandoned its original fine-dining approach in 2008 for smaller dishes designed to move around the table – a shift that helped redefine it as a contemporary neighbourhood restaurant. Today, seasonal cooking remains central, with a menu broad enough for anything from lunch to a drawn-out dinner. The interior has evolved too. Malmö interior design studio Rumrum has reworked the space, introducing a larger bar, warm timber, mosaic detailing and a more playful visual identity. Its longevity matters: after nearly three decades in the same location, Atmosfär feels less like a newcomer to Davidshall than part of its restaurant infrastructure.

French bistro cooking meets Swedish ingredients at Edda, set in the former Restaurang Davidshall in central Malmö. The restaurant is run by Mikaela Eliasson, Mikaela Fischerström and Alex Hedén, with a straightforward neighbourhood format and a French-Swedish identity. Both Eliasson and Fischerström have won Mack-SM, Sweden’s national professional sandwich competition, in 2021 and 2018 respectively – useful context for a team with a particular interest in bread, fillings and everyday food made carefully.

At Escama, the bar is the dining room. Set on Fersens väg, beside sister restaurant Atmosfär, this Spanish gastrobar is built around counter seating, an open kitchen and a deliberately informal rhythm. Dishes are ordered as appetite dictates rather than as a fixed sequence. The menu moves through familiar Spanish territory – croquetas, tortilla, patatas bravas and jamón – but gives particular weight to seafood, from grilled octopus and calamari to prawns and anchovies. Spanish and Portuguese wines reinforce the Iberian focus. More bar than conventional restaurant, Escama works best as a sociable, drop-in address: somewhere for a glass, a few plates and the kind of unstructured evening Davidshall does particularly well.

Freja is designed to carry you through the day. Owner Agnes Hansson opened the café and wine bar on Davidshallstorg in 2022, taking over the former Scandwine premises and reworking the small room with timber panelling, a proper bar and a more classic interior. Breakfast is served well beyond breakfast hours, while the menu shifts with the seasons towards salads, stews and smaller evening plates, often drawing on produce from Hansson’s family farm, Nällevadsgården, outside Skurup. Coffee and tea are treated with the same seriousness as wine, beer and cocktails, making Freja less a conventional café than an all-day neighbourhood address. Its position directly on the square adds the final ingredient: a natural spot for watching Davidshall move around you.

Lu began with a fairly personal proposition. Could the Cantonese food of founder Luong Lu’s family gatherings work as a restaurant in Malmö? He opened the Davidshallstorg address with his mother, Kim Trinh, after leaving the advertising industry, building the menu around Hong Kong street food rather than a broad pan-Asian repertoire. Roast duck, char siu, dumplings and chow ho fun are central to the cooking, often served family-style and with jasmine tea on the table. The small, bright dining room keeps things deliberately informal. The restaurant itself describes the atmosphere as closer to a Chinese family gathering than a conventional dining room. In Davidshall, Lu stands out for its specificity: focused, Cantonese and rooted in one family’s food culture rather than a generic idea of Chinese cuisine.

Mutantur is chef Alexander Sjögren’s playful answer to conventional fine dining, a Davidshall food bar where polished technique meets a notably relaxed format. Sjögren, a former Bocuse d’Or competitor, dispenses with rigid tasting menus in favour of an extensive selection of small plates, leaving diners free to compose the meal themselves. The cooking has clear Swedish and Skåne roots but travels widely for inspiration: oysters might meet tiger’s milk and sweetcorn, while beef tartare can arrive with green tomato, baked egg yolk and horseradish. Sit at the curved counter overlooking the open kitchen, order progressively and share widely. The Michelin Bib Gourmand recognises precisely what Mutantur does best: serious cooking without unnecessary ceremony.

Rau gives Malmö’s vegan scene a distinctly Asian accent from its bright, pared-back dining room on Davidshallstorg. The cooking draws heavily on Vietnamese and Chinese flavours, with Buddhist food traditions also informing the restaurant’s entirely plant-based approach. Rather than imitate meat, the kitchen works with vegetables, tofu, mushrooms, herbs and deeply savoury sauces to create dishes with real weight and character. The evening menu is short and changes frequently, making sharing the obvious strategy; order widely and let the table fill up. Asian beers and a contemporary wine list add to the relaxed mood. Rau is especially convincing for diners who want vegan food that feels purposeful rather than adapted.

Riket carries a little of bohemian Möllevången into Davidshall. The two chefs behind the restaurant first worked together at the now-closed Tempo, a Malmö institution whose relaxed, wine-led spirit still echoes here. The setting on Erik Dahlbergsgatan is deliberately unpolished: part neighbourhood restaurant, part wine bar, with the kind of room where dinner can easily turn into several more glasses. The kitchen works with a short, seasonal menu, often built around locally sourced vegetables, raw fish and produce from small-scale suppliers rather than fixed signature dishes. Natural and craft wines sit at the centre of the drinks list, alongside local beer and more characterful bottles. It is an unfussy expression of contemporary Malmö dining, with enough personality to feel distinctly its own.