Sven’s Viking Pizza

LOCATION
Sven's Viking Pizza is located just before Bondi Junction mall, on Oxford Street. 15 minutes from the city.

PROFILED BY DE GROOTS MEDIA
All hail the Swedish pizza: deliciously thin and crunchy, gilded with a few select ingredients and boasting a smoky, wood-fired flavour. Norsemen unite at Sven’s Viking Pizza for a flavour explosion in unique surrounds. Authentic Swedish reindeer pelts and Nordic helmets watch over diners as they feast on super-fresh pizzas and quaff ale. Slabs of red gum form tables, while tree stumps make surprisingly comfortable stools. Watch Sven slice and dice by the wood-fired oven and open your ears to some emerging contemporary Swedish artists. Swedish-born owner-chef Sven Gustafsson opened Viking Pizza, his first restaurant, in June 2008 after a complete interior overhaul, transforming a tired space into a modern-day Valhalla.

Named after a cheeky entourage of Nordic gods and goddesses, Sven’s pizzas emerge on 11 inch or 13 inch bases, with an exceptionally thin and crispy disc rising from high protein flour. The motto here is less is more, with an emphasis on fresh, healthy produce and simple combinations. Try the signature (and Sven’s personal favourite) Fro; beef eye fillet shares a bed with fresh mushrooms, onion and generous lashings of bearnaise sauce, topped with cracked black pepper. Team the male fertility god with the goddess of love and fertility, Freja, in which roasted butternut pumpkin complements crumbly fetta, baby spinach and roasted pine nuts. The complimentary Swedish salad with herb vinaigrette is a refreshing palate-pleaser, or pick from an assortment of fresh salad sides. Complete the Swedish experience with Swedish sticky chocolate cake, kladdkaka. Bookings can be made for groups of 10 or more; but if all the stumps are taken, Sven will gladly pack your Scandinavian treats away for you to take home.

Lauren Barker