Nordic are good winter sports

This review was published in March 2002

Scandinavians know a thing or two when it comes to surviving long, dark winters. They hole up in a warm, cosy hostelry and eat and drink their way through the cold days. Nordic, two subterranean rooms in the shadow of the BT Tower, is a classic example of London home from home for Scandinavian hospitality.

It has that fashionably shabby look as though it was thrown together yesterday, with the youthfully exuberant atmosphere of an aprës-ski venue. It offers as authentic a food-and-drink menu as you are likely to find in London, with, for the most part, Scandinavian staff who are clearly dab hands with a smorgâsbord.

In the evenings, the menu is limited to snacks, polar bread wraps and hot dogs garnished with mashed potato and relishes. The lunch menu is much more substantial, with meat balls, beef Lindstrom, Pytt I Panna (baconandpotato hash with egg), crayfish and Nordic steak with hasselback potatoes. Main courses average £9.

It's traditional to have a beer (of which there are many, including Red Erik, a 6.5per cent cherry beer on draught) chased with an akavit (similar to eau-de-vie). So raise your glasses and say cheers to Nordic, or "skôl", as they say in Scandinavia.