Table For One - Ruth's (Malmo) Review
No need for long lists or insider secrets - just go to Ruths.
Did you know a direct train runs from Copenhagen to Malmo? I didn’t either.
But it’s a discovery that meant I got to return to Sweden, a place I love, for its culture, its people but also its food.
Sitting quietly a few streets from the main station, offering sanctuary to the hungry and slightly weather-beaten - aka, yours truly - is a quiet street just off from the city’s square and this is where you’ll find Ruths.
There’s no ‘concept’, no queue snaking down the street; it’s not that sort of place. Ruth’s is calm, confident, and beautifully understated.
Very Malmö, very Scandi, and very, very good.
You step inside, and the pace of the world changes - it’s beautifully calm but still has the slight buzz all good restaurants have - like you’re part of a well-oiled machine, everything is in motion and for a while
The place itself is minimalist chic, but not in that bleak, joyless way minimalism can go - quite the opposite. It’s warm, lived-in, softly lit. The tables are well-spaced.
There are actual napkins. Someone has thought carefully about everything from the curve of the chairs to the salt dish.
It feels like a home belonging to someone stylish who definitely has more than one kind of olive oil.
There’s one thing worth trying above all others, or at least I recommend trying and that is the daily set menu - three courses plus coffee. As the name suggests, it changes daily, so it’s a good way of working through their classics and more experimental dishes.
Personally, I hate choosing, so someone else doing it for me and taking control is a joy in my opinion.
The waiters, who are friendly and relaxed, will ask if you’d like wine - say yes. Don’t ask questions. They’ll bring something lovely and entirely appropriate, and you’ll spend the next hour and a half feeling like you’ve made several excellent life choices.
When my set menu came, I began with pickled cabbage and cheese. The cabbage was sharp, bright, and unapologetically tangy; the cheese was soft and mellow. It was simple but clever—one of those dishes that linger longer in the memory than any number of foamed things on a slate.
The main was a piece of salmon with courgette—both cooked with restraint and confidence. The courgette still had bite, the salmon just blushed in the centre, the whole thing seasoned perfectly.
Dessert arrived as a salted caramel and chocolate ice cream that managed to be both nostalgic and quietly elegant—cool, rich, and perfectly balanced between sweet and bitter. It reminded me of the sort of pudding you hope to be served at a very good dinner party by people who aren’t trying to impress you, just feed you well. As I sipped my coffee I was quite sad my time here had ended, for now at least - but I assure you I’ll be back.
Ruths doesn’t shout for attention - it doesn’t need to. It’s one of those rare restaurants where everything hums along at just the right frequency—where the food is thoughtful, the service unshowy, and the room calm and assured.
A place that lets you breathe.
The kind of place you think about on the train home, and plan your next visit before you've even unpacked.