I’ve mentioned before how Årsta (that’s a suburb of Stockholm where we live) has amazing food. Actually, I specifically said it has amazing grub, which is also true, but I am not sure sushi can be termed ‘grub’, really. Especially not when it is as good as this.
Sushi 66 Kvadrat (click linky for more pictures) is a tiny place (one of a chain of 3 across Stockholm, I think). By tiny, I mean tiny – the one we go to has a dining room about 3x4m with 2 tables and a window bar. It’s clean, it’s simple, the decor is in shades of dark to light grey, black, white and red, and the rather generic but pleasant music is piped at a comfortably low volume, so that you don’t have to raise voice to talk over it, or strain to hear the person across the table from you.
There is one downside to this place: they do not serve tea. In my mind, sushi is simbiotically linked with green tea, and so I always feel a little disappointed by this (though this can, of course be remedied by taking the sushi home). On the upside, this is the only downside I’ve found about this place.
The menu is pretty basic and short, as I imagine it’s geared towards family take-out for none-too-adventurous with seafood. This is not a high-end place serving soft-shell crab and dragon rolls, or fatty tuna. From what I can tell, they order a limited variety of seafood, however – and here we get to the crux of the matter and why I feel I should say a few words – that seafood is always fresh and fragrant and downright amazing.
In fact, let me start over and say it – the sushi they make is amazing. By that I mean that the rice is perfectly cooked and molded. The nigiri are not too small (I’ve encountered the tiny-nigiri in many sushi places before which made me wonder whether those people are in the business of starving rather than feeding me). I’ve also encountered rice so dry it scratched my throat when eaten, and in a far more pricey sushi place here in Stockholm, to boot (we avoid that one now).
But, 66 Kvadrat do it right. Their nigiri are plump, their avocado is fresh and unoxidized, their scallops are tremblingly-soft and translucent, and their salmon is served glistening and gorgeous and so fresh it drapes over the rice like a silk scarf.
The sushi literally melt in your mouth into seafood bliss.
What, you want more upsides? Well, there are a few.
Their soy sauce is good. I don’t ever complain when I’m served Kikkoman which is standard, but this place uses something called Sakura, and it is pretty darn delicious.
Their miso soup is good. I’m not a huge miso soup connosseur, but it’s delicious and not too watery (as miso soup goes), and the greens are fresh. What more can you ask?
They make good yakiniku. I am not a connosseur of that either, but T routinely orders that as a hot meal alternative at Japanese places, and this one is one of the better ones we’ve had.
They are inexpensive. Not cheap, per se, but not expensive, and certainly not as expensive as you’d get 15 min from here in the city.
So yes. If you are in the area, and you want good sushi for a good price, this is it. As simple as that.
Note: In case anyone is curious, no, nobody has paid me to write reviews of their products or eateries. I write about the ones I like enough to recommend to friends (or not, but usually the ones I do think are good). In fact, all the things I’ve reviewed so far, have been items I’d bought and paid for (be it food or consumables or cookware).
Eat The Roses 
No frills sushi! I love it! So nice to have a good and inexpensive sushi place nearby, isn’t it? How unfortunate that they don’t serve green tea to wash it all down. We have a lovely, little mom and pop japanese place around the corner (mom’s a local Chinese and pop’s Japanese and head chef). When you see lots of Japanese folks patronize the place, you know it’s pretty authentic.
Eeep, I must have been asleep and missed your comment! *self-bonk*
I am sort of hoping that my review will give them a teeeny hint that they really ought to get some tea and cups – it’s not like it goes bad quickly! – and advertise something like “now with green tea!”. It’s not as if the water and soft drinks they serve are printed on their menu either, I think they just sort of have them. Who knows, I can hope!
We don’t have many Japanese here, but there are a few Oriental (one Japanese specifically) supermarkets in town. This is a very Swedish suburb that’s slowly gentrifying as old generation dies/moves out, and young professionals snap up flats close to town, so sushi is here for the Swedes. Thank all the gods that Swedes do tend to love their fish raw or as close as nevermind – not many sushiphobiacs in Stockholm! :D