Being out the door before 0800 while on holiday is an American thing, from our experience. We have rarely found restaurants open before 0900 on our adventures through Europe, even those specializing in breakfast. Thus, RC Chocolat in Sigtuna gets a mark of distinction from the start for being open for service at 0730. The first ferry of tourists didn’t dock in Sigtuna until around 0930 during our August visit, so we saw only a few tiny groups of locals when we went each morning to visit RC Chocolat before getting on the trains to Stockholm, or driving about the countryside. 

As we understand through further research, RC Chocolat isn’t specialized in Breakfast per-se, but they excel at “Fika,” a coffee and pastry ritual we don’t have an analog for in the US. Really, after a single mandelbullar (almond bun), we were hooked on this place anyway. The Kardemummabullar we had on day three (mandelbullar not being available that morning) were also out of this world. Then again, I’m biased since cardamom is one of my favorite spices in all the world…

Our second morning, we discovered the Räkmacka (shrimptoast), which is a pretty traditional Swedish dish that can be found at lunch counters all over the country. Lucky for us, RC Chocolat had them available at breakfast, because this was the best way to start a day, hearty, full of protein, and at the same time light. The shrimp salad involves a lot of dill, and there is a full boiled egg sliced finely beneath the shrimp salad on an oversized buttery, flaky croissant at RC Chocolat. There are some artfully placed leaves of lettuce in there that keep the shrimp salad from getting the bread soggy, so you have just a symphony of textures and flavors in every bite. We can’t tell you how they compare to the räkmacka at other places because we were so enamored of the perfection of this one that we did not branch out. We had it again for breakfast on Day three, and have been searching for their specific recipe ever since.