Sillen & Makrillen

Where the Öresund Meets the Plate

Approach Gröningen Norra on the northern waterfront and you already have your context: the Öresund strait is wide here, the light flat and Nordic, and the smell of salt and diesel from the working harbour sits in the air before you reach the door. Helsingborg's relationship with the sea is not decorative. The city spent centuries as a fishing and trading port, and the restaurants that take that history seriously tend to cluster near the water rather than the shopping streets inland. Sillen & Makrillen, whose name translates simply as Herring & Mackerel, makes no attempt at ambiguity about where its kitchen looks for raw material.

The Sourcing Logic Behind the Name

In Swedish coastal cooking, herring and mackerel are not nostalgia items. They are the structural backbone of a diet shaped by cold, productive waters, and the two fish together tell a story about what the Öresund and the southern Kattegat actually produce at volume and quality. Herring has been salted, pickled, and smoked along this coastline for a thousand years; mackerel arrived in northern European kitchens as a slightly more assertive counterpart, its fat content making it forgiving to both flame and cold-smoke. A restaurant willing to name itself after these two species is committing to an ingredient sourcing argument before the first dish arrives: that the most honest cooking in this part of Sweden starts with what swims in local waters rather than with imported prestige protein.

This framing matters when you consider the broader Swedish dining scene. At the premium end, restaurants like Vollmers in Malmö and VYN in Simrishamn work the New Nordic vocabulary with tasting-menu formality and tightly controlled provenance narratives. Further north, Frantzén in Stockholm operates at a different tier entirely. Sillen & Makrillen does not compete in those registers. Its positioning is more direct: specific, local fish, prepared without unnecessary ceremony, in a harbour-adjacent room that earns its credibility from proximity to source rather than from tasting-menu architecture.

The same sourcing logic runs through southern Swedish restaurant culture more broadly. ÄNG in Tvååker and Knystaforsen in Rydöbruk both work with hyper-local produce as a philosophical anchor, and Signum in Mölnlycke has built a reputation on similar place-specific thinking. What distinguishes the approach at the more casual end of this spectrum, where Sillen & Makrillen sits, is that the sourcing is expressed through simplicity rather than technique, the fish does the work.

The Wine Programme

Star Wine List awarded Sillen & Makrillen a White Star when it listed the restaurant in December 2021, which places the wine programme in a recognised tier for quality and curation. In practical terms, a White Star on Star Wine List typically signals a list assembled with genuine editorial intent rather than a default distributor selection. For a restaurant whose menu is built around oily, acidic-friendly fish, a thoughtful list matters: herring and mackerel both pair cleanly with high-acid whites, mineral-driven pét-nats, and certain orange wines, and a competent programme will have addressed this rather than defaulting to safe international varietals.

This kind of wine-and-fish alignment is common in Scandinavian coastal restaurants that take both elements seriously. The leading fish restaurants in the region understand that the drink is not an afterthought to the plate; it is part of the sourcing argument. For comparison, seafood-focused institutions in other markets, from Le Bernardin in New York City to Emeril's in New Orleans, have historically used their wine programmes as a signal of seriousness distinct from the kitchen's ambitions. Here, on a more modest scale, the White Star recognition suggests that Sillen & Makrillen has made a similar commitment.

Helsingborg's Dining Position

Helsingborg sits at the northern end of the Öresund, twenty minutes by ferry from Helsingsingborg to Helsingør in Denmark, and roughly an hour by train from both Malmö and Gothenburg. The city's food scene has historically operated in the shadow of Malmö, which holds stronger international recognition and a denser cluster of tasting-menu-level restaurants. But Helsingborg has its own character: a working port city with a large local population that eats out regularly, a growing interest in ingredient-led cooking, and a waterfront that provides genuine provenance for fish-focused kitchens.

Within that local context, Bara Vara represents the more produce-focused, vegetable-forward position in the city's mid-to-upper dining tier, while Sillen & Makrillen occupies the fish-and-curing lane. Neither operates at the price points of Malmö's leading end or Gothenburg's 28+, but both reflect a city that has developed genuine culinary self-confidence rather than simply importing frameworks from larger Swedish cities.

For a wider orientation across the region's dining options, our full Helsingborg restaurants guide maps the city's full range. Visitors planning longer stays can also consult our Helsingborg hotels guide, our Helsingborg bars guide, our Helsingborg wineries guide, and our Helsingborg experiences guide for a fuller picture. Those extending into the region might also consider PM & Vänner in Växjö, Fyr in Halmstad, or Hotell Borgholm in Borgholm as part of a broader southern Swedish itinerary.

Practical Notes

Sillen & Makrillen is at Gröningen Norra 1, on Helsingborg's northern waterfront. The address places it within easy walking distance of the city centre and the ferry terminal. Given that fish-focused restaurants in smaller Scandinavian cities often operate on tighter seasonal schedules, confirming hours ahead of travel is worth the ten minutes it takes.