You can’t visit Sweden without trying several of the delicious cinnamon and cardamom buns and luckily there are many branches of the Da Matteo cafés around the city so you’re never too far from you’re next cinnamon bun hit. We stopped off at the Magasinsgatan branch after nosing around all the housewares, stationery and clothing shops oozing in Scandi cool, needing a restorative pick me up, roasting their own coffee beans means you’re also in for a rich coffee experience, the perfect partner to soft gooey buns. If you’re not having at least three buns a day whilst visiting, are you even holidaying right??

After a trip to Italy, owner and founder Matts Johansson was inspired to open Da Matteo – meaning “at Matteo’s place.” Today, Da Matteo has a handful of locations, its own roastery, and a bakery. Although it started as an espresso bar, Da Matteo later helped pave the way for the specialty coffee scene in Gothenburg, known for its light-roasted, almost tea-like style of brewing. As drip coffee lovers, we appreciated that in addition to two filter coffee options, there was also a hand brew menu with seven different choices.

A good choice for a coffee break is Da Matteo Torrefazione, with a sunny courtyard terrace, home-roasted coffee and lots of goodies baked in house. For a quick bite that won’t break the bank, try Gothenburg’s very own street food – a ‘Half Special’, a hot dog topped with mashed potatoes. Gourmet Korv not far from Magasingatan have a great half special, made with gourmet butcher sausages, while the Clarion Post Hotel just opposite the train station offer a ‘sit-down’ version of the half special in their terrace bar.

Kale’i coffee bar in Kyrkogatan courtyard is a sophisticated gem, while Da Matteo on Victoriapassagen is the city’s original coffee hot spot. For a whistlestop tour of Swedish style, head to Grandpa grandpa.se to stock up on vintage design curios, homewares and clothing from local designers. Street art is everywhere here, but for a more traditional culture fix try the Gothenburg Museum of Art konstmuseum.goteborg.se and enjoy a great collection of Scandinavian artists including Edvard Munch and Ernst Josephson.

The pioneers of Gothenburg coffee, Da Matteo is a chain of specialty roasters that have popped up all over the city. Opening in 2007 with its Vallagtan location, the coffee company travel the world in search of the best beans and regularly compete in barista competitions always looking to better their skills. Directly across the cobbled square from the founding shop is the brand’s roastery and bakery where they roast all their own coffee and bake all the bread for their multiple locations.

The cafe and roastery da Matteo has become a real Gothenburg icon, which in addition to two shops, where you can buy specialty coffee beans with you home, also has a total of three cafes in town. At the cafe’s premises on Magasinsgatan, all the beans are roasted, which are largely imported from Ethiopia, Costa Rica and Colombia – all countries known for their first-class coffee plantations. Here, in addition to good coffee of course, you can also count on good pizzas and buns.

However, any visit to the city would be incomplete without stopping by da Matteo, Gothenburg’s very own fancy (I’m resisting the ‘h’ word) coffee chain. There are four outlets in the city but your best option is at Magasinsgatan, where you can sit in the courtyard (weather permitting) and witness the bakery and roaster in action. They make an excellent vegan sandwich with roasted celery, or if you’re craving something sweet, a divine vegan brownie.

Fika, for those who are not familiar, is a Swedish coffee break tradition. But to the Swedes it is much more than just grabbing a caffeinated drink, it is a time to slow down, grab a friend, a coffee, and a baked good, and enjoy the finer things in life. My Danish friend introduced me to this wildly popular Swedish Fika video which is great for a laugh and a funny but still somewhat informative overview of the tradition.

Well, this is one of the best Gothenburg restaurants to get it at, in my opinion. da Matteo is actually a small chain of coffee shops, where they are incredibly passionate about coffee and high-quality bites. They have 5 shops scattered around Gothenburg (so it’s not a huge chain, and the vibe is perfectly local), and each serves freshly brewed coffee, and (even better, some may say) daily baked pastries and bread.

With their straightforward statement: “we want more people to drink good coffee,” Da Matteo deserves the title of Gothenburg’s coffee hub, well known to almost all the locals. What started in 2003 as a café in the family home of founder Matts Johansson, grew into a coffee roastery, two stores, and five cafes throughout Gothenburg. Their cafes are some of the busiest and most iconic weekend spots in the city.

Few names are as closely tied to Gothenburg’s coffee identity as da Matteo. Starting with a single café in the ’90s, founder Matts Johansson’s dream evolved into a multi-location success story, complete with their own roastery and bakery. Da Matteo’s cafés offer a blend of Italian warmth and Nordic minimalism, creating lively yet relaxed spaces perfect for a coffee break or a lingering afternoon with a book.

Da Matteo: located next to Strömmingsluckan in Magasinsgatan, Da Matteo is a mandatory stop for every coffee purist who has self-respect. Their make their own coffee, which is well-known all over Sweden thanks to the numerous competitions they’ve won. The place is also great if you’re looking for a calm spot for remote work during the week, and their sourdough Kanelbullar is delicious – and humanly-sized -.

Da Matteo is a spacious and cosy café that welcomes its patrons with an open kitchen and bakery shop, allowing them to witness the bustling activity around them. The café takes pride in its great choice of coffee, offering a variety of aromatic blends to satisfy every coffee lover's palate. However, Da Matteo's offerings extend beyond coffee, as they serve up a delectable assortment of baked goods.

Founded in 2003, da Matteo have become one of the most popular coffee spots in Gothenburg with four different locations around the city. Their coffee shop in Magasingatan is their biggest – it is home to their bakery and roastery – and is the perfect place to see firsthand the craftsmanship involved in da Matteo‘s coffee and bread. da Matteo – Magasinsgatan 17A, 411 18

On a sunny day, whether it is in the summer or the middle of the winter, this is the best cafe for an outdoor fika!. There are two De Matteo’s here, both as good as each other so it doesn’t matter which you choose because the selling point is the outside courtyard that they share!. They sell the best coffee here and there are always two different brews to choose from!

Try cinnamon buns and coffee at Da Matteo, flash-fried herring at quirky food truck Strommingsluckan and bags of plump prawns by the river outside the charming ‘fish church’ seafood market. Head out on the ferry to the archipelago for a taste of Styrsö’s car-free island life and cinnamon buns at charming Café Obergska before a brisk dip off one of the sandy beaches.

A local coffee chain that seems to have perfected both the coffee and the atmosphere for your perfect Fika. There are several branches in the city – two of which are in trendy Magasinsgaten – and not only is the coffee roasted on-site but the bread and pastries are baked there too. The locations are all equally warm, welcoming and buzzing with friends catching up.

If taking the tram over the river isn’t your thing, then there’s plenty of coffee to be had in the centre of Gothenburg. The original specialty coffee shop in the city is Da Matteo, specifically the one on Vallgatan. It opened in 2007, and since then, owner Matts Johansson has continued to evolve and grow the stores to keep up with the changing coffee industry.

The chain “da Matteo” can be found at multiple places in Gothenburg and there’s often a lot of customers, especially when the weather’s good. Their coffee is tasty, the interiors often feel very chill and wifi and toilets are always available. Most da Matteo cafés have both places to sit indoors and outdoors as well as multiple floors and some “hidden” areas.

I embraced the concept of “fika” when I lived in Scandinavia more than a decade ago and was thrilled to learn that it’s still very much alive today in Sweden. On our first morning in Gothenburg, we stopped by the iconic Da Matteo roastery in Magasinsgatan for a latte and cardamom bun (and then returned on days two and three, as well!).

But this former riding house on Magasinsgatan is one of the best places to get a flavour for Gothenburg’s coffee culture. The beans for the coffee served here are roasted just across the parking lot out front, which is home to a few hipster-friendly food carts. There’s also an onsite bakery taking care of all things fika.

Head to cafe Da Matteo which is known to craft incredibly strong and satisfying coffee. Just be aware that coffee in Gothenburg really is strong, so don’t be surprised if you find it a little crazier at first. Unlike Italian espresso, for example, Swedish coffee is not as aromatic, but deeper in flavour.

With multiple locations throughout Gothenburg, da Matteo is a local favorite for coffee enthusiasts. This award-winning café roasts its beans in-house, ensuring optimal freshness and rich, unforgettable flavors. The laid-back environment of their flagship location in Magasinsgatan is perfect for fika.

We went to da Matteo Torrefazione which has a really rustic but organic feel. Wooden benches and soft lighting make it feel cosy but there’s still an industrial feel. It was very busy at lunch time so be prepared to wait for a table (unless you’re 6 months pregnant and you get one pretty quickly 😉 )

We also planned to visit the famous Strömmingsluckan food van on Mafasinsgatan, for some local fried herring with loganberry sauce, but we arrived to find its shutters down (hint: don’t rock up on a Sunday!), so we ended up enjoying some quality coffee and some tasty sandwiches at nearby Da Matteo.

The locals go-to for "fika" (a must in Sweden, fika is a coffee/pastry break in the day, meant to bring people together). The kanelbullar (cinnamon buns) are famous, as are the cardamom buns, and the Magasinsatan location in particular is a cool, cavernous place to take a break from shopping.

Majorna: This is a trendy and bohemian area that attracts many artists, students and hipsters. It is known for its cultural scene, with galleries, museums and theaters. It is also close to some of the attractions, such as Röda Sten Art Centre, Sjöfartsmuseet and Klippan Cultural Reserve.

You won't see an article about cafes in Gothenburg that doesn't mention da Matteo. The quality of coffee is evident at all four locations Vallgatan, Magasinsgatan, Victoriapassagen and Sprängkullsgatan and Lindholmen. The baristas know their blends and they roast coffee on-site.

The coffee shops I wanted to visit were also closed for the holidays, except for Da Matteo, Gothenburg’s most famous specialty coffee chain. Its three branches were open on Saturday and Sunday, so we spent quite a lot of time there (more on this in another post soon).

In the same courtyard we found a small branch of the Da Matteo coffee shop while across the courtyard is the bakery or Panetteria, where they make sourdough bread and where you can see the coffee being ground with huge bags on the floor in a separate room to one side.

Da Matteo has a few different outposts around the city, but I like the Magasinsgatan location the best. They roast their own coffee, bake their own sourdough bread, and are very crafty about their work. It's way too expensive, but it's really sweet.

Good coffee (the best we had in Gothenburg, although not up to top London standards) and an excellent cinammon bun. The system of taking orders and fulfilling them was a little chaotic, but speedy enough. There was a pleasant place to sit outside.

Da Matteo is very famous in Gothenburg for brewing its own coffee beans. I have to say that the coffee is really good as well as the pastry but I would take away a few points for how crowded it was inside. We barely found a place to sit.

— Breakfast at Le GBG, walk around town and shopping at Vallgatan 12, lunch at Röda Sten Konsthall followed by tea at Da Matteo. Then I usually go and spend the rest of the day at one of my favourite spots in Gothenburg — my couch.

If a caffeine fix is what you’re after, try a one-and-a-half-hour coffee-tasting class at da Matteo Roastery ($60 per person) and learn more about Sweden’s coffee culture and traditional “fika,” daily coffee-and-baked-good breaks.

Da Matteo isn't just known for its own-roasted, award-winning coffee, sourdough bakery or stylish interiors. You can also come here to enjoy a slice of pizza and a refreshing lemonade in the sunshine. Vallgatan 5, Centrum

I like the one on Sprängkullsgata the best as the avocado sandwiches are freshly made here on their own sourdough bread. If you visit one of the other locations the sandwiches are ready-made on rye bread, but still good.

Specialty coffee in Gothenburg was born from da Matteo, which opened in 1995. You’ll find a few locations peppered throughout the city, each one serving freshly-roasted beans and freshly-baked pastries.

Da Matteo offers a hip fika at its Magasinsgatan café and two other locations, while purists will want to visit Ahlströms Konditori, whose outdoor courtyard has been a favourite for more than a century.

It’s worth taking advantage of the Swedish coffee and cake tradition, aka Fika. And there’s nowhere better to do so than at Gothenburg’s best coffee shop, Da Matteo. Make sure you try the cinnamon roll.

Based on my experience in Stockholm, I know that Sweden likes coffee and does cafés really well. In Gothenburg there’s only one Starbucks. That doesn’t mean there are no chains in this city.

Da Matteo – You can choose to sit both inside or outside when it’s nice weather. There is lots of space for the pram and it is a very nice area.

The winner of 2015’s Cafe of the Year competition was Da Matteo, famous for its sourdough bread and cinnamon buns.