Canta Lola

The story

Canta Lola – Peruvian Flavors and South American Soul in Stockholm

A Dream Born in London, Realized in Stockholm

The story of Canta Lola begins not in Peru and not in Sweden, but in London — where owner and general manager Erika Goytizolo first felt the pull of homesickness that only food can cure. As a young Peruvian exile navigating a city alive with global cuisines, she found herself daydreaming about her grandmother's ají de gallina, pork tamales from Sunday corner vendors, and the overwhelming sweetness of Lima's market juice bars. Peruvian food, she notes, wasn't a trend back then — it was simply unknown outside its borders. Erika kept her day job. The dream waited.

Decades later, version 2.0 arrived on Grev Turegatan in the heart of Stockholm: one of the very few female-owned, independent restaurants in the city center. The name sings, the room hums, and the kitchen delivers on a promise made long ago.

The Food: Sharing, Socializing, and That Ceviche

The menu is deliberately concise and built for sharing — tacos, empanadas, and the dish that has defined Canta Lola since before it had a name: ceviche. White Guide, which recommends the restaurant in its 2026 edition, calls it "unquestionably the house signature dish and in a class of its own." Their description is hard to improve upon — a bright, acidic pool armed with a pleasant ají amarillo sting, cradling delicate halibut that finds contrast in roasted corn and plantain. Personal, precise, and genuinely beautiful.

The South American kitchen here combines local Swedish produce with authentic Peruvian ingredients, honoring the originals without freezing them in time. The approach mirrors Erika's own story: shaped by many places, rooted in one heritage.

The Room and the Atmosphere

Canta Lola has won a European Property Award in the Leisure Interior category — and the space earns it. The open kitchen keeps the energy transparent and communal, with kitchen staff as much a part of the evening's mood as the floor team. Live DJs and special events are part of the regular rotation, and the pisco punch, White Guide warns, is "treacherous." Couples, groups of friends, and regulars from the Stureplan neighborhood all find their way here and, more than occasionally, find themselves still there at the end of the night.

This is South American hospitality in its most genuine form — warm, lively, and entirely without pretense.