The story
Reach Sydkoster by ferry from Strömstad, walk 400 metres from the jetty at Långagärde, and you will find Kosters Trädgårdar on your right. The setting announces itself before the food does: hens picking across the yard, staff tending a permaculture-designed garden, a farm shop stocked with organically grown produce. This is not a restaurant that gestures towards sustainability — it is built on it, and has been for close to twenty years.
The sequence here is unusually direct. Once an order is placed, staff walk straight into the kitchen garden and harvest what is needed. Small chive flowers land on a dish of smooth grey-pea hummus served with sourdough baked from heritage grains — simple, precise, and quietly memorable. The menu is built around a selection of small plates that showcase the garden's output in its most honest form. On Fridays and Saturdays, a wood-fired oven turns out sourdough-base pizzas. In the glasses: microbrewed beer, natural wine, or organic juice and cordials made on site.
The café draws visitors in for a slower moment, while the farm shop lets people take a piece of the island home with them. The whole place operates as a coherent whole — garden, café, restaurant, and shop in easy conversation with one another.
White Guide awarded Kosters Trädgårdar its Fine level recognition in 2026, singling out the atmosphere as much as the food. The review noted "full marks for the feeling" — a rare acknowledgement that a place has mastered something beyond the plate. That feeling is not manufactured. It comes from the permanence of the project, the visible labour in the garden, and the straightforward honesty of what arrives at the table.
Most visitors to the Koster Islands already know to come here. Those who don't are quickly pointed in this direction when they ask around the harbour. That kind of local consensus, sustained over nearly two decades, says more than any award citation.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
Once ordered, the staff heads straight out to the vegetable patch to harvest fresh greens for your plates. Delicate chive blossoms garnish one of the small plates: a velvety gray pea hummus served with sourdough bread baked from heritage grains. Simply delicious in its simplicity. And it nails the ambiance! Kosters Trädgårdar excels at creating this kind of atmosphere, and has been doing so for nearly twenty years now. The setting is perfect for it. Hens scratch around, guests relax with coffee in the cozy café, and staff tend to the permaculture-designed garden. The farm shop sells homegrown organic vegetables, which are often transformed into a selection of small plates in the restaurant. Glasses are poured with foaming craft beer, natural wine, or organic grape must and fruit juice. On Fridays and Saturdays, sourdough-crust pizzas are baked in the wood-fired oven. Most visitors to the Koster Islands know that stopping here is a must. If you don’t already know, you’ll quickly find out as soon as you step ashore on the southern island. Ask anyone in the harbor where to find good food, and most will point you in this direction. They’re absolutely right.
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