# The Restaurant (2017)

> In postwar Stockholm, a chance kiss between an upper-class girl and a kitchen hand sets off a restaurant-centered drama of class and romance.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/64926

## Facts

- Seasons: 4
- Episodes: 32
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama
- Created by: Ulf Kvensler, Malin Nevander, Johan Rosenlind
- Network: SVT1
- Cast: Hedda Stiernstedt, Charlie Gustafsson, Anna Bjelkerud, Adam Lundgren, Josefin Neldén, Mattias Nordkvist, Suzanne Reuter, Peter Dalle
- TMDB rating: 8.2/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5603140/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: none
- Tone: nostalgic, warm, emotional, romantic

## Synopsis

The Restaurant (2017-2021) is a Swedish period drama series created by Ulf Kvensler, Malin Nevander and Johan Rosenlind for SVT1. Set in Stockholm in 1945, the story begins on the night the Second World War ends, when upper-class Nina (Hedda Stiernstedt) shares a quick kiss with kitchen hand Calle (Charlie Gustafsson) and then parts from him without knowing the encounter will carry tumultuous consequences. Their story pulls them across class lines, with a restaurant as the place where their lives and those of the staff and family around them keep colliding. Ethel Jonsson (Anna Bjelkerud) and Peter Löwander (Adam Lundgren) add further threads of work, loyalty and family pressure. The engine of the show is the push and pull between romantic longing and the rigid expectations of wealth and status in a city trying to rebuild its sense of normal. Across four seasons of episodic arcs, the drama leans on everyday workplace friction and family secrets. The tone is warm and emotional, with a nostalgic glow over postwar optimism tempered by class resentment. Fans of Downton Abbey and The Paradise will find resonance in its period setting, ensemble staffing and romantic tension.

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