Smørrebrød at Fika, Nijmegen

On a particularly chilly/sunny day, my friend, Karla, and I decided to hit up a place in the city for dinner. Karla, who works with lists as much as I do, keeps an ever-growing list of food spots in town she wants to try — and lucky for us, Fika was one of them. Located in a section of the city that my brain hasn’t particularly grown acquainted to, I was a bit apprehensive, so we both decided to look it up on Google Maps and let the app guide us. The restaurant/cafe is located towards the end of its street, right across a cute looking bakery (which could be the star of the next blog post).

     ~Aesthetics~ wise, Fika is the perfect blend of industrial and minimalist coziness. With black-coated metal and baby blue accents, the place belonged on a Pinterest board. To make the already welcoming place 10x better, we were lucky enough to have showed up on the day their resident indie-acoustic-cover-artist played a set at the back of the restaurant/cafe. He had a vibe that could only be explained as if John Mayer, Matt Corby, and Vance Joy had a musical love child. The live music combined with good food and familiar company made me feel like I was eating out with my family — a feeling I hadn’t realised I missed until I was reliving it.

     Food wise, let me tell ya; I’m an Indonesian, okay? I was raised in Indonesia. I lived there for like 95% of my life. I ate three hot meals a day, if not more. Even if it was bread for breakfast, we grilled that ish. We made it a hot meal. So, trust me when I say I had the biggest confused/distraught/stressed out face as I read the menu. I looked like a real life meme as I tried to calculate how many pieces (slices?) of smørrebrød and bowls of soup to last me the whole night without a grumbling tummy (a grumbling tummy right before bed is the worst). Yet, by some Danish miracle, two of those smørrebrøds (and half a dessert, which I shared with Karla) were enough to keep me full until the next morning.

     I ordered the Gerookte Noorse Zalm (herbed cream cheese, cucumber, and smoked salmon) and Buffelmozzarella (cherry tomatoes, pesto, mozzarella, and greens). I highly recommend both of them. I also ordered a slice of Red Velvet cake to share with Karla, but compared to Union’s Red Velvet cheesecakes (if you’re Indonesian, then you’ll know), Fika’s cake was mediocre at best.
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     So, overall impression: Fika is incredibly cozy and it's a cute little spot if you're looking for a (cold) dinner. I'd recommend Fika as more of a lunch joint, and it would be a cute little nook to have a reunion with your fashionable friends at. Unfortunately I'd have to have known way more people than I actually do, so that's not possible. For now I will settle for revisiting Fika with Karla and possibly other friends for a chill day out.

      Pro tip: if you're in Jakarta, and you'd like to try this delicacy from "The Kingdom of Denmark" (according to Google), I recommend the Smorrebrod at Gandaria City. It's a little nook near the movie theatre on the top floor. It's super cheesy and probably bad for you if you're lactose intolerant (which I'm 80% sure I am), but it's worth torturing your stomach over. Highly recommend.
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Did you like my review of Fika? Will you be adding it to your version of Karla and I's extensive list? Do you have any other cafe/restaurant/food joint you'd like me to review? What is the purpose of human existence? Cool thanks for reading bye!