Nordic House

First stop I made the morning after my flight home from the glorious beautiful place that is Stockholm was the Nordic House! I was on a mission for herring and a bunch of other Swedish snacks that I refused to spend one more day without and NH came through. If you’re a fan of herring you’d be foolish to not stop by. The cheese, the roe, the crackers, the CURRIED HERRING!!! This is a small space packed with items from all over Scandinavia, go in, get lost, leave happy!

Fantastic and authentic Scandinavian treats. If you are putting on an authentic smorgesbord then this is the place to start. Liver Paste, Herring, Rullepoelse, great cheeses, flatbrod, pumpernickel, you-​name-​it.
And they ship, too.
I only wish they had a liquor license so I could get good aquavit there.
Many of these items are costly, but I’m marking «Moderate» price range because the goods are all authentic and can not be found for less. Plus their Liver Paste is a great deal at $ 4.50 a tub.

Took my Swedish friend here and he liked the food selection but some of the knick knacks made him laugh. My favorite was a mug that said something about how Swede’s always think they are right. ACCURATE.
They have some great cheese here — most is Danish. Västerbotten FTW! Glögg. Mmmmm. Amazing Swedish ham — they brine it for two weeks. Very kind people helping you with your selection and a great deli counter.

I’ve been meaning to come here forever and I finally had a chance during Thanksgiving! They had all my favorite Swedish goodies (like bilar!) and a lot of other stuff I wanted. Their online store doesn’t fully reflect everything they really have, so it’s probably best to check it out in person. And I didn’t know this until I arrived, but they were putting on a Thanksgiving brunch that featured a lot of classics: pickled herring, liver pâté, and Danish pancakes! Everyone here was really friendly and helpful. Looking forward to going back!

Oh my goodness. Best sandwiches I have ever tasted for only $ 6.50! They give you a ton of meat and are so very nice.
Come and try a sandwich!

This place is the only store in the entire bay area that I’ve been able to find good licorice. Love to stop by whenever I’m in town and stock up on all the snacks they have. A bit pricey, but it’s difficult to find this stuff anywhere else, so it is definitely worth getting.

Delicious deli sandwiches and affordable to boot! Their roast beef is classic and good… Plus they give you a decent amount both neat and cheese! The star for me was their pickled cucumber mix. Nice, crisp, a little vinegar-​y, and a little sweet.
My boyfriend got a ham sandwich with fried onions. Said they gave the sandwich a nice little crunch so I’m excited to try that on my sandwich next time.
The staff there were really excellent and nice. I asked I’d they had oil and vinegar for the sandwiches, and they did not :(. Instead they recommended the cucumber mix and even gave me a sample (without my asking for one) to make sure I’d like it.
Can’t wait to come back here!

Great sandwich options with wonderful chocolates, nutritious mackerel and sardines from the Norwegian area, etc.
I do like their cheeses too, havarti especially. Breads and crackers are a nice touch too.
Last but not least, Lars is a great comedian there, he lightened my mood and made the day a lot better. Keep pouring in the jokes and serving up better quality foods to us! :)

This store specialises in goods from Scandinavia. If you like your herrings and lox to come from Norway, this is the place to go. Many different cheeses. Also plenty of dry goods from Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany. Some very interesting sales in the back as well where you are most likely to find me digging up cheap German chocolates and Swedish jams. I will be back there very soon.

Since Nordic House wouldn’t post my review on their website, since they apparently only post glowing reviews, I’m posting it here. My experience pertains to their online shop. I’ve enjoyed real Esrom cheese for 25 years. My first purchase from Nordic House was acceptable. Not nearly the best Esrom, but acceptable. And their price is reasonable. Months later, I ordered more, of course expecting similar quality. It arrived without the usual foil wrapping, customary with Esrom. It wasn’t like any Esrom I’ve ever had. I called to complain and the manager told me that there was nothing wrong with it and that several employees, including herself, had tasted it and enjoyed it as they did any Esrom. I’m guessing that either I was being told a story or that these people know little to nothing about this cheese. After telling her about my expertise with this cheese, she then admitted that perhaps it was not quite «aged» yet and that I should let it sit for a couple of months. LOL. Really? It doesn’t work that wa ma’am. If they’re not buying Esrom that’s ready to be consumed, then they’re buying the wrong product. I should have known immediately when it arrived without its foil wrap because that’s the only way real Esrom is delivered. Oh yes. I was offered a $ 5 credit towards my next purchase. Sorry. There won’t be a next purchase.

This is mecca for anyone with Scandinavian heritage living in Northern California. The main draw of course is the food. They have an excellent selection of fresh, frozen, and dry imported goods with all sorts of umlauts and ø. Their deli counter can create any number of sandwiches to compliment all the lefse and lutefisk you can eat!
The other draw is for all the awesome Scandinavian trinkets. They have aebelskiver pans, candles, Viking art, and a whole wall of novelty coffee mugs proclaiming (or poking fun at) your various heritages. They have a wonderful selection of woven goods and holiday arts to help decorate a Scandinavian house.
This location is a little more difficult to visit with only street parking available, but it is worth the effort. Man cannot live by Thai food alone!

I LOVE NORDIC HOUSE! They have all the little gems I know and love from Germany and Scandinavia. I only bought one of their sandwiches once, I usually stay with buying from the fridge (sausages, rye bread, and the herring salad with curry is the bomb!) or the sweets section. People are friendly, they have a bathroom for customers and when the shop is not very busy, you can always have a nice chat.
The prices for sweets and other specialties can be quite steep, but since you hardly get many of those things anywhere else in the area, that’s just what you pay. And pay it gladly. And it’s not like I shop here every week :-)

Your absolute source for Scandinavian food in the Bay area.
You’ll find a ton of stuff you miss from home, regardless of your background. Swedish Glögg, Norwegian Makrell i Tomat, Danish cheese, Finnish. flags…
A favorite is the store made liver pâté.
Or you can get frozen lingon berries! Talk about a taste of home.
During holidays you can get your Christmas meals here too.
Their cheese selection is also good, with several versions of Norwegian brown cheese available. And there’s always candy on sale somewhere.
What really makes the place great is the customer service though. Great people work here. When a pair of concerned clerks learned I planned to walk home (it was the hottest day on record) from the store, they forced me to take enough change from the tip jar for a bus trip back home. That was a first for me. And the reason I return whenever I’m in Berkeley.

Holy Crap… I can get fresh Lefse locally?!
i’ve been ordering from Minnesota!
anyway, that’s how i found this place.
Love it!
Great selection and great staff.
will be back from more soon!

Curry herring. Mustard herring. Sour cream herring. Scandinavian potato salad. All sorts of licorice. Home made liver pâté. Smoked mackerel. Blood and tongue sausage. Bratwurst. German salami. Norwegian Salmon. Norwegian Lefse. Those flat breads that come from Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Four different countries, four different brands. Don’t mind me liking Wasa brand the most.
If this list does not make you miss Scandinavia, then I don’t what would.
Nordic House is on San Pablo, 0.4 mile from Berkeley Bowl West. Blink and you’d miss it. I’ve missed it many times over. Still, I circle back and find parking and walk in and load up.
There is no other places in the bay area that has curry herring that I know of.
Dill, herring, hard boiled egg, Wasa bread. That’s what I love about Sweden. Perfect breakfast for all three meals.
The blood and tongue sausage a nice touch. There are just enough German stuff too to make me feel that I could use one stop to cure two cravings. Most of my last five years of European travels involve a combination of the Scandinavia and Germany, with France as a home base. The Bay Area is not exactly a place that offers a lot of «white» ethnic food, for lack of better words. If you are looking for Asian things, you can find it just in about any parts of the Bay Area but if you are craving for some non standard herring, your choices are often limited to the jarred Canadian imports. Not home made like this one.
When I was 22 I met this Swedish boy in St. Francis Hotel lobby, we dated and then he proposed and wanted me to move to Sweden with him. I cried and he cried and we parted ways as friends as I had a whole life ahead of me in America. Sometimes I wonder if we crave for a certain type of food to remember our past, or to question a path not taken. But those moments of idle thoughts are exceedingly rare these days. I’m entirely too happy to have finally located a spot that sold fresh home made liver pâté and curry herring in between my biannual visits to the Scandinavia.
Be aware. Sunday the store is closed. Curb your craving until it reopens on Monday.

Love love love this place!
Oh did I mention that I love this place?
Seriously found Gamole cheese, like aged for over 12 months, sold here in the deli case for a reasonable price. I asked the deli counter help if this was made fresh here and she mentioned it was shipped from overseas but the sausages are homemade.
I bought a pound of mmmm stinky Gamole (literally dripping because it was ripe!), a pound of raw sausages, some Anthon Berg raspberry chocolates and black Swedish licorce… All set me back about $ 40 usd.
They also made sandwiches but I didn’t have anymore money to spend. :-) Maybe next time.
They also carry touristy Scandanavian goods for those passing through Berkeley but couldn’t find that special Viking desk statue in the knick knack shops of San Francisco Pier 39.
The bathroom was also clean if you were wondering.
4 stars because they were out of Lakol black candies. But I still recommend them for all my Nordic needs! Ha!

I’ve worked the neighbourhood for years, but despite a scarcity of convenient lunch places, I’ve never tried Nordic House’s deli until today. I rue the silly misconception I had that delicatessens of the Nordic bent might disdain a request for a vegetarian sandwich, because oh my ever-​loving tastebuds, it was a thing of beauty. Not only were they were extremely friendly regarding my meat handicap, they set me up with an exquisite repast of a lightly-​toasted dutch crunch roll, flavourful mustard, mayo, red cabbage, avocado, lettuce, onion, cucumber, plenty of herbed havarti, and I don’t remember what else except a crumbly layer of fried onion that elevated a great sandwich to a heavenly one. Oh, sweet sandwich delight. I’m already aching for another, but I’ll have to wait until tuesday!
There was also an intriguing-​looking fish curry, but I was so thrilled with the sandwich I don’t know when I’ll be able to resist the siren-​song of another in favour of something else.

Personal-​sharing-​time: I’m a person of Japanese/​Scandinavian (Norsk/​Dansk) mixed heritage, who feels strong ties to both very different cultures. Food has always been an easy way to feel connected with my roots, even with family far away. In that sense, I’ve felt very fortunate to have temporarily alighted in an area that has decent accessibility to Japanese food imports and grocery (I’m looking at you Nijiya! Tokyo Fish Market! Berkeley Bowl!).
But to satisfy my want of Scandinavian food in this area, I often had to rely on my own cooking (a mixed bag) or care packages from the old country (a few times some precious foods got confiscated at customs, BOOOO!). And yet I had been getting along all right. At least I could make brunkager from scratch, and whip up some damn good fiskesuppe using Californian ingredients… but there were just some things that I did without.
And then there was Nordic House! A local answer to all of my pålegg, ost, sild, makrell, tyttebær, and multe needs! Also: Dansk smør. Utter. Happiness. Or should I say… Udder. Happiness. (Ugh, terrible pun– I couldn’t resist) I brought mora mi here and we ran around like kids in a candy store and ended up buying, appropriately, a lot of sjokolade and småkaker. Additionally, I was able to introduce kjæresten min to lefse… I was heartbroken when he didn’t like it, but I guess MORE FOR ME, SUCKA.
Of course, Nordic House doesn’t cover all the Scandinavian food bases I had hoped based on the glowing testimonials I’d heard. I contemplated taking away a star… but didn’t. Turns out it is enough for me that a market specializing in Nordic foods even exists around here— I don’t need it to be the be-​all, end-​all.
I will say, I think the Scandinavian countries (Norge, Danmark, Sverige) seem more strongly represented than the remaining Nordic countries (Island, Finland); however, I really don’t know so much about Icelandic or Finnish food (other than hákarl or mämmi, but I didn’t see any, hahaha!!). The selection is not bad considering, and I’m not complaining because I am too busy eating.
Tusen takk Nordic Huset! Ja vi elsker dette… butikken!

Get your Norwegians grub here!
I came here with Cameron G to get his favorite Christmas Soda, Scandian Julmust. Yes, it’s JULMUST, not hummus. I took a sip and it tastes like a coca-​cola flavored cough syrup. I don’t understand why people like drinking cough syrup. Oh well, it’s actually naturally-​made Dr. Pepper using 100% pure cane suger. During Jul (pronounced «yule», Swedish for Christmas), most Swedians enjoy this drink. It was created in 1910, however it quickly become a part of Swedish culture until today.
I bought my sardines here stored in Olive Oil. It was $ 5 per can, I thought might as well try it since it was imported. You can find many imported things here from Sweden, Norwegia, etc. The owner of this place was soooo chill, we were able to try many things here. He also gave us a tour of the store and meat samples such as the lamb and beef rullepolse and liverpate.
LAMB RULLEPOLSE $ 14.99/LB — ⁵⁄₅
BEEF RULLEPOLSE $ 12.99/LB — ⁴⁄₅
I personally like the lamb rullepolse. Rullepolse is a cold cut meat that is served with toasted pumpernickel bread and pickle. It’s usually the belly cut of any type of meat that’s been wrapped with herbs and boiled to cook the meat, then transferred to a cold bath. This is similar to Roti Rolli’s porchetta, but it’s not roasted. You can taste the fat the moment you bite into this rullepolse meat. It is the pricier end for college student, so I decided to not buy it, as I can get turkey for cheaper at Berkeley Bowl.
We also tried the small liver pâté ($ 5 per container). I liked it initially because I have never tried pâté before, but I didn’t like the after taste!
Check this store out! I recommend trying the rullepolse! Also they got tons of HARIBOS gummy worm type of candy!!! All imported candies, chocolates, snacks, wafers all the way from Norwegia, Sweden, etc! You can also get Swedish Clogs here!
Cheers!

First time to Nordic House because I heard it on NPR California Report. Had to rush over there because Christmas Eve they were closing at 1pm.
Metered parking out front of their store, almost got a ticket because I thought Xmas Eve was a Holiday, Nope. Meter maid was out next to my car & I bolted to the meter to add some quarters. Geez, that was close.
Lots of stuff from Denmark, Sweden, Germany, etc.
Stickers, license plate holder, Swedish clogs $ 48.50/pair; cute Christmas dolls, candies, stollen, etc.
We asked the guy if we could try their house-​made herring. They have Curry, Sour Cream, & Pickled. We liked them all, but the Pickled one was our favorite. Pint $ 7.50; Quart $ 13.85.
Glögg — some wine with sugar, raisin drink you can buy in a bottle. I just liked the name.
Got a jar of Beauvais Red Beets $ 5.95 cuz a girl was buying several jars, I figured I could give it a try.
Housemade pork meatballs 1lb for $ 8.95. B. wanted to try it. He also picked up some Knorr classic brown gravy package $ 1.75.
No sandwiches until 2013 — holidays too busy.
Get on their mailing list so when they have an Open House next Thanksgiving weekend you can go.
Charged our purchases. 5% off next purchase over $ 50 with our receipt. Separate bathrooms in the back.
NPR Calif Report on Nordic House: