Occo

Sometimes it is better to start with the conclusion: If the food at Occo, or freedom to pick and choose once food was as good or not limited as the décor and the design of this place Occo would be one heck of a place. I would have no problem giving it 4 starts, heck I would even make it a regular hang out.
As one might suspect, due to the over-​usage of the word heck, I am slightly annoyed by Occo. I don’t think there are many restaurants in Sweden and particularly in its third biggest city Malmö that are this handsomely designed and carefully planned. Décor-​wise this earth-​tone-​colors designed place is a hard one to beat; it is incredibly charming, warm and oriental. The oriental feeling and atmosphere is authentic but never cheesy or cheep. Occo feels actually pretty up scaled but ever so welcoming. It feels luxurious, grand and metropolitan thus very non Swedish which makes it so incredibly refreshing. This modern One Thousand and One Nights atmosphere is for instance granted by the shape/​design of the windows, the lamps or the golden palm on the way to the dinning area.
So far so good, you might even think excellent, but then you receive the menu and alarms start to sound. For a restaurant making all its cocktails with a premium vodka as well as offering pretty nice and accomplished champagnes the rest of the wine list seems particularity Lebanese. Don’t get me wrong I have had great wines from Lebanon but 90% of all wines here are from Lebanon and that feels limiting. Speaking of limitations the next encounter is even worse; you can choose in between 3 Meze selections and that is all folks! One mixed (with grill), one regular and one vegetarian and they basically contain except some meats added or replaced the same dishes. And to be honest the cold dishes are the stars of the game and those which replaced the meat on the regular version thus making it vegetarian are the weakest. The biggest problem is the limitation and the fact that you are deprived from the principal of pickin & choosin, an option that is synonymous with a Lebanese kitchen.
The contrasts here are what makes it such a huge let down. Upon arriving the Décor makes it look so promising one can hardly wait for what more it is to come. But when seated and presented with the menu this place becomes one among all the other middle eastern places. Same tasty, but ever so ordinary, food without any twists. And is also a let down because I was excited to eat something new and other than the usual suspects such as tabbouleh, baba ghanouj, muhammara or falafel. After all I am pretty sure they do eat other things and I thought Occo of all places would guide me to the other, ever so secretive as it seems, dishes.
Still Occo will get 3 stars rating and it is not a custom of mine to weight in the Décor in the rating but this time I am making an exception. Normally I would have given this place a 2 star rating after having made me gone though such turbulence but it never than less deserves a +1 just for the out of this world (read out of Sweden) grand design. I am also being forgiving and generous in terms of the overall value. The prices here are a bit too steep for the quantity and quality offered but I guess parts of it goes to cover the costs for such nicely designed place and atmosphere.