SCANDINAVIA overflows with great cities, but if I’m forced to choose one it’s always Stockholm. I’ve just been back for the fifth time and found it more thrilling than ever, with an upcoming district really making the grade and a burgeoning and diverse food scene that rivals Copenhagen.

You could just wrap yourself in the tourist delights of Gamla Stan and be utterly delighted. Weaving around royal palaces and cute stone streets, the centuries peel back and the lashes of water that make Stockholm so picturesque glisten everywhere around this island. Maybe you could nip over to Djurgården too and see the remarkably preserved wreck of the Vasa wooden warship and savour this green oasis with its sweeping views.

But I’m here to share with you more than touristy Stockholm. We’re venturing south of Gamla Stan across the water to Södermalm. When I first came to Stockholm a quarter of a century ago, this was still quite a rundown workers area, but it’s engendered a Leith or Finnieston-stye transformation that’s just as impressive.

“Welcome to our special island,” beams my guide and Södermalm resident Simone. “Over the last couple of decades, Södermalm has really changed as artists and creatives have breathed new life in. The author of the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo even moved in.”

We meet in “SoFo”, the tongue-in-cheek name for the subdistrict south of Folkungagatan. I don’t feel London vibes, more irreverent Berlin crossed with Scandinavian cool. Second-hand shops, slow fashion boutiques and recycling stores sit alongside artisan coffee roasters, bright bistros and laidback cafes in a scene that feels as authentic as it does hipster.

“I guess we were pioneers,” says Helena of clothes boutique Grandpa. “When we started we were kind of alone and it’s been exciting to see us joined by so many other creative businesses. It has spread all over SoFo and even into SoNo, further north. And some savvy tourists are discovering us too.”

We wander around Södermalm feeling the very new. And the old too. Kvarnen is a classic old beer hall that has long served hearty traditional fare. The beer hails from local brewery Carnegie, a brewery, as it sounds, that is proud of its strong Scottish roots. I find Scottish links popping up around Stockholm, with Scottish bars and other signs borne of our maritime connection across the Baltic Sea.

My second mission on this trip is to see how Stockholm’s foodie scene is stacking up.

“We’re more than a match for Copenhagen these days,” insists Connor Jones, a guide with Tours of Stockholm’s Stockholm Food Tour. “When our company started off doing these experiences, it was one a day in season. Now as the foodie scene booms, we run all year round with multiple tours a day.”

Our tastebud-tingling tour sweeps around the cavernous Östermalm Market Hall. Our meatballs blow IKEA out the park at a stall that has stood here since the market opened in 1888. Then it’s cheese at another; sustainable European moose, brown bear and reindeer at a third. We visit a second market too for fish soup cooked fresh by the same family since the 1940s and seriously salty liquorice, before a traditional “fika”, a cosy coffee with one of the best cinnamon buns I’ve ever tasted back in Gamla Stan.

There is a lot to take in with the Swedish capital – Stockholm now boasts a whopping dozen Michelin-star restaurants after another trio were added this spring. And Stockholm has Frantzén, Sweden’s first three Michelin-star gastronomic temple. That is one more three-star restaurant than Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland combined.

What I really love about Stockholm’s food scene is that it is not just about pricey Michelin treats – I dine brilliantly in less flashy haunts. At DoMa I meet the owner, Dorotea Målmehard, who tells me: “We started off as a home restaurant and we’ve grown – like most places in the city – with fresh local produce at the very core of what we do.” Their tasting menu is divine.

Chatting to Dorotea, what strikes me is not only the range of innovation and different cuisines in Stockholm, but how the local restaurants are not ghettoised. Stockholm has no Chinatown, nor Little India, Little Italy. In this great Swedish smorgasbord, all the cuisines of the world are gloriously stirred together.

My last port of call is the Omaka brewery. Hedda Spendrup, one of the family behind this impressive brewery and restaurant, chimes with the Stockholm zeitgeist: “We want to experiment and try something new with our ever-changing range of beers on our 16 taps. You’ll find that with our food too, with pairings like Swedish oysters and ale. Our Scottish visitors always like it as you understand with whisky the importance of doing things properly.”

I end my last night thinking there is always something new in Stockholm, fitting as I cross the “Golden Bridge” in the centre to get back to my hotel. It – and its sister pedestrian bridge – only opened a week before my return to a city that always buzzes forward. Just one reason Stockholm solidly remains my Scandinavian favourite.

Tourist information at www.visitsweden.com. Lonely Planet’s Stockholm city guide is handy for exploring.