There’s nothing original about the title of this post. In fact, I nicked it from another article on the same subject. But it was a term I found very useful when Googling restaurants in Copenhagen. The fact that the city is now home to the world’s number-one restaurant means that the rest of its food scene seems to have pulled up its gastronomic socks. Which is just as well, since clearly I had no hope of getting a reservation at Noma…
Instead, I discovered Paustian. Part furniture design store, part restaurant, it sits on the water in an out-of-town location, which feels even more out of town when it’s zero degrees and pitch dark in the middle of January. The food is modern Danish: traditional, local ingredients, cooked and presented in ways that live up to the stark Scandinavian beauty of the furniture pieces next door.
We tried the local dried ham to start, which was served simply with a celeriac remoulade and caramelised onion. We asked to share it, and they brought out two separate, small plates – a thoughtful touch, and one we appreciated given how eye-watering expensive Copenhagen is.
For mains, we chose a melt-in-the-mouth veal shank with its bone marrow, plus a venison casserole involving venison sausages as well as rare doe fillet and steamed parsnips. Both were comforting yet elegant, and perfectly executed.
On our second night, we plumped for something completely different. Right in the heart of downtown Vesterbro, LêLê is a throbbing, trendy Vietnamese establishment with live music kicking in later on the Saturday night we visited. We ordered fresh spring rolls with pork to start, as well as a sea bass tartar with hits of chilli, lime and cucumber. Our mains were equally light and fresh: seared beef salad with gem lettuce, mint and holy basil, plus sweet pork patties with glass noodles and more lettuce leaves in which to wrap them.
Prepare yourself: Copenhagen is pricey. Seriously. But everything we ate and drank was top-notch foodie stuff, and I didn’t regret a single Krone.
