Lounge
4 places to explore Copenhagen’s new Nordic cuisine
Summary
Well known globally for their culinary prowess, these Copenhagen restaurants offer a taste of seasonality, sustainability and ethical production
For most visitors to Copenhagen, exploring the culinary scene is a key draw. The capital city of Denmark has an impressive 26 Michelin stars across 15 restaurants, awarded by the Guide Michelin Nordic Cities 2024. Noma, Jordnær and Geranium with three stars each are often at the top of every gourmand’s list.
What also put Copenhagen’s dining scene on the global map was the New Nordic cuisine movement (encompassing Nordic and Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland). In 2004, The Nordic Kitchen Manifesto was crafted by chefs and food industry leaders and focused on purity, seasonality, sustainability, and ethical production. It aimed to elevate Nordic cuisine to a global standard by innovating traditional foods while promoting health and quality.
Today, Copenhagen’s dining establishments work towards this manifesto in their own ways, bringing in seasonal produce, innovative techniques and sustainability into their offerings. Here are four restaurants in varied settings where you can savour unique culinary experiences.
Also read: When the menu reads like a travelogue
Ark
Ark is the first restaurant in the Nordic region to receive a Green Michelin Star (a recognition of focus on sustainable gastronomy) in 2021 and continues to hold it. The grey façade of this plant-based restaurant opens into a space done up in earthy tones of brown, with dry foliage dotting the interiors and the table settings. Try the 9-course tasting menu, and pair with a choice of beverages.
Inspired completely by the seasons and local produce (several foraged), diners get a menu printed on recycled paper and embedded with seeds you can plant. This summer season you can have a glass of Aquavit (a distilled Scandinavian spirit) served with some purple dill to bite into, for a mild anise and lemon flavour. A dish simply named Potato/Horseradish/Ramson has layered potato pancakes in a sauce of foraged Ramsons (wild garlic, similar to chives) and fermented potato juice, topped off with pickled mustard seeds and with a local spinach that tastes like peas. The Japanese Chawanmunshi (here made with soybeans instead of egg) gets a Danish touch with a caviar of black garlic and several interpretations of corn, including corn flowers.
There’s local produce like knotweed found across Europe, Juniper berries, mini zucchinis and more. They are pickled, fermented in oils, caramelised, served as caviar and more.
Aamanns Genbo
Historically, the Smørrebrød (a classic open face sandwich), an essential part of Danish lunches, was often considered representative of class wars. A slice of ryebread with a variety of toppings—be it butter, cheese, cured meat and fish--indicated one’s stature in society. With time, it moved away from being a simple meal to one that had all manners of processed toppings, creating oversized, unappealing versions.
Chef Adam Aamann, in keeping with the Nordic cuisine movement, wanted to bring the focus back on the classic Danish lunch and chose to work with the Smørrebrød, opening his first restaurant and takeaway in 2006. At Aamanns Genbo, his newest outlet in the Carlsberg District, you can indulge in a sensoric lunch of Smørrebrøds.
Try the marinated herring with sour cream, new potatoes, pickled mustard seeds and roasted buckwheat kernels. The play of textures and flavours with each bite makes this a wonderful start. It does not get simpler than a topping of lightly baked tomatoes, smoked emulsion, apples and crispy fried onions; unlikely pairings that come together so well. Potato fans will love this version, which comes along with cottage cheese, lovage (a perennial plant with celery undertones) emulsion, pickled onions and asparagus. And the beef tartare brings top quality meat together with rhubarb, kohlrabi, roasted hazelnuts and lemon thyme. There is plenty more to choose from. Just remember that Smørrebrøds are available only for lunch here.
Also read: A taste of the unique Danish tradition of communal dining
Øens Have
Located in Refshaleøen, this urban farm has been certified green since 2023. The restaurant is a large tent, done up artistically, drawing inspiration from the Mongolian nomadic style of travelling, where accommodation and plants could be packed away and moved.
As you walk up to it, you are flanked by rows of herbs, vegetables, greens and more, all growing symbiotically and following the Danish vegetable season. Here, all hot food is cooked on open fire.
This season, off the blackboard menu, there’s hand-farmed oysters with a choice of toppings like rhubarb or seaweed or strawberries and mustard seeds, each one pickled. The cured Trout served as a tartare, with fermented peas and beet puree encompasses the nuanced flavours derived from curing and fermentation. The Danish potatoes are done two ways, with or without Nduja pork sausages served with a parsley salsa and garden salad with cucomelons featuring a citrus dressing and flowers from the garden. Beet lovers can try the one with fresh slices that are baked, lightly pickled, with the pickle juice dripped over blobs of whipped curd.
Choose to go a la carte or with the Chef’s Choice menu. And look out for the lovely flowers, whole or just petals that garnish everything from the homemade snaps (Danish distilled alcohol) to the dishes. To encourage people to farm, volunteers are welcomed on Tuesdays and enjoy a free vegetarian lunch for their efforts.
Kilden i Haven
Tivoli Gardens is among the oldest amusement parks in the world, dating back to 1843. It has several restaurants, ranging from casual to fine dining. Kilden i Haven is chef Christian Hoffmann’s seasonal Danish brasserie, that invites you to begin your evening in private trellis garden spaces surrounded by freshly growing raspberries, lemongrass, turnips, pennywort and more. If you are lucky, one of Tivoli’s resident peacocks may drop by your table.
The ambience is prettiest during dinner. Choose from three, five and seven-course tasting menus, each of which can be paired with a beverage package. For the current season, the tasting menus begin with a creamy soup with crayfish and shore crabs, topped with crayfish tails and fennel. The vegetarian salad of fresh sliced tomatoes, doused in flavourful creation with tomato water is finished with conifer leaves marked by a citrusy flavour. The crispy terrine of lamb with Jerusalem artichokes and lamb jus is a hearty main, garnished with several microgreens and greens, most of which is sourced from the garden. The meal rounds off with pancakes paired with strawberry sorbet, marinated strawberries and full-fat sour cream.
A tip: Look up the line-up of live concerts at Tivoli and you could finish your meal in time to make it to one.
Ruth Dsouza Prabhu is a features journalist based in Bengaluru.
