When it comes to eating out in the Danish capital it isn’t all Michelin stars and San Pellegrino accolades, you know. Elite restaurant waiting lists and Michelin-starred prices shouldn’t dissuade cash-strapped gourmands from sampling the best that New Nordic food has to offer.
The wonderful regeneration of the city’s meat-packing district is transforming Copenhagen’s grassroots drinking and dining scene, without pretension and with Scandinavian style in spades. Following New York’s similar development of its slaughterhouse-quarter, Kodboyen has been given the urban facelift from stark and blood-spattered to quirky and achingly-cool. The local young crowd can be seen here in vintage clothes and oversized glasses looking dangerously close the fashion-edge.
Bars such as Pate Pate, are fit to bursting with trendy denizens on a Friday night. The décor is reclaimed furniture, hat-stands, pianos and vintage posters infused with live jazz and a buzz of merriment. A couple of plates of tapas and a decent red wine list suit the laid-back mood perfectly. A crispy fried salsify, was bang on taste-trend and an apricot and almond tart combined light pastry with jammy fruit ensconced in a nutty sponge.
For those looking for eco-credentials then Bio Mio’s canteen-style eatery ticks all of the boxes. Everything is made to order in front of you at the open kitchen. Traditional fare has found an organic revival here, with dishes such as pickled herring in beetroot on rye bread encapsulating all that is Nordic in one vinegar-soaked bite.
The real jewel of Kodbyen lies at the heart of this labyrinth of one-time pork-purveyors, at Fiskebar. Going against the grain of the area's meaty heritage, this fish restaurant presents New Nordic, envelope pushing flavours in a slick black leather and steel interior. A standout dish of black cod with buckwheat puree, shaved chestnuts and truffles is expertly balanced. The interesting and delicate dish is accompanied by a bubbling mini-cauldron containing a cauliflower gratin with a decadent surprise truffle centre. Eating here is a joy from start to finish, staff are friendly and the ambiance relaxed yet refined.
Meat city by night may be alive with youthful fervor, but by day it’s eerily vacant with the odd animal carcass being ferried to a chilled truck eliciting visions from horror films. But one establishment, Café Te, opens all day for passers-by to slake their thirst with a brew. With teas and coffees of all persuasions it’s worthy of a pitstop to peruse the shelves that are stacked high with caffeinated goods.
A world away from the cobbled streets, meandering canals and the brightly coloured harbours that are so synonymous with Copenhagen, Meat City proffers a different chapter of Copenhagen’s history. A post-industrial re-birth has taken place, where you can mingle among the city’s most creative and sample assets from Kodbyen’s ample culinary hotspots, which, to my mind, have proletarianised the New Nordic culinary revolution.
