Copenhagen has long been a city of very different attractions: the beer, the funfair in the Tivoli Gardens, the extraordinarily well- reserved buildings that contrast so elegantly and so easily with the city's modern architecture, several stunning museums and its location as the gateway to the dramatic countryside of Scandinavia. And now over the past five years Copenhagen has become a magnet for food lovers drawn by the fresh, and often wild, ingredients that have come to be the hallmark of the new Nordic cooking. Its leader is René Redzepi, who in 2003 opened Noma in Copenhagen. Noma seats only 40 and bookings are only taken precisely three months in advance, but Redzepi has in turn inspired many fellow chefs and in consequence the city's restaurants have become yet another attraction.
PATE PATE
Slagterboderne 1, +45 39 69 55 57, patepate.dk
This place is as relaxed as its name suggests. It's far more than a sum of its parts and is a great introduction to Copenhagen life. There is a large outdoor seating area next to which locals lean their bikes before going to the bar to order their particular caffeine hit or a glass of wine. To the left of the bar, a small shop sells cookery books, wine and freshly ground coffee.
At around midday the kitchen puts on the first of three different menus - half a dozen light lunch dishes and desserts. We had an excellent spinach frittata with a watercress salad, grilled onglet, excellent bread that they bake themselves and a selection of cheeses with their own caraway biscuits. The wine list is first class and also offers an interesting range of beers from California and Spain because, as the waitress explained, "Everywhere else round here sells Danish beer."
From about 3pm, the menu gets more serious, adding in dishes that will be served in the restaurant until the late evening. These include a couple of different terrines, langoustines with aioli, calves liver, skate, brill, and that classic French bistro dessert, Saint Emilion au chocolat. Paté Paté's logo is 'Love of Food N Wine' and in its enthusiasm, cooking and relaxed approach it definitely lives up to this. And in a city where everything other than the trains is expensive, the prices here seem extremely good value.
DE N GULE COTTAGE
Strandvejen 506, Klampenborg, +45 39 64 06 91, dengulecottage.dk
This fairy-tale 'yellow cottage' looks straight out of a Hans Christian Andersen story and was built in 1844. Today it is in the very capable hands of Anita Klemensen, Anders Wulff&mdashSørensen and Lars Thomsen, who also run The Red Cottage, a more expensive restaurant a five-minute walk away.
The greedy can get there via a 15-minute train ride from Copenhagen's main station then a brief walk to the cottage, which has a view across to the coast of Sweden. But we took a more artistic route. A 30-minute train journey along 'the Danish Riviera' brought us to Humlebaek, from which it is a ten-minute walk to the Louisiana Museum. This has a wonderful art collection, a café with views of the water and the most unusual explanation for its name — the original owner's three wives were all called Louise.
We then took two trains back to Klampenborg and found ourselves sitting outside Den Gule Cottage at 1pm both hungry and thirsty. Both issues were promptly solved. A glass of cool Danish draught beer was the perfect foil for four salty snacks: almonds in Danish porter, smoked eel and crispbread, roasted rye bread with cream cheese and very thin potato crisps with sorrel mayonnaise. Half a dozen Danish cheeses made up one of the lighter main courses, a fish gratin with salad one of the more substantial.
NOMA and RELAE
Strandgade 93, +45 32 96 32 97, noma.dk; Jægersborggade 41, +45 36 96 66 09, http://restaurant-relae.dk
My evening at Noma was stunning — the food and wines were served with style all enhanced by its setting in an 18th-century warehouse overlooking the sea. Christian Pugsili is an Italian chef who came to Noma after working in several top restaurants around Europe and last year opened Relae, a more relaxed and less expensive restaurant. There are two menus, one for vegetarians, the other for meat eaters, both enhanced by a great sense of fun
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