As most of you know, I am a huge sucker for food/farmer's markets. Even though many of them are touristy, there's just something about being in one area surrounded by fresh produce and different food stalls that just makes me super happy. I had read about this one in a funky part of Copenhagen and made sure I went to it while I was there.
After I long and lovely day at the Louisana Art Museum (while I didn't eat there, I want to give a shout out to their amazing looking cafe) and the Kronberg Castle in the Danish country side, we headed back into town to have lunch at Torvehallerne. It's like many other cool food markets where there are tons of local produce as well as food stalls with food ranging from bakeries to open face sandwiches to seafood. What I love about food halls is that it gives you the ability to try a little bit of everything in one place. I was overwhelmed at what to get and since our breakfast buffet in our hotel was a pretty large spread of food, I wasn't starving. I ended up getting a Nordic looking mayo based potato salad topped with shredded bits of cooked salmon. While probably not the healthiest thing, it was pretty tasty and was flavored nicely with onion and dill. I can see it as a great side dish for a picnic, if you like salmon. I also indulged in a mini cinnamon bun at Laura's bakery. Scandinavia is famous for their cinnamon buns and what I like about the ones here, unlike the ones in the States, is that it's not covered in an icky frosting. But believe me these are sweet enough on their own with the buttery flakey dough and cinnamon/sugar mix that it didn't need extra frosting on it.
Unfortunately, it started to pour outside, so we didn't get to walk around to the other market much but the vibe of this place was really cool. It seemed like a place that a lot of locals do hang out on a chill summer's day with some beer and food.
Photo Credit: Yelp
Mad Klubben Vesterbrogade 62, 1620 Copenhagen, Denmark 3.5 Forks
After going back to our hotel to take an afternoon nap, we decided to head to the Vesterbro part of Copenhagen, which is supposed to be their hipster/Meat Packing neighborhood. Apparently it was literally a meat packing neighborhood not too long ago and you definitely got a sense that it has a much grittier feel than the more touristy parts of the city we were in earlier.
Maybe we weren't in the right part or I'm so used to hipsters now that I didn't really feel like it was any comparison to Williamsburg at all. But I will say that when we entered in to the restaurant, the clientele did have a lot of beards going on.
The space here is huge and it has a lovely looking open kitchen concept that is quite impressive. The vibe is low key with a Danish sense of design and aesthetic. The menu had a bit of everything but there seemed to be a big focus on meat - they had an awesome looking rib eye for 2 (sadly I couldn't eat that on my own). Since we had just eaten at the food hall not to long ago, I wasn't starving but of course I couldn't help myself and ordered the beef tartare (50 Krone or $7 USD) to start and the pan fried flat fish (175 Krone or $26) as my main. Lav got a fantastic cheese plate with quince (75 krone or $11) to start, a side order of fries for both of us (this would be a recurring theme through out the trip) and the vegetarian risotto ($15). Price-wise, I was again pleasantly surprised but the exchange rate has been quite favorably lately (5 years ago the rate was 5:1, whereas it was almost 7:1 for us).
I'm not sure if it's a cultural thing but their beef tartare was more like ground beef instead of cut up chunks of beef. While it tasted fine, the texture kind of weirded me out because it was a bit too mushy. As for my main, the was a whole pan fried white fish with the bone (but no head) served with a king oyster mushroom brown butter sauce on the side. Thank god the sauce came on the side because it was super rich and heavy and I only poured a bit of it on there to give some moisture to the dish. The dish felt very Nordic with the heaviness of the sauce and while I enjoyed it, it wasn't anything mind blowing. We ended the night with a flourless chocolate cake with rhubarb ice cream (they really seem to like their rhubarb here). While I definitely enjoyed my time here, I'm not sure the food was anything super inventive like BROR but I don't it's meant to be either. It feelsl like this place is meant to be a fun neighborhood hang and I can see that fitting in with that crowd. The table next to us got the rib eye and I was super super jealous because that looked amazing. I also want to give a shout out to the local Mikkeller craft beer I had there, it was delicious and quite strong. I wish I had more energy to go to the actual bar there but definitely give it a try if you see it in a restaurant. Total bill with tax and tip: 410 Krone or $61/pp
Photo Credit: Yelp
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