Copenhagen is a foodie's paradise. Hands down one of the best cities I've been to for food. There's such a insane collection of different cuisines to try from street food markets to more fancier sit down restaurants with tablecloths. Being lucky enough to spend almost the majority of the week in London stuffing my face, I've turned into a bit of a food snob and rarely spend time in a city that compares. But the food scene Copenhagen was incredible and completely rivalled my 'home' city - it's easily in my top two of cities I've eaten in. So what did I manage to eat?
1. Fleish
As soon as I discovered The Meatpacking District, I knew that I wanted to spend a lot of my time eating in the area. One restaurant that grabbed my attention was Fleish and I booked us in for an evening meal immediately. This butchers slash eatery has a busy open kitchen and industrial decor vibe. My boyfriend and I are massive meat eaters and really appreciate good quality cuts so this seemed right up our street. Being the greedy little piglets we are, it took us a total of 10 seconds to spot the seven course taster menu and order it. It. Was. Incredible. Easily one of the best meals I have ever eaten. Ever. Consisting of various dishes including ham-wrapped asparagus, rich bone marrow, zesty scallop ceviche and rare steak medallions. The portions were surprisingly generous and the high quality meat was insanely tender. Each bite melted in your mouth, was bursting with flavour and made us hum with pleasure. Copenhagen is not cheap but if you don't mind splashing out, pick this restaurant. You won't regret it one bit, it's worth every single penny.
2. Nose2Tail Madbodega
We both like to be pushed out of our comfort zone when it comes to eating out, eager to try different foods we've never tried before and different cuisines that we've only read about in books. Copenhagen's first sustainable and organic steakhouse is based on the 'nose2tail' concept meaning that every single part of the animal is used. They have three specials on the menu, a meat of the day, an innard of the day and a fish of the day. After choosing to sample the plank, we feasted on a selection of board of different local meats, lashings of mustard, addictive pates and a basket full of bread, alongside a huge slab of pork crackling. Delicious! For the main we decided to ask for the innards of the day which turned out to be veal liver. I'm going to hold my hands up and admit that I didn't fall in love with this. It was a bit too tough and dense for my liking, I prefer chicken livers. But it wasn't horrible in the slightest and was just down to personal taste. It came with a pile of homemade coleslaw, crispy potatoes, roasted tomatoes and garlicky green beans. It is a really cool concept and the atmosphere was buzzing. Definitely one to eat at if you're a big meat fan.
Copenhagen Street Food calls this industrial estate near the harbour home. Getting it's name from the paper storage facilities, it's only here until 2017 so make sure you get in a visit quick! It had endless stalls offering everything from potent mojitos to Korean fried chicken. During the evening the place comes alive with live music but during the day it's a really cool place to hang out and eat your way around the stalls before settling down outside along the canal. It's very similar to Street Feast night market in London. The prices are similar to that too, you're looking at dishes or around £7-10 for a main dish and cocktails are about £9.
4. Mad & Kaffe
For brunch I'd been hearing a lot about this cafe in the Vesterbro district. One word of warning is to arrive early because we ended up waiting around 45 minutes for a table on a Sunday morning at about 11am. It was well worth the queue but sometimes it's just nice to get seated straight away. They do a great mix and match brunch menu during the morning. You can pick from 3, 5 or 7 items - simply mark which ones you want on the menu with a pencil and hand it over to a waitress. I pumped for the avocado in chilli sauce with baked almonds, organic Vesterhavs cheese with fruity marmalade, creamy scrambled egg with chives and fried mushrooms, organic fluffy white and rye bread and spicy fried chorizo sausages. Paired with a fresh orange juice, it was the perfect sized breakfast to fuel lots of walking!
5. Torvehallerne KBH
Boasting over 60 different stalls selling a variety of different dishes, fresh produce and drinks, this food market is the perfect place to enjoy cheap eats without compromising on the taste. Similar to Borough Market in London, the market is a great place to explore. Make sure you take a stroll around the whole place before deciding what to have. Already addicted to the Danish smorrebrod - or open sandwich - we decided to opt for the only stall selling the dish. Piled high with generous toppings of fish, ham and coronation chicken, we eagerly tucked in and declared it absolutely delicious. The one above topped with ham, roasted tomatoes, egg and chives won for me. We obviously had to pick up a Danish pastry for the road too.
6. Schonnemann
This was the surprise of the bunch for me. The restaurant was rated very highly in my Lonely Planet book and kept popping up time and time again during my research. Rightly so, as the three sandwich sample we ate was so flavoursome. They offer over 110 different types of smorrebrod and is a lunch time only restaurant so get there early around 11.30 or book a table. We hadn't a foggiest what to order so decided to go for the set menu paired with a glass of beer. In Denmark, the herring is supposed to always be eaten first and you go from left to right. I couldn't recommend the set menu enough and it was a great introduction into the Danish tradition. The waiter was extremely helpful and friendly, making the whole experience a hundred times better. Definitely one to add to your list!
