New Nordic dining at Vaekst

 

Vækst, Copenhagen

We wanted to try some New Nordic cuisine and made reservations to go to Vækst, in Sankt Peders Stræde in the middle of Copenhagen’s old Latin quarter. It was also close to our hotel and the greenhouse-inspired décor was lovely. There were so many places to choose from, but Vækst was also in the Michelin guide and had great reviews, so we needed no further convincing.

We had an early dinner where they started us off with a crepe with fresh vegetables and cheese. It was served with peas. Then, we had warm bread and herbed whipped butter. We also got an appetizer of cheese foam on top of foam with crunchy rye at the bottom. A delight for our palates, these apps truly whet our appetites as we looked forward to the rest of the meal.

vegetable and cheese crepe at Vækst

bread and herbed whipped butter at Vækst

cheese foam, potatoes and rye at Vækst

Hubby, Grandma and I had the set dinner meal, minus the wine pairing (leaving our server to take away the 15 wine glasses on our table). We had Salted Scallops with green gooseberries, apple and hazelnut. It was a nice starter with dice raw scallops and very flavourful. The presentation was also delightful as our server poured the sauce onto the bowl.

Salted Scallops at Vækst

 For mains, we had Fried Cod which was garnished with radish, pureed peas, trout roe and beurre blanc. The cod was perfectly fried, slightly crispy on the outside and tender and flaky inside. The trout roe popped in our mouths as we took a bite of the cod with the beurre blanc and pureed peas. The radish on the side provided the nice contrast to the sauce.

Fried Cod at Vækst

The girls had Danish Beef Tenderloin with grilled spring onions and truffle sauce. They were also served mashed potatoes. I got to try some from DD#2. It was perfectly medium rare and oh so tender. One of the best steaks we’ve had in a while. The grilled spring onions matched perfectly to balance the truffle sauce.

Danish beef tenderloin at Vækst

For dessert, we had Rhubarb Sorbet with white chocolate and chamomile, topped with meringue. It was a wonderful palate cleanser.

Rhubarb sorbet at Vækst

We really enjoyed our food with most of the dishes having a wonderful play on textures of light cream, sauce or foam and crunch or pop. The flavours complement each other very well and were refreshingly new to our taste buds.

The place was packed by the time we left, a testament to the wonderful cuisine they have to offer.

 

 

Torvehallerne Food Hall at Copenhagen

We can very well validate now that everything we read about Copenhagen, in that it was a very expensive city, was true. It worked out well for us that we were always on the go so the meals were relatively cheaper than if we had allocated some time to full-service dining. For reference, burgers or hotdogs would cost about CAD$20. Fancy coffee would be about CAD$8-9. One thing we really liked, however, was their recycling and waste efforts. Diners are encouraged to use stainless steel utensils and there is a charge for using the plastic ones. There is also a charge for condiments, which dissuades folks from being wasteful. Garbage and recycling bins are all properly labeled as well.

 Anyway, we all had a good chuckle in realizing that we went to Copenhagen to eat typically American food. In many good reviews, burgers came up often so we decided to try and see if the burgers were indeed so much better than the ones we had in North America. First we tried Max, which is a Swedish burger chain. The fam ordered classic burgers and cheeseburgers. I tried the Frisco burger (Frisco is a slightly more luxurious burger bread, which is light and tasty, topped with semolina). The burgers were definitely great and I would not mind having again! They were juicy and well-seasoned. Portions were just right. We also tried some cheese fries. Their desserts, however, were not as good. 

Max burgers

Another burger place that came up so many times in the reviews I have read was Gasoline Grill. We went to the one in Tivoli. We accessed this from inside the Tivoli Garden and am not sure if this can be accessed through the Tivoli Food Hall. The Tivoli Food Hall had a great selection of many different cuisines. If you wanted to have Thai, Italian, French, pizza, or even the traditional Danish Smørrebrød, you can find it in Tivoli Food Hall. At Gasoline grill, the burgers are organic—patties, buns, cheese and all! They also claim to sell out daily so that everything they sell is fresh. We got Original burgers and Cheeseburgers. While they were good, we agreed that we liked the burgers at Max more (which was also cheaper).

 

Gasoline Grill

From many recommendations, we decided we had to try Danish hotdogs too! While there were many hotdog stands along the main tourist spots, we tried the ones at Torvehallerne Food Hall. We really enjoyed exploring this food hall, near Nørreport, which had fruits and vegetables outside, meat, seafood, cheese, wine and so much more in the two buildings. According to DD#1, it was a bougie market. I have to say I think it is much better than St. Lawrence Market in downtown TO. Sorry! So anyway, we tried the hotdogs at Doghouse. Here, you can also have sparkling wine with your hotdog! How’s that for bougie? Hubby and I got the Great Dane, of course, which was the traditional Danish hotdog topped with pickled cucumber and crispy onions. It was indeed very delicious! Doghouse hotdogs were juicy and the remoulade offered the right amount of creaminess to counter the oils. The crispy onions provided a nice crunch. It was delicious! They also had other gourmet hotdogs with flavours of French, Spanish and Italian. 

 

Danish and French hotdogs @doghouse

 It did take a while to get our orders, so we ended up getting some tacos as well from Hija de Sanchez.

Tacos @hija de sanchez

 For dessert, we had some super yummy ice cream from Maggis Gelateria.

Maggis gelateria

Of course, for a couple of our meals, we had to have smørrebrød. We had the beautiful gourmet ones from Hallernes at Tivoli Food Hall (but they also have other locations including one at Torvehallerne). These were just ok for me as the Crispy Pork I had was a bit on the dry side. Hubby had Steak Tartare but as he had had Steak Tartare from Prague, he said it was also just ok.

Chicken salad and Crispy Pork smørrebrød at Hallernes

Steak Tartare and Chicken Salad smørrebrød at Hallernes

I would have to say that I liked the smørrebrød at Rådhus (near the National Museum) so much more. Apart from being only 1/3 of the price of the ones in Hallernes, with less fancier presentation, the smørrebrød we had were quite delicious! I really enjoyed the liver pate topped with bacon, while Grandma’s shrimp and egg came in second.

 

smørrebrød at Rådhus

We also could not leave without trying Danish pastries. In the basement food hall of Magasin du Nord, we had some Direktørsnegl at Lagkagehuset. The pastry was flaky and soft, swirled with chocolate. It was one of the best pastries we’ve had! I was so glad we went for that afternoon coffee and snack. Now, if only the Danish Pastry House can make their chokoladesnegl as good as this!

 

Direktørsnegl at Lagkagehuset

Oh and by the way, let’s not count how much weight I gained from all the eating we did!