Frommer's Review
Some of our most savvy food-wise friends in Copenhagen insist that this is the country's best restaurant, and we always like to argue the point over a bottle of wine, citing our other recommendations that also richly earn their three stars. Praise has included, "If God were to visit Denmark, this is where he'd dine." Other critics, such as Time Out, have attacked not the cuisine but the patrons, citing "stern, fat men with equally fat cigars and even fatter expense accounts." On our latest rounds, the Armani-clad patrons didn't seem especially fat but they did carry American Express platinum cards, as they gazed at the menu when not taking in a trio of Andy Warhol originals of Margrethe II in the downstairs dining room.
To date, this is the only Michelin restaurant in Copenhagen to have received two coveted stars, a rating it has held since 1997. Although a restaurant has stood on this historic street for 75 years, it only reached levels of haute cuisine in 1990. The 1698 burger's house, in which the restaurant is encased, contains numerous small rooms on several levels, evocative of Copenhagen at the time of the author Ludvig Holberg.
The cuisine reflects the seasons and features the very finest products and high-quality ingredients that the country offers. The aim of the chefs is simplicity in which natural flavors are never subdued, as when a misguided cook within a less illustrious restaurant might pour licorice sauce over halibut. The menu, changed every 2 weeks, offers both classical dishes and innovative selections, such as spring chicken with rhubarb set off zestily with an orange and lemon verbena sauce. The luminously fresh halibut comes with smoked eel, fresh peas, and elderflower, a first-rate taste sensation. At last we learned the secret of cooking lobster à la nage. The secret ingredient is anise seed.
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