This article is part of FT Globetrotter’s guide to Copenhagen.
For a three-star Michelin restaurant, there’s no more contrived location than Copenhagen’s Geranium. Voted the world’s best restaurant in 2022, the restaurant is housed in an ugly gray and glass box in the middle of a huge soccer stadium parking lot.
On the day I eat lunch there, the elevator quickly fills up with noisy office workers stopping on all other floors. You’ll feel relieved when you enter the tranquil dining room, filled with touches of Scandinavian minimalist design and views of the local park, Färedparken. The kitchen, which I discovered on the tour during the second half of the meal, overlooks the pitch where FC Copenhagen and the Danish national team play.
Geranium was launched in 2007 by Danish head chef Rasmus Koford, who trained at CPH Hotels’ prestigious Hotel d’Angleterre and is the only chef to win gold, silver and bronze at the Bocuse d’Or Championship. Although he wasn’t present during my visit, his 18-course meal is the kind of test that will test your perception of fine dining. Yes, the plate is very beautiful. Yes, they are made with the best ingredients and interesting (if not unusual) flavor combinations. Yes, the service is perfect. And yes, it’s impressive that there are so many dishes made without meat (an intentional choice by Kofoed).
But every once in a while, a nagging question pops up. The food is delicate and elegant, with a new Scandinavian style and technique, but for me it is sometimes not entirely delicious. Geranium is definitely a lovely experience, but is it really worth paying DKr4,200 ($595/£470) for food and an additional DKr2,300-20,000 ($325/£260-$2,830/£2,240) for drink pairings? Is it?
The first dish was a truly sumptuous but small platter of Danish herring, small flowers and dill stalks, served in a crispy algae tartlet and topped with a plant-shaped black aquavit tuile. Masu. It tastes fresh, with a fatty herring flavor offset by a green crunch, washed down with a surprisingly light glass of Adrien Renoir’s Champagne.
Geranium’s kitchen is completely open, as befits Copenhagen tradition, with six tattooed chefs working enthusiastically, but in a more lively and relaxed manner than elsewhere in the city. “I need a hand, please.” “Six mushrooms.” You’ll feel like you’re in “The Bear” without the screaming. Tweezers are very evidential.
“There’s a lot going on in this little dish,” says the chef as he offers the next dish. The combination of lightly smoked milt, milk, and kale is very delicate, like a flavorful crème brûlée. This is quickly followed by star-shaped boiled beets and a subtle horseradish sauce. I wish I had eaten more. The obligatory caviar course comes with another glass of champagne and is served with potato and beech nut waffles and pickled walnut leaf sour cream. It’s a fun dish to eat on your own, but I think the caviar flavor is too strong.
Champagne aside, I opted for a non-alcoholic drink pairing, which is probably the star of my meal. The first one is made from apple, fennel and dill oil, with dill powder sprinkled on top. Shake and pour tableside as a cocktail, drawing admiring glances from other guests enjoying the play while enjoying their wine. Then, when drinking blackberry and cherry juice, a pine twig is lit and its smoke is drawn into the glass, making it even more gorgeous. Clearly, a lot of thought has gone into this pairing, and it’s heartening to see that.
I also get a kick out of cooking with celeriac, which is probably my favorite vegetable. But despite the dazzling spiral presentation, complete with extra caviar, it feels rather anonymous. But that disappointment was followed by three great courses. The wild mushroom soup was a standout of the lunch, rich and deep in flavor and served with the most beautiful cheese straws shaped like flowers. Dishes with walnuts, Jerusalem artichokes and fermented cabbage foam are equally delicious and look like small abstract paintings. Sweet scallops and their eggs are served with tangy dried blackcurrants, while dried raspberries, coffee and rosemary juices provide a complex sweet-bitter partner.
I have an obsession with fine dining food, and I’m starting to feel full, especially at lunch. The next course is fried pancakes with buttermilk, pickled ramson and truffles, but it’s almost useless. Still, there are two more main dishes and six more desserts left.
If there’s one area where Copenhagen restaurants excel, it’s sauces. The rich, creamy sauces that accompany the stuffed and fried monkfish entrees are proof of that. However, as with some of Geranium’s other courses, I think the sauce tastes better. central attraction. Stretch your legs as you can easily tour the extensive wine cellar, prep kitchen (complete with soccer field views), and private dining room.
Desserts are uniformly and beautifully crafted, with plenty of unusual ingredients such as sea buckthorn, carrots, verbena, and pickled rosehips. The wonderful final cake of seeds, elderberry and apple brandy somehow slides off easily, despite the previous 17 courses. But the highlight for me was the herbal tea made from mint, thyme and lemon verbena that was hand made by the table.
There is little doubt that Geranium offers the quintessential Copenhagen fine dining experience in terms of food, ambiance and price. Whether that’s enough is a matter of personal preference.
Have you ever eaten at Geranium? If you have experience, please share your experience in the comments below. Follow FT Globetrotter (@FTGlobetrotter) on Instagram.
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