Den Røde Cottage*

The restaurant, set in the glade of a forest, just by the sea.



Cured salmon with panko crumbs, chives and creamy dots of something I unfortunately have forgotten what was. In our glasses there was Champagne, a non-vintage blanc de blancs by Franck Bonville, to be more exact.

For our second amuse lobster was the main star.

Our final amuse was fried sweetbread of veal with an apple jelly.

Two kinds of bread (one light wheat variety and a darker one) and two kinds of butter (one plain salted and one whipped with buttermilk and pumpkin seeds).

Fried turbut with young carrots and peas, later topped with sauce nage. We had a gorgeous, quite oaky 2011 chenin blanc in our glass, from Chateau Yvonne in Saumur.

White asparagus by Søren Wiuff in different textures. Steamed heads and long strips of pickled stalk, accompanied by a poached egg. Not too excited this dish, though the asparagus were undoubtable of exceptional quality.

Roast chicken with steamed spring onions and cress. For this course we enjoyed a surprisingly powerful 2009 pinot noir from Haute Cotes-de-Beaune.



Danish Thybo cheese set atop morels, crisp bread, mayonnaise (a bit too overpowering for my taste) and topped with cress. In the glass a Blancs de Noirs Champagne.

Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate! A cake of chocalate in different textures and a woodruff sherbet on the side. We had a glass of 2005 Late Bottled Vintage Port to accompany this.

Petit fours for our teas and coffees, including little nut baskets with frozen cream, financier, madeleines and chocolate truffles.

Den Røde Cottage
Strandvejen 550
2930 Klampenborg

Notes:
Anita Klemensen belongs to the very exclusive Copenhagen club of female Michelin-starred chef - in fact, she's the only member. With previous experience from Søllerød Kro and Kommandanten she's schooled at classic, dare I even say, traditional places, which was also evident from our visit to Den Røde Cottage. The restaurant is set beautifully in a clearing in the woods along the coast line North of Copenhagen. The reason for our visit was the celebration of my father's 60 year birthday, and I shall therefore excuse that only mental notes were taken and unfortunately quite a few details have slipped my mind. In any case, we had a beautiful dinner! The service was probably the most attentive I have ever received in Copenhagen and the staff were generally good at creating a relaxed atmosphere in the restaurant. Among the culinary highlights I will mention the turbot and the dessert, which I found to be prime example of the tastiness that the restaurant represents. However, and to be honest I would not be able to pinpoint any dish that really blew my mind. The  dinner was a such flawless, the dishes were comforting and executed to perfection, but I missed the little quirky details that differentiate a meal from being good to being memorable. The location is however absolutely unique and I will certainly not reject that we might return, as the place also counts among most affordable Michelin-starred restaurants in Copenhagen, and the visit surely made me want to visit the sister restaurant Den Gule Cottage a few hundred meters down the road. Recommended.