Geist

Tartare of Norwegian lobster (more like a carpaccio really) with yogurt and hibiscus.

Raw salmon with pearls of soy, ginger and lime set atop.

Shaved raw cauliflower with truffle foam.

Raw beef, lumpfish roe and chili.

Buttery potato purée with crab.

Heart of lamb, shitake mushrooms, and yuzu.

Geist
Kongens Nytorv 8
1050 Copenhagen K

Notes:
On a summer day where everybody our age group had seemed to disappear to some place called Roskilde, my friend L and I decided to take advantage of the peaceful state of the city and enjoy a night out. After kicking off the evening with ridiculously expensive but quite generic dirty martinis at fugu we had put in a reservation at Geist. Once entering you immediately sense a more cosmopolitan, almost club-y feeling from the place. The restaurant is tastefully decorated in dark hues with long counters for diners and only a few actual tables. The music is of the upbeat lounge variety and was in fact rather load. We were seated at the bar with a view of the "warm" kitchen, which boasted plenty of activity for us to observe throughout the evening.

As to the food, the menu is simply constructed, dishes being described in few nouns only. This is the very essence of Bo Bech's culinary style, using few ingredients to create powerful and unusual combinations. We settled for three dishes each and ordered a bottle of natural non-dosage bubbles to accompany the first two heats. In this case a Mauzac Nature by Robert & Bernard Plageoles in Gaillac. The wine expressed clear natural wine characteristics, notes of apple peel being very evident (may also very well be because of the mauzac grape from which it is 100% made of), and it provided a refreshing backdrop to the first few dishes.

Given the simplistic dishes I think that they are very hit or miss. We had a number of stunning dishes this evening, especially the salmon/ginger/soy/lime (salmon seems to be very underrated among chefs in fine dining contexts in my opinion!), ox/lumpfish roe/chili and crab/butter/potato purée combinations spring to mind, which left us with new and exciting taste impressions. On my own part I found the cauliflower dish to be a bit too large if to be enjoyed with it become slightly insipid at the end, while the yuzu was slightly overpowering in the lamb dish, which otherwise was excellent. My L was not a huge fan of the addition of yogurt to her Norwegian lobster dish, though I enjoyed it, and in the end taste is of course a matter of subjective opinion.

To be noted is that the selection of wine by the glass is very limited, in fact there were only three whites and three reds, not advertised in the menu. I had a glass of generic syrah, which certainly did the job of accompanying the lamb but I certainly did not consider it a 110 DKK glass of wine. L had a glass of Chablis, which paired well with her crab dish, though given the very differing identities of the dishes, adding a larger selection of glasses to the wine list would certainly be a place where Geist could easily improve.

All in all, we had quite an enjoyable evening, which in the end added up to 750 DKK per head. While I did enjoy the food very much the price level would however be a natural barrier for Geist to become an everyday sort of place, that Bo Bech also intends it to be. For a special night out in good company the restaurant however delivers magnificent surroundings, a lovely ambience as well as food and wine to fit the bill.