Anyway, we arrived at Admiralgade 25 around 9 pm and stepped into a warm, busy room. After waiting a while by the door, we managed to get the attention of one of the waitresses, who showed us to our table. Now, Friday was a fairly warm day (considering that just a few weeks ago the streets were covered by snow), but the temperature had dropped down a bit and you certainly needed a coat when walking outside. Inside Allo-Allo, however, it was like a hot, sweaty summers day and the air was thick with the smell of cooking. Not terribly pleasant. Add to that a sound-level that made it almost impossible to hear what my friend was saying as we were discussing what to eat.

In the end we decided to give Allo-Allo a chance another time, when it was hopefully a little less busy and after they’d gotten their ventilation problems under control. Instead we took the metro to Nørreport st. and walked to Halifax on Frederiksborggade. A large glass of Ale no. 16 and a København-burger took care of the hunger and any irritation that may have built up during our visit to the other restaurant.

All in all, we had a nice evening and are looking forward to trying both Allo-Allo and Madhuset Steak. Some other time. Hopefully soon. In the meantime – you never go wrong with a burger at Halifax.

The biggest surprise was probably that Kødbyens Fiskebar got a Bib Gourmand. They only opened last year and even though they’ve gotten great reviews in the local media, they probably didn’t expect a mentioning in Guide Michelin at this point. The Bib Gourmand is given to restaurants with good food at reasonable prices, i.e. places for people like me.

All in all Copenhagen got 13 Michelin-stars (12 restaurants) and 7 Bib Gourmands.  Eating in Copenhagen is looking good!

So what is a poor girl to do? My solution so far is to make a list and try to prioritize the restaurants I want to visit. Next on the list is probably either Allo-Allo or the new restaurant in the same “family”, which opens next weekend. A steakhouse, I think, and God knows I love a good steak. Oh and of course Relæ will get a visit once they’re open and it’s not out of the question that we’ll pop by Manfred’s take away & spisested this weekend. Maybe.

Anyway, if there’s anyone out there who’d like to pay me to eat – or at least pay for the food – give me a call! In the meantime, I’ll keep on dreaming.

The host of the show, Mads Steffensen, is each week joined by “Monopolet” – a panel consisting of three celebrities. They may be politicians, singers, actors, journalists, authors, none or all of the above. The panel listens to the dilemmas and then discuss possible solutions. The discussion often takes an unexpected and always amusing turn and there are usually quite a few golden quotes that make you “ROTFL” – quite litteraly.

If you understand Danish and like a good laugh, I would recommend tuning in next Saturday between 9.30 and 12 o’clock. Or why not do like I do and listen to it over the internet. The show is sent live through the netradio on P3′s website, but if you miss it you can also hear old shows either on the netradio or podcast. If you don’t know where to start, any show with Anders Morgenthaler in the panel is usually a good one.

Thirsty?

We started out with the mandatory antipasti misti, which consisted of some delicious salami, mozzarella di bufala (a really good, fresh-tasting one), ceviche with lemony cod and tomatoes and other goodies. I would maybe have left out the fried rice ball with tuna-filling. Not that I didn’t like it, but I just didn’t think it went very well with the other parts of the dish. It was too “heavy” and so completely different from eg. the ceviche (which was delicious, by the way) that it just felt like it didn’t belong.

Anyway, for the primo I chose a fish and clams linguine-dish, while my friend went for the parmigiana di melanzane. The third option, which was actually his first choice, was sold out. My dish was very flavourful and creamy despite containing no cream at all, as far as I could gather. Very tasty, but if you don’t like seafood you should probably stay away from it. The parmigiana was a little “flat” flavour-wise. It might sound strange, but I thought it tasted too much of fried eggplant and that the sauce could have had more “zing” to it. Still a tasty, classical parmigiana, though.

Both of us chose veal for the secondo and we shared a portion of potatoes au gratin to go with it. Fabulous, mouth-watering deliciousness. Lovely meat with a well balanced balsamico sauce on top of a simple salad. And the potatoes – oh so good! I actually suggested that we should skip the contorni alltogether to avoid getting too full, but afterwards I was really happy that my friend changed my mind.

Candle light and dessert at Fiasco

The dolci… Well, what can I say. We both really missed the chocolate cake that used to be on the menu. I had read here that the semifreddo wasn’t very good, so we went for a limoncello tarte and a panna cotta with caramel and orange. I love lemon and the tarte was very good but too heavy for me after the huge meal we’d just had. The panna cotta was probably better, but I would have liked just a simple lemon sorbet or granita or something like that.

All in all, a really nice dinner with some lovely surprises (the ceviche, linguine and veal) but also room for improvement here and there. We agreed that the new Fiasco gets a 4 out of 6 – better than average cooking at a good price, but not excellent yet. But maybe we’ll have to come back again in a few months, when the new owner and his people have worked out the kinks and made Fiasco their own.

Now, where should we go next time….?

As part of the event, several Danish and international artists will be performing live – either in the studio or on the stage, that is also being set up at the square. There will be bands like Stereophonics, OK Go and Magtens Korridorer, just to mention a few. You can see the complete concert program here.

I’m sure it’s worth a visit and while you’re there, why not donate a little something. After all, it’s for a good cause.

The band behind it (and several other great songs, such as “Walkman” and “Du og Jeg”) is called Hej Matematik and consists of Søren Rasted (known from Aqua) and his nephew, Nicolaj. They released their second album today, but of course I can’t get hold of it before Friday, which is the next time I’m going to Denmark.

Hej Matematik plays fun, sing-along inducing music with clever lyrics (in Danish). And the best part is that they’re playing at Pumpehuset in 1,5 months and I’ve got tickets! Oh, and that is also the same weekend that I’ll be going to KB-Hallen to see Nephew play. Excited? I should think so. If you wanna join in the fun, there are still tickets available for both concerts at Billetnet and Billetlugen, respectively.

One of my holiday activities was going to the movies to see Avatar in 3D. Now, you might be thinking “I thought this blog was supposed to be about Copenhagen” and of course you’re right. But I guess the connection here is just that I saw the movie at Palads in Cph and that it’s still running on several movie theaters around town. And even though that might be a rather weak link, this movie was soooo good that I just had to mention it anyway.

The story is good, the movie is beautiful and the 3D-effects work really well – especially in the scenes in the forest and in the action scenes. If you haven’t seen it yet – go buy a ticket now! If you’ve only seen it in 2D – buy a ticket for the 3D-version, it’s absolutely worth it.

Another place that’s closing down, but for very different reasons is Den Anden. This, the second of the Madklubben-people’s three restaurants (so far), has actually been quite successful. But the owners wanted to change the location (to a better and cheaper one) and while they’re at it they also decided to change up the entire concept. Therefore, after this weekend Den Anden will be no more, but instead they will be opening up a new place in January, just a few blocks away from the old one. Allo-Allo is described as a decadent, Moulin Rouge-inspired restaurant. Should be interesting to try – sometime during the spring, when they’ve worked out all the kinks (there are always kinks in the beginning, even if it’s not the first restaurant).

Finally, there’s another new restaurant project that I’m really excited about and eargerly looking forward to. A former Noma-cook is opening up his own, anti-fancy pancy restaurant in Jægersborggade in (hopefully) 3-4 months or so. At this point the place is being torn down so it can be completely renovated. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly and am planning on being one of the first guests when it finally opens. The name of the place is going to be Relæ and you can follow the progress here.