Geranium's a name I hear get mentioned alongside Noma a lot when people talk about the best restaurant in Copenhagen, and after eating there I can see why. The flavor and ingredient combinations are exciting and very technically precise. Also, the plating is gorgeous--the presentation of each course was very beautiful. I can see why some people believe that Geranium is as good as Noma. Chef Rasmus Kofoed is a vegetarian, and that seemed to shine through in this meal. It wasn't very protein-heavy at all, and in a lot of ways it was just as, if not more, vegetable-focused as Noma was.
The restaurant's on the eighth floor, and it has a beautiful view of the surrounding area. There's a lot of green to look at, and eating in the fall allowed us to see a wide range of vibrant colors. The view actually reminded me a lot of Per Se's view of Columbus Circle and Central Park.
The service here felt a lot more formal than Noma's. Everyone in Noma seemed super happy and laidback, while the staff at Geranium exuded more of a formal dining aura--kind of what I'm used to at Per Se in NYC. The staff is still really nice, though, and they're still more laidback than, for instance, waiters at the stricter French restaurants in NYC or Europe.
You get two options of tasting menus for lunch, a longer 3-hour tasting or a shorter 2-hour tasting. Naturally, we went for the longer version.
1. Crispy grains from Kornly (a kind of Danish cheese).
2. Crispy carrot and sea buckthorn.
3. Raw pear and lemon verbena.
4. Sunchoke (Jerusalem artichoke) chip and mayo whisk with walnut oil.
5. Oyster leaf with trout roe and parsley.
6. Crispy salmon skin with mustard from Bornholm, Denmark.
7. Dried flowers and dried apple.
8. Boletus edulis (porcino mushroom) soup and pickled quail egg yolk.
9. Charred potato and sheep's milk butter with sorrel and... some plant.
10. Burnt leek, elderflower gelée, and pine.
11. Something bark, thin rye, and onion purée on the chip.
12. Celeriac chips with seaweed salt. Served with mayo with søl (a red seaweed).
13. Uni, yogurt, and pickled elderflower.
14. Jellied ham and tomato water with sorrel flowers.
15. "Dill stones" (dill gelée filled with smoked mackerel), horseradish sauce, and pickled cucumber granite.
16. Milky cheese with jus of fermented carrot.
17. "Razor clams". This was a clam salad inside a thin cracker shell painted with squid ink.
18. "Vesterhavet" sea buckthorn, heather, and moss.
19. Sourdough bread made with emmer and spelt. Served with garlic butter.
20. Onions, chamomile, and melted hay cheese.
21. Lightly smoked mussels, terragon, cream, and algaes.
22. Cod cheeks and fermented cabbage.
23. Lightly grilled venison seasoned with smoked pork fat and juniper. Served with a sauce made from dried berries, venison, trumpet mushroom, and beets.
24. White chocolate cream with wood sorrel gelée on top. Served with granite of sorrel.
25. "Fallen apples", elderberries, dried leaves, and juice from Danish apples.
26. "Naked Trees". Crispy puréed prunes, frozen "disc" of dark beer, and biodynamic cream infused with beech wood.
Petit four: "Green egg" made from chocolate caramel and pine.
For the final dessert and course ("Naked Trees"), they moved us to a table (with Chef Kofoed's three Bocuse trophies on it!) in the kitchen. We sat behind the three Bocuse trophies and faced the service kitchen, where the kitchen staff greeted us with a warm smile and then served our dessert.
Chef Kofoed thinks that this is his best dish at Geranium so far. He likes it because it's apparently a good representation of Denmark right now, especially during wintertime. The trees are "naked" without leaves, just like the "tree" here. There are very strong, crisp flavors, and the dark beer and cream added a crispness and creaminess to the dessert.
I honestly preferred the white chocolate and wood sorrel gelée dessert (the first one) more, as I thought that that dessert was more delicious. However, I can see why Chef Kofoed likes this course so much. It's a really creative combination of flavors and a wonderful representation of nature.
Conclusion:
The food here was wonderful, and I had a great meal. It's a shame that the restaurant wasn't filled while we were there. People should also make a stop by here when they fly to Copenhagen for Noma. Reservations here are easy to make (unlike Noma's), so you should go!
We had some really creative and delicious dishes here, and I can see why Chef Kofoed scored so highly at the Bocuse d'Or competitions. I do have to say, though, that the Noma kitchen seemed to take more risks. In a way, the food at Noma was more exciting, and it was really cool to see the different things that the Noma kitchen did with their food. However, they still did some pretty amazing things with the food at Geranium. And the presentation of the food was BEAUTIFUL; I think the plating there was one of the best I'd seen in a restaurant in a long time. read more