This very small restaurant is in a former boat house on the bank of Esrum Lake (Esrum Sø). It is a beautiful location which Skipperhuset (The Skipper's House) tries to equal with with ambitious and expensive four-course tasting menu.
The four courses are tiny portions of lovingly prepared delicacies. They were great but like many upscale Danish restaurants about 10 degrees too precious.
The service was cheerful and enthusiastic, but spotty. The wait staff appeared to be local kids, not professional waiters. In fact one of may Danish friends who lives nearby told me her son had worked at Skipperhuset when he was in high school.
Bur -- and this is a big but -- the location is one of the best in the world. The sun sets very late in the Danish summer, and it out on a spectacular show while we were eating. And we were with very dear Danish friends and it made for a spectacular evening.
When the weather is nice, all of the tables are on the terrace bordering the lake. There is a small interior space which I imagine is used during inclement weather and during the winter. There is also a boat shed set up with a long single table which is used for fancy, lunches for special occasions.
One note of caution. Our GPS kept sending us down a driveway in Fredensborg (near the castle) rather than down the road that goes down to the lake.
And a culinary question for people knowledgeable about Danish cuisine.
After a month in Denmark this past summer, it seems to me that there are four kinds of restaurants, no matter where you travel in the country.
1. Fast food
2. Foreign restaurants -- Italian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, etc.
3. Traditional Danish cuisine -- smørrebrød for lunch, flæskesteg or rødspætte for dinner - although it may be prepared better or worse depending on the restaurant.
4. Upscale Noma-like tasting menus, which are very expensive bits of exquisite food which has been fussed over by chefs trying to get a Michelin star.
So here's the question: is there nothing between 3 and 4? Is there no bistro or brasserie where one can find excellent food in portions larger than the cupped Epalm of your hand? Without a four course tasting menu? That costs less than US$100 per person? If so, please let me know. read more