Noma

Apologies to the Danes and their lovely capital, the Little Mermaid and the herring, but the best reason to visit Copenhagen right now is Noma, the brilliant restaurant where New Nordic Food reaches an art form. Though it only opened in November 2003 it has gained two Michelin stars and global recognition for the chef/proprietor René Redzepi. He has defiantly turned his back on the French and Italian traditions of luxury food to champion ingredients from the far north. There is fabulous seafood and shellfish, aged beef and venison, indigenous vegetables, traditional grains and wild berries, sheep's milk dairy products, herbs and seaweed. Redzepi, now in his early 30s, learned the hard way from being first a waiter then a sommelier then a chef. He has cooked in famous kitchens around the world including El Bulli in Spain with Ferran Adrià where he learned that an intellectual obsession with technique was not for him, and with Thomas Keller at French Laundry in California which reassured his own instinct for freshness and seasonality. His style has matured into subtle, light cooking with ingredients very close to their natural state, and consequently very healthy. "That to me is what healthy food is about" he says, "not just taking the butter out." But the simplicity is deceiving as a great deal of effort goes into sourcing products, and skill into the visual enchantment on the plate. Expect to be offered tasty appetisers of chicken skin with mustard seeds, cod skins, potato chips with seaweed and fish. That may be followed by Greenland shrimp with cucumber juice, horseradish snow and potato skins; raw shrimps with green gooseberry granita; raw musk ox fillet with wood sorrel; pickled quails eggs smoked in hay; king crab and leeks with ashes and mussel sauce; skate wings with sour tapioca; cod and mead sauce with herb salad and mushrooms; lobster with salad roots, redcurrant wine and beach herbs; or young goat with a dusting of thyme and hazlenuts. It's not the usual foie gras and caviar combo that Michelin normally goes for. There is however a wine list that the fat man would recognise: lots of fine red and white Burgundy, Barolo and Barbera, the prestige Spanish label Pingus, and 35 types of champagne including some rare small producers. There's also a large beer list with lagers, ales, stout, barley wine, porter and cider. The restaurant takes full advantage of its waterside location with crisp, clear furnishings, stripped wooden floorboards and beams, large windows and polished wooden furniture uncluttered with poncey linen. The dining room sits to the left of the front door with the kitchen tucked away behind reception but still on view. To the right is a large, comfortable bar with black leather seating and plaster walls in a state of artistic dishevelment. It doubles up as cafe for visits to North Atlantic House cultural centre (see Must Try column opposite). This is a wonderful restaurant, genuinely original, delicious and a hot destination for gastro-tourists. Open for lunch Tuesday - Friday 12noon - 4pm, dinner Monday - Saturday 6pm - late. Strandgarde 93, Christianshavn, Copenhagen, (45) 3296 3297; www.noma.dk

 

La Glace

This irresistible patisserie dating back to 1870 has been owned for six generations by just two families. The small atmospheric rooms are a temple to all things sweet and delicious, serving a mouth-watering collection of cakes, cookies and coffee to eat in or take away. The upper level is almost exactly as it was in 1924 with green marble tables and chairs in the Empire style, while the cosy downstairs has lace curtains, furnishings dating back to the nineteenth century and a wall-mounted basin to rinse your hands. The cakes are named after important people such as Hans Christian Andersen or Karen Blixen, or landmark events. The legendary Sports Cake (see right) first made in 1891 for the premier of the play the Sports Man. With its tantalising mixture of caramelised choux pastry, macaroon, crushed nougat and whipped cream, it's a must. Mmm. Open from 8.30am - 5.30pm.Skoubogade 3, Copenhagen, (45) 3314 4646; www.laglace.com

 

The Custom House

In a joint venture with a local property developer, D& D London, formerly Conran Restaurants, has taken over a 1930s Art-Deco customs building down by the water at Nyhavn and turned it into a multi-functional space of restaurants, bars, a deli and private dining areas. A thrilling combination of great design and food, it is a spectacular success and a favourite with locals as well as tourists mesmerised by the skiffs, rowers and tugboats on the water right outside. The wide decking terrace catches all the evening light and even if it's chilly, you can snuggle up on comfy sofas wrapped up in pistachio-green rugs under the outdoor heaters. Custom House is Copenhagen's very own "gastrodome" with a very smart Italian restaurant, Bacino; an authentic Japanese restaurant, Ebisu, where you can sit at the counter and watch the sushi master work his magic; and the Bar and Grill for Scandinavian seafood and local dishes. Bacino is a very classy operation with a proper Italian chef who cuts no corners, Stefano Leone from Rome. His cooking is a refined interpretation of traditional recipes like baccala (salt cod with chick peas), saffron risotto with pecorino and capers, octopus salad with rucola pasto, and veal cheeks braised in marsala with truffled potatoes. The five-course tasting menu is a must for gourmets and then you can do justice to the knock-out wine list (chiefly Italian) which features lots of Super Tuscans and 23 different champagnes including Krug, Bollinger, Salon '96, Cristal 2000, and lots of Dom Pérignon including DP Oenothèque '92. Opera buffs take advantage of an early supper, a special boat service to the opera house across the harbour, and a return trip for late cocktails after the performance. Havngade 44, Copenhagen, (45) 3331 0130; www.customhouse.dk

 

Restaurant Ida Davidsen

Fourth generation Ida is a legend and celebrity in her own right, a global ambassador for Danish cooking and the open sandwich with mouth-watering toppings of smoked salmon, Greenland shrimps, crayfish, roast beef, oysters, asparagus, horseradish - you name it. The room is long and thin and packed with mementoes of famous visitors and a warm cosy feeling. Ida, in her sparkling chef's whites, pearls and red lipstick, is a fixture in the restaurant, chatting up the guests and adding Hollywood glamour. She has recently developed a partnership with Cavi-Art©, a mock fish roe made with seaweed which makes its way into all the dishes if you're not careful. It's healthy of course and eco-friendly (and it's not caviar which is endangered) but somehow it dilutes the magic. Stick with the real McCoy and ask them to go easy on the Cavi-Art©. To my mind it's all about colour and texture and doesn't add anything to the flavour. Store Kongensgade 70, Copenhagen, (45) 3391 3655; www.idadavidsen.dk

 

Hotel Skt Petri

This early Modernist building dating back to the 1920s was originally a department store and the airy layout, huge atrium and white zigzag open staircase have translated effortlessly into the hip hotel that opened in 2003. There are 268 rooms including 24 suites and many of the rooms have large attractive terraces with decking and great views over the rooftops. Street-level escalators beside the coffee shop take you up to reception on the mezzanine floor where there is also a cocktail bar, Bar Rouge, and a large open plan restaurant, Bleu. It serves East-West fusion food for lunch and dinner but reverts to irreproachable Danish food for breakfast. The area around the hotel is particularly attractive with the university close by, two handsome old churches and alluring shops and boutiques. This is a very classy town and the hotel has a friendly buzz from sophisticated locals (especially the fashion and media crowd) who use the Skt Petri lobby for work and play. Curiously students in Copenhagen seem better dressed, better looking and better behaved than normal and if you peep into local subterranean cellars and jazz clubs in the early hours to watch them at play, there is a refreshing absence of loutish behaviour. Krystalgade 22, Copenhagen, (45) 3345 9100; www.sktpetri.dk

 

Hotel 71 Nyhavn

Two historic warehouses that used to store spices from the Far East have been transformed into a comfortable and stylish 150-room hotel right down by the water in the bustling "new harbour" area. Interiors feature old timber beams of Pomeranian oak, duplex rooms have quirky spiral staircases and there is a restaurant and bar currently undergoing a radical redesign. Art galleries, traditional fish restaurants and the best fashion boutiques are all within walking distance. The protected harbour is crammed with colourful boats and a regular water ferry from the jetty nearby will whisk you up to the new opera house and back again. 71 Nyhavn, Copenhagen, (45) 3343 6200; www.71nyhavnhotel.dk

 

Radisson SAS Royal Hotel

You may not be drawn to the Radisson if small boutique hotels are your thing. It's situated near the Tivoli Gardens and the great Tower dominates the skyline bringing to mind disagreeable images and words like "chain" and "corporate". But as a temple to Danish architecture and cool Scandinavian design, it's not to be missed. Built in 1960, the five-star SAS Royal was designed, inside and out, by legendary architect Arne Jacobsen, and despite considerable restoration and updating in following decades his work has stood the test of time brilliantly. The light stylish lobby with a curved staircase and iconic "Egg" and "Swan" chairs, and the super-chic bar are virtually unchanged. There are 260 rooms at differing levels of luxury but one suite, 606, has been preserved in its entirety with peacock blue furnishings and crisp lines. If you're lucky, and no-one is occupying the suite, nice people on the front desk may show you round. It's a time capsule - quite an eye-opener. Even if you're not staying in the hotel, try to visit the Alberto K restaurant on the 20th floor for dazzling views of the city. Hammerichsgade 1, Copenhagen, (45) 3342 6000; www.radissonsas.com www.copenhagen.radissonsas.com

 

A handsome city, good food and a real culture of gastronomy, lively cafes and bars, stylish people, and the intoxicating buzz from the surrounding sea, make Copenhagen your next stop for a long weekend.

Things to know...

Art, design and furniture at Paustian, a huge interiors store and exhibition space designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon (who also designed Sydney Opera House). It's right out at Nordhavn so you'll need a cab and lunch. Fortunately chef Bo Bech has a restaurant there and his cooking is clever and quirky in the Heston Blumenthal way. He's an artist, visionary and philosopher, and a damn fine cook too. Kalkbraenderiløbskaj 2, Copenhagen, (45) 3918 5501; www.restaurantpaustian.dk

Copenhagen has lots of fancy restaurants but sometimes you just want herring.

Told & Snaps, just round the corner from the71 Nyhavn hotel, for great smørrebrød. Toldbodgade 2, Copenhagen, (45) 3393 8385; www.toldogsnaps.dk

Slotskaelderen Hos Gitte Kik is a tiny, crowded room, rather like a 19th century parlour, supervised by very bossy staff and a favourite with politicians in the nearby Parliament building, the Christianborg Palace. People really do down shots of aquavit in one swift gulp with their herring and then go back to work. Fortunstraede 4, (45) 3311 1537

"Denmark is a paragon of unselfish capitalism, prizing social relationships over consumer goods." In his book Affluenza, British writer, psychologist and pundit Oliver James thinks we can learn a lot from the Danes.

If you love Peter Hoeg's thriller Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow, get the Greenland experience by visiting North Atlantic House (Nordatlantens Brygge) on Greenland Wharf in Christianshavn. The 250 year-old building also houses Noma, our star must-visit restaurant (see opposite). It is a cultural centre for Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands where you can thrill to a huge (stuffed) polar bear, dazzling photography of explorers and towering icebergs, and pick up endearing postcards of wise walrus. Quite a change from the old days when as The Royal Greenland Trade Enterprise, it used to store sea salt and whale blubber. Strandgade 91, Christianshavn, Copenhagen, (45) 3283 3700; www.bryggen@bryggen.dk

Shop for good quality paintings, carving and sculpture of hunters, seals and other natives of the arctic landscape at Inuit, the Eskimo Art Gallery in the heart of town. There are antique pieces of clothing, sealskin boots or kamiks for running over the snow, weapons and fascinating scenes of their tough everyday life. Hand-carved soapstone figures from named artists in Nuuk, West Greenland, are not cheap but utterly desirable. Kompagnistraede 21, Copenhagen, (45) 3312 7977; www.soelberg-antik.dk

Forget the Little Mermaid, possibly the biggest disappointment in the whole city but don't let that put you off taking a boat ride through the canals and the harbour. Take one of the wide flat-bottomed boats right into the heart of the historic city, ducking your head under low-lying bridges and identifying historic buildings with the help of intelligent commentary.

Copenhagen Metro now runs from the airport into the centre of the city in just 15 minutes. A new stretch of the line opened in November 2007.

For the best up to date information, insider tips and help for both holiday makers and business travellers, go to the extremely efficient www.visitcopenhagen.com

To re-live your Copenhagen experience in London, visit Paere Dansk in Kensington for a range of furniture, lighting and art that embody pure Danish Modern Design from 1930 -1970. The distinctive look of the period combines crisp lines, functionality and a confident stylised minimalism. Paere Dansk means "typically Danish" and the classic pieces of furniture here, made from Brazilian rosewood in the mid-20th century, are true collectors' items. 13 Stratford Road, London W8, 07771 861 939; www.paeredansk.com