Cheap Favourites


For great food and service for a reasonable price, you may have to go low. Here are three basement eateries that will give you a very nice evening, without breaking the bank.

Cofoco (Abel Cathrines Gade 7 CPH V, +4533136060) serves traditional Danish or French recipes like salmon tartar, Jerusalem artichokes soup, sweetbreads or crème brulée – but with a twist. The food is always very well prepared and created with a sense of care.

The bread is great and with a good taste of sweet malt. The wine list is short but very reasonably priced from DKK 150 to 450 a bottle, and most of the wines are served by the glass as well. I like the style of the place, the mix of elegance and roughness; beige window curtains down to the floor, raw bricks, brown leather armchairs, and crystal chandeliers over the huge refectory table, where it’s easy to get into a conversation with the people next to you.

Il Senso (Gothersgade 87 CPH K, +45 33128719) is a cosy, Italian wine bar that offers a few but nice dishes such as antipasto misto with an excellent and thin cut Parma ham, sausages, and cheeses with truffles or seasoned in raisins. The homemade basil pesto is to die for. They also cook a new pasta dish each day, but watch out for the Monday pasta alla carbonara – it’s creamy and very fulfilling! The bread is soft and with a good crust, and most importantly: The waiters are more than happy to re-fill the basket as much as you like. The owners import the wines themselves, bottle prices range from DKK 180,- and up.

The Ricemarket (Kultorvet 38, CPH K, +4535357530) is an Asian bistro run by the owners of the one Michelin-star Kiin Kiin. The Ricemarket offers very high quality Thai inspired food and a complimenting and great selection of wines at cheap prices. Really: Fritz Haag and Zind Humbrecht wines at DKK 250 a bottle is truly a bargain!

Normally Asian food is too same-same-but-different to me, but there’s something truly sophisticated about the flavours of Ricemarket’s dishes and the composition of the aromas that make me return time and time again. The grilled tuna, the salad with grilled ox meat, fried rice with chicken and mushrooms are all lovely.

So, sometimes stepping down makes the quality step up.

Copenhagen Post 10th October 2008.

11 Responses to “Cheap Favourites”


  • Thanks so much for letting us know. I’m happy to hear you liked the places.

  • Just back from a long weekend in Copenhagen. Had dinner at both Auberge and Cofoco, and I must say I was terribly impressed. Excellent food, and awesome service! A meal to remember… can’t wait to come back for more, and would whole-heartedly recommend both restaurants! Best value for money in town I reckon! 🙂

  • *sigh*

    I’m trying to help with some constructive feedback, Henrik. Might be worth listening? We really want you to succeed, you know!

    /N

  • Neil stop it please!
    they asked for your telephone number, not your order…..hehe

  • Henrik

    Tried to go back to The Ricemarket on Monday this week but when making a reservation they wanted our dinner orders at the same time! How can that be necessary? Given I could have walked in off the street into the takeaway section of the kitchen and get whatever I wnated it seemed very strange.

    Went somewhere else. Shame.

    Neil

  • Henrik – it’s not rubbish but we’re not going to fall out over it, either! If you read what I wrote then you’ll see that I’m really willing you on to succeed and just pointing out some details that I thought really let you down.

    The thing is, becauase of who you are, I judge you by different standards than if you were ‘just another cheap Thai restaurant’. And you are also setting yourself up to be judged by higher standards. Good for you. I admire what you’ve achieved in Nørrebro and want to see you do the same in Cph K.

    For sure we’ll be back. And for sure I expect it to be better.

    Best.

    Neil

  • come on Neil…. this is rubbish…move your butt down there and give it another go….dinner on me if we faíl at any point!!

  • Hi Trine

    I was at The Ricemarket the last weekend of June, early Saturday evening. Maybe the early evening has a different feel to peak time but it did really feel more like a takeaway with tables rather than the ‘bistro’ that Henrik wants it to be (not helped by the fact that it is actually also a takeaway!).

    Firstly, we and others coming in could not undertand why we were being asked if we had reservations when the website seemed (and still does) imply that reservations were either not possible or not necessary. Compounded by the fact that the place was obviously not busy made the whole arriving experience very strange.

    Secondly, I wanted a Thai beer. But there was no mention of that possibility on the drinks list. Only later when I saw another table being brought Singha beers did I realise that it was possible after all. Perhaps my mistake – I should have asked – but given Henrik’s sommelier background, I thought it was a real lack of attention to detail.

    And the big one, my starter arrived 20 minutes before my companion’s. Given the simplicity of the preparation and the fact that the place was very quiet in terms of number of diners, this was unforgivable.

    However, the food was excellent to say the least. And fantastic value for money. And I would give it another try – but not in a way where I had to plan to go and make a reservation. I really feel it is a drop-in place.

    I hope that Henrik makes it work – the kitchen is excellent but the front of house details were just not good enough. I understand that this location on Kultorvet is known as ‘death corner’ as nobody can get it to work there so Henrik really needs to work hard to succeed.

    My greatest fear is that Henrik has to stretch himself too thin and that Kiin Kiin starts to suffer.

    Perish the thought.

    Neil

  • Next time I’m in town, I’ll have to check out Ricemarket. Then maybe I won’t feel so bad about not going to Kiin Kiin again in favor of someplace I have not yet tried. 😉 Not that I don’t want to, of course.

  • Since this post was for the paper I decided not to commnent on the service. For various reasons.

    It’s true that the service was a little fuzzy the first few weeks after the opening. But now it’s different, I believe. It’s even possible to order several dishes and not have them all at once 😉

    Still, for the money you pay and the quality and tastiness you get – it’s sublime. Then, I would say, the service isn’t that important to me.

    When were you there last?

  • Thanks for this, Trine. The food at the Rice Market was truly excellent – I remember being quite shocked at the huge number of scallops that came in a dish I had (and it tasted fantastic as well!). The service, though – hmmm…..

    Neil

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