Hey Ecocozina!
Thanks for your comment!

Trine

I was @ Herman yesterday.

It was a business dinner, which I was hosting, so I had many things to concentrate about – other than the food.

Special night there as US foreign secretary Condoleezza Rice was in the building, so there where police everywhere. We should have started in the lovely bar, but for security reasons we couldn’t go there. So where had a drink in the restaurant and I dinner began 45 minutes earlier than planned.

The restaurant is really beautiful – with all the lights from Tivoli and it’s truly a little pearl.

The service was extremely professional and personal – they get a top notch rating from me.

Food was good – small dishes and fairly light (me like), but overall I missed the last magic, from great to spectacular.

Wine was a bit expensive priced – we just went for the wine menu, which was fair, but nothing more.

Overall – I will come back and I could easily see wife and I dine there, just for the romantic atmosphere and maybe stay in one of the Nimb Hotel rooms.

Best from,

/Thomas

My boss is nice too. We’re visiting the Diplomat for this year’s Christmas dinner. Obviously I won’t be able to publish any photos if I decide to do a write up. I’m very excited about it because of the (pleasant) reputation. New world wines is not really my thing, but as usual I am open to give them a try.

And PS. noma is this Thursday HURRRAAAAAAA. Will post it soon after I am (soon) done with my Scotch Kitchin review.

We had 4 appetizers, crispy smoked pork skin, oyster with kålpølse, fried asparagus potato with fuglekvidder (skinkesalat from Aalbæk)and brændende kærlighed made as a æbleskive with red beet marmelade.
With the appetizers we had Moet & Chandon Rose Imperial…excellent:-)

Our first course was a chestnut bisque with seared scallops, caviar, pickled mushrooms and raw chestnuts, the wine was a Riesling from Emmerich Knoll 2006 Loibner Vinothekfüllung Smaragd Wachau – complemented each other very well and probably one of the best Rieslings I have had.

The turbot was very delicate and tasty, many of my colleagues thought this to be a weak dish because it was not very innovative – but in my opinion the taste was so good that innovation didnt matter. I believe I have read you have had the 2000 Mersault from Leflaive at one of your dinners so no need to tell you about that one:-)

The seared foie gras was perfectly matched by the red beets but actually the piece of liver was a little too big… Our boss had chosen to leave the wine menu for this dish and we were served a chilled pinot noir from Cloudy Bay NZ.

Now we reached the highlite of the evening… A pre main course of Labskovs. In the bottom of a silver bowl were two pieces of duck (from the leg) which had cooked for a very long time in its own fat, potatoes and tyttebær… when served the waiter added a little knob of butter and karse. The butter came from their own dairy production and when this melted it just made a world of difference to this dish.

The main course of duck was the least exiting dish, tasted very good but not really more than that. The wine was Sassicaia 2004 and this made the main course a little more interesting.

The cheeses were danish farm cheeses and unfortunately the waiter forgot to present these for us – at this time the generous refilling of the wine had started to take affect and dont really remember too much other than they were good. Again our boss chose to leave the wine menu, this time for good and we were served 2004 Ducru Beaucaillou St. Julien, I am glad he did because Hermans sommerlier recommended we had champagne for the cheeses.

The sweet and cold christmas adventure was a liqurish (bad spelling) parfait with cinnamon, caramel and an orange sauce – dont like liqurish too much but together with the orange this was a superb dessert. 2003 Ch. Suduiraud – I love Sauternes and this didnt dissapoint me.

I am not sure but I think the sønderjyske kagebord is standard, nevertheless it was good and nice to finish of the great dinner we had. With the kagebord we got Silval 2001 port.

This is definately a place I would want to visit again, if not for their dinner then for the hot dogs:-)

Looking forward to reading about your next visit to Noma:-)

Finally had my Herman experience…and what I night that was:-)

Food was excellent, the wines we had were perfect, the only little thing that wasnt was the service. But when you are a party of 26 I guess thats ok. The waitresses were all very sweet and helpfull, one waiter offered me to send pictures of all the dishes by email – maybe a polite way to ask me not to take pictures all the time.

I dont know if anything was missing as you have described, I guess I have to go there again to find out:-)

Cheers
Zwampen

I have never been to Kiin Kiin – but have met Henrik, when he was at The Paul.

I know Jan from Søllerød very well – he is Denmark’s best host.

I have just booked a table at Hermann the 4th of December – business, so no camera ;-(.

Have a nice weekend,

Best from,

/Thomas

Hei Zwampen
Thanks your for your comment! I’m curious to know where you’ve heard about Herman? Oh, have you seen Allan’s review? It’s in Danish and he loved the place.

cheers
Trine

Cheers
Zwampen

Thank you for the camera tips – I have to download the newest version of Picasa 3.0 – I only use the program for a good overview of all my pictures and to rectify the imbalance in the picture.

I will try to get a business dinner at Herman first – as my wife has a tendency to dislike restaurants with too much informality (she loves Noma and Geranium) and I sense Herman is leaning in that direction – I could be wrong.

Best from,

/Thomas

Hi Thomas

Thank you so much. You’re too kind!
(I noticed a few clumsy phrases so have fine tuned my review a little;).

Um, there’s a simple answer to the dark background – it was dark. I’ll try to explain. We sat in black leather arm chairs with very low seats and low tables between them. As the floor is of dark wood and the light sparse as well, the angle forced me to capture the floor/the chair like that – I’m pointing towards a dark spot. As far as I remember I shot this at 400 ISO. The crispyness was enhanced by some extra sharpen and also I think that the reflections in the silver plate enhanced it too (Btw, this photo enhanced in Picasa).

As to my excitement or lack of it. You’re spot on. Something was missing without knowing precisely what that was. Apart from my concerns about the wine and the main course, food and service was right and helpful. Flawless.

I think what I’m left with is similar to what I experienced at Pierre Gagnaire. Perhaps what I was missing was more personality in general, more sharpness and distinction from the food and wine. Yes, I think that’s it. Thanks very much for making me considering this once more.

Very best to both of you fom
me

Once again a great report, and thank you for including me under your blog favorites.

Camera first – Love your pictures – curious how you get the background so dark and still hold the crispy light on the dish in focus – the picture of “Crispy pork fat and smoke” – which is my favorite shot.

It’s funny, because I sense that you felt Herman was really nice, but not really getting you ecstatic.
Several of my colleagues have tried it (think they forgot to invite me . They all gave somewhat the same impression like your report – good, but not fantastic.
The concept of bringing Old Danish dishes to life and even bending the rules somewhat is for sure something which is tickling my curiosity. The book “Burning love” is really beautiful, with crispy pictures of Claes Bech-Poulsen, but I can’t really say that I was eager to have a taste of the dishes or even have a go with them myself.

However, true judgment has to be done in real life, so maybe I should try Herman in near future.

Best from,

/Thomas

For your information the sommerlier at Herman is Jacob Kocemba and is the unofficial european sommerlier champion.

Sorry to hear that you weren´t too pleased with your visit, I am going there for my companys christmas lunch in November so I hope they improve:-)

Thanks for your wonderfull blog, as always a pleasure to follow your gastromic adventures

Bo