Den Røde Cottage

This was our first Michelin star restaurant experience and it was a success! From the moment you arrive and champagne is poured, you are treated like royalty.
The service is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. They only have 3 – 5 tables it looks like for the entire night because the meal takes about 3 hours to complete with all the various courses and wine pairing.
If you are looking to get your feet wet in the Michelin Star restaurant world, this is the place for you.

Are you looking for a tasty and sophisticated dinner located somewhere in a very wealthy Danish suburb of Copenhagen with the feeling that you’re eating in a wealthy, modern, and sophisticated Dane’s house and not in a restaurant? Well, this place may have your answer. This place is a red house with a large backyard that serves as a nice restaurant. Oh, and it’s rated by the Michelin (a tyre company) Guides. They gave this place 1 star out of 3, which is supposed to be pretty good.
I went with a group of 10 people, had a reservation at least a couple weeks in advance, and we had the outdoor patio facing the backyard all to ourselves. The setting was nice, I could see a little bit of the Danish coast. When we arrived, I felt like an honoured guest for a very wealthy Dane.
I had the 3 course dinner, and I remember having some nicely thinly sliced ham that was «on the house», oysters (1^st), fried cod doused in a broth with tomatoes (2^nd), a small chicken with carrots, tarragon and brown butter (3^rd), a creamy dessert mixed with fresh raspberries, and plenty of little pieces of bread with a delicious spread. The oysters were small, but had a nice flavour from the juice inside. The fried cod and the broth was delicious, had a great savoury flavour from the richness of the broth. The chicken had an excellent tenderness and also had a nice flavour. Everything else were delicious complements to the food, and I had a pretty full stomach after eating some extra pieces of bread. Presentation was very impressive.
The service is excellent. The servers were attentive, friendly, and very willing to explain the dishes that were presented to you. The washrooms were very clean. As for the price, you should be prepared to spend more than 525 DKK for this meal.
This place is a little difficult to reach. If you’re leaving from København H (central station), you may have to take the C service to Klampenborg station, which took us about 20 minutes. We would have to walk for about 10 minutes, a little less than a kilometre from the station to even get to the driveway of this place. Since we stayed very late, we would have to take a taxi back to the centre of Copenhagen.
Overall, if you are looking for a sophisticated, nice and quiet dinner while enjoying the scenery of the Danish countryside outside of Copenhagen, this place is a great choice. I had a pretty good and tasty dinner at this place and enjoyed the company of a group of people that I was starting to get to know better as I commenced my journey into Denmark and beyond.

Incredible summer meal outside. I’m from SF and it is equal to our best in food and service but with much more unique setting. Wine pairings particularly good.

What an amazing experience. We chose to take the train to the restaurant (a short 15 min ride out of downtown), and walk along the endearing little path through the woods along the rail tracks. You come upon the restaurant like a little fairy tale — appearing out of the woods with glittering candles in the windows and cheerful staff awaiting your arrival.
Food was incredible. My husband did the wine pairings, and I did the juice pairings. Both were so well thought out. Highlights on the menu were the Danish chicken & foie gras, and the fried cod with pickled green tomato.
We did the full 8 courses, but I would recommend doing 5. The portions are quite large and the bread is amazing!

My very last meal in Denmark. Such a great way to celebrate a great many meals in the area. Now stay with me here. One of the chef partners used to work for Jan Restorff, who knows everyone in fine dining around Copenhagen. Our server Johan grew up in the Faroe Islands like Jan Restorff did and got his job here because of Jan. One of the other chefs used to cook at Geranium and is the house mate of the head chef of Rasmus Koefoed who grew up in Orange County not far from where my father lives. We met Jan the day before and prior to that we met Patrick who used to work for jan at Formel B. Small world Copenhagen fine dining is eh?
We were preceded by word from Christian from Den Gule Cottage, the other establishment down the road overlooking the beach. Because the path to this restaurant is literally through parts of the forest, one of the cooks from Den Gule walked us over. How much hospitality is that? When we arrived we were immediately greeted by Johan and secondly by Lars, the other partner. We sat outside, had some bubbly and a few small bites, enjoying the vast tip of the forest before heading inside for the main meal.
This little red hut is from architecture of years past and the owners after looking for space in Copenhagen proper fell in love with the two buildings not too far from each other in Klampenborg. Altered to contain modern functional kitchens, they put a lot of heart into making high quality food in both establishments. As surprised as anyone they achieved a Michelin star here just the end of last year and the food shows. After looking at the menu we couldn’t not get everything to make a full tasting menu. It was our last meal after all…
Food:
Salted mackerel, smoked cheese, cucumber and radish.
Lobster, peas, mint and almonds.
Danish summer tomatoes.
Rabbit, fennel and green strawberries.
Chicken, gooseberries, potatoes and beans.
Cheese, jerusalem artichoke and horseradish
Strawberries, verbena and buttermilk.
Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate.
Wine:
2010 Tomàs Cusinè, Auzells, El Vilesell
2011 Frantz Saumon, Minéral, Husseau, Loire.
2009 Arnaud Ente, Burgundy aligote, Burgundy.
2009 Domaine Pallus, Pensées des Pallus, Chinon, Loire.
2011 Arianna Occhipinti, SP68, Vittoria, Sicily.
2009 Domaine Agapé, riesling, Riquewihr.
Cascina Riveri, Birbet, Monteu, Roero.
2010 Rustenberg, Straw wine, coastal region.
Phenomenal. Past histories at Geranium and Søllerød Kro cooking definitely shows. Not quite the ultra modern of the former or too French driven like the latter, but utterly delicious in their own style, just like the funky building. If you go here you should explore the space. Hit the upstairs restroom and see the cool slightly psychedelic paintings and obviously the views of nature all around. They have an interesting hallway that they built leading to a side building where the service station and kitchen reside.
The service from Lars and Johan is extremely warm and comfortable, Throughout the night we chatted with them extensively about Danish cuisines new movement, what they love, the classics and things like why they love Danish lunch but not so much traditional dinner. We ended up there well past midnight even though we showed up at 7.30. We ran through the dark forest with cell phone light because we had to catch the last two trains at the station which never came (that’s a whole other story). Even Johan got caught in that scenario.
A must try if you are in Copenhagen and have time to wander a bit farther north to see and eat. It truly is a fantastic place.

Great food and good service.