Sidecar

I came here hopnig to get their brunch plate, but we unfortunately came too late so we could only have lunch. I didn’t realize most of the dishes are vegetarian, so we found the one dish with meat which was a yummy pesto pasta where we added some chorizo. The café is cozy and very Nørrebrø, however, I wasn’t overly impressed. I have many other cafes I frequent more regular that I believe has a better menu and atmosphere, but I think I need to try it again during brunch.

We were pleasantly surprised by Sidecar. The reviews are good, and we went for brunch, but we weren’t impressed by the brunch buffet, especially for the 149 DK price tag. Other brunch places have better buffets for the same price.
Thus, we order the brunch small plate, which came with scrambled eggs, skyr, and bread. It was simple and tasty, and the portion wasn’t bad. Service wasn’t great, but that’s usually to be expected. We might come back for cocktails another night!

After reading all the good reviews, I have to say that I was a little disappointed.
Important to note that I came here specifically for Maobao at dinner. It seems the positivity is for the brunch. The place looks oddly empty; I think they could put a couple more tables but they probably wouldn’t be able to handle it considering how our night went. We ordered only bao, no special dietary considerations, and it took quite a while for them to get to us! I had a cocktail to enjoy while I was waiting, which was Raspberry Licorice. Maybe it’s due to my cold but I couldn’t taste much licorice even though there was a whole stick of it. I was chewing the stick to get the full licorice experience, not because I was starving, Eva K. :P I will have to give the cocktails another go when I’m well, I didn’t feel that it was worth 89 kr, especially when Gilt is just down the street.
When the first course (pork bao) finally arrived, we hungrily tucked in. This was the winner for me with just the right fat-​to-​meat ratio and a slightly crispy skin. Would have been even better if it was crispier. Eva K. ordered one more pork bao after we each ate one and even though our order took ages, her extra bao came out in a few minutes. After another long wait, the rest of our bao came out all at once. The fried chicken bao was very good and even though the kimchi wasn’t great it went well with the bao as a whole, cutting through the fat with nice sour flavour. Kimchi also would have gone well with the others. The aubergine dish fell short for me, which is sad because it is the only vegetarian option and I normally love aubergine. The texture was good but it was sorely missing seasoning. The pickled daikon (?) inside helped but it wasn’t spread evenly on the bao so you only got it in half the bites.
Our servers were apologetic about the wait times and smiling and polite throughout our meal. I loved getting Maobao as street food during the summer, which was consistently good with fast service. I understand that it is not the same bao (shredded pork) and working in a brick-​and-​mortar kitchen is different, but this is a restaurant and you have to serve food at a steady pace. That being said, I’m giving 3.5 stars and would like to try again.

I’m a little bit jaded when it comes to café/​cocktail bars and brunch places in Copenhagen at this moment, so when I found myself making reservation for Sidecar on a Thursday evening, it’s all because of Maobao.
Yes, the pop up guabao sellers are «occupying» Sidecars every Thursday, Friday, Saturday. It’s good that they do, since we miss them from the time when they were around in various street markets in Copenhagen in the summer. Just make sure you book a table (via phone or FB message) since the place can get busy on those days.
Sidecar itself is nice, big and spacious, with seats decorated with pillows making the place looking the standard hyggelig found in many Danish cafes.
Although the place got our reservation wrong (only for 3 when we said four), the waitress quick accommodated our request. So far so good. She brought the menu and explained how it works with Maobao menus. Got it.
We ordered the starter with 6 deep fried shrimps in chili mayo, four pork belly baos, 3 fried chicken and 3 aubergine baos, along with 3 dumplings, two cocktails and two beers.
Here where I started discounting the stars I would give to this place.
FIRST — the drinks took forever to arrive in our table. I get it that you have to make the cocktails first, but beer? Come on. Maybe because it’s the guys who ordered beer, and we — the girls ordered cocktails that you want to send all drinks at the same time? Fine. My favourite to-​go-​bar for cocktail — Mikropolis — never takes too long to make cocktails.
The waitress came out and apologised that the drinks took so long and promised us they would arrive while keep replacing our soon-​depleted bottle of water since there’s no alcohol around. Meh.
SECOND — The food took forever as well! Oh my god. I don’t know whose fault it is — sidecar or maobao, but when they were out there selling on the street, it took max 5 minutes for them to get our guabaos ready. It’s street food, after all, some form of fast food that isn’t burger and fries.
The shrimp starter did arrive quick, but they consists of 6 minuscule deep fried shrimps. Fair enough for 30kr, but they did nothing to sate our hunger
We were starving and Mina K started chewing her licorice stick on her cocktail. Haha!
But when the food arrived (the first batch of pork belly baos), they were good. Like awesomely good. It’s different kind of baos that they sell on the street. They only had shredded /​pulled pork baos back then, but this is a square-​ish chunk of pork belly that has great flavours. Me like.
I quickly realised that I needed one more and was afraid that an extra bao would take forever, but my extra pork bao came relatively fast.
…and after that we started the waiting game for next batch of guabaos (the fried chicken and the aubergine).
To sum it up, I’m swaying between three and four and ends up in three. Although the food is fantastic (aubergine baos are totally recommended but you must definitely try the pork belly!), I can’t give this place four simply because of the time spent waiting for the food. Don’t get me wrong, the waitresses/​waiters are friendly and our bottles of water are refilled all the time — but we simply need our drinks and food without waiting too long.
Shape up, Sidecar! I still want you to give another chance, simply because the guabaos are good!

Sidecar is my favourite spot in Nørrebro.
The coffee is good and cheap, the brunch in weekends is awesome and the lunch in weekdays are super.
The staff is friendly and the atmosphere is local and cozy! Perfect for a danish autumn day.

On sunday morning I went to Sidecar for the first time to have brunch with my girlfriend, and this is seriously one of the best brunches I have had in Copenhagen. The small and inexpensive dishes made it possible to try many different treats. My girlfriend had a salmon mouse, a skyr with granola and some delicious scrambled eggs and I had an avocado on a piece of rye bread, and a pile of blueberry pancakes with bacon. Three plates for each of us was the precise amount of food to make us full and we had a delicious juice (32 kr) and a very, very good cup of cortado at only 25 kr, which is pretty cheap in Copenhagen. The total price was 230 kr for six disches, a cup of coffee and a juice and it definitely compete with all other cafés serving brunch in the city and it beats most on décor, service, food quality and selection.
Now it is a few days after and I am back to have an other cortado and a piece of raspberry pie, both of which live up to the brunch in the weekend. I can sit here and work while listening to soothing jazz music. I think this will be my new go-​to spot and I love that they also are open in the evening from Thursday to Saturday serving drinks and the delicious Korean Baos from Mao Bao.