Umami

Description:

• One dinner at the übertrendy restaurant Nobu in Manhattan did it all for the owners of this restaurant. Returning to Copenhagen, they created their own version of a gastronomic sushi temple, luring the power players and major celebs who come to Copenhagen. The setting is beneath the high ceilings of what was originally built as a bank during the 19th century. Permeated with a sense of Japanese minimalism, within sightlines of the kind of clientele who knows precisely how fashionable this place is, you can enjoy creative cuisine that's been written about almost as a matter of course within the Danish press. Don't overlook the place as a potential lounge and club, especially on Friday and Saturday nights, when a DJ spins tunes from a spot near the bar. Drink suggestion? Try sake infused with lemongrass, or any of several kinds of hallucinogenic martini. The street level is the site of the cocktail bar; upstairs is the restaurant, and sushi is available virtually anywhere. Note: One of the most whimsical corners of the place is within the former vault, site of today's men's and ladies' toilets.

  If you're not quite sure what Japanese cooking is with a French touch, try the seared foie gras with eel, Nashi pear, and seafood salad, or the sake-steamed mussels with chili and cilantro, or even the grilled scallops with Yuzu-chili. Ingredients are fresh, flavor combinations are novel, and presentation is elegant and stylish, as evoked by such dishes as Wagyu beef with three sauces or rabbit loin stuffed with shiitake mushrooms and served with pickled eggplant. Minimal cooking makes for a superb texture, as represented by the breast of guinea fowl teriyaki.

  The restaurant has even claimed to have discovered five tastes to add to already accepted sour, sweet, salty, and bitter that can be distinguished by the human tongue. Chefs used kombu, a special type of seaweed made into crystals of amino acid glutamine and monosodium glutamate, to produce a flavor enhancer for many of their more inspired dishes.

• © Frommer's 2013

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Highly Recommended 2010