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Apart from Warpigs, we had been living off market food and just grabbing a bite to eat as and when we could since landing in Copenhagen, but I wanted to at least have one experience of Nordic cooking on our 3 day trip.

After a bit of googling and a recommendation from a friend we visited in Malmo, Sweden that afternoon we took a punt on Host. I would have loved to have sampled Geranium or Noma, whilst were in the country but to be frank, they are taking the piss with the pricing. For Noma it’s £300 per person for the tasting menu, then another £200 on top for paired wine. £1000 for a meal for two is outrageous, when our whole trip didn’t even cost that.

 

Tasting menu at Host Copenhagen

 

I was really surprised to find the tasting menu at Host, just £55 for 5 courses. Ok, it’s not the 105 courses at Geranium, but I also don’t own a an Amex Black Card. For a welcome glass of fiz, paired drinks for each course, coffee and chocolate, this bumped the price up to a much more reasonable £105 per person at Host. This meant I could even afford to eat for the rest of the month when i got home too, WINNER!

Before we came to Copenhagen, I had another restaurant on my hit list called Jah Izakaya & Sake bar. I found out that both restaurants belong to the same food collective called Cofoco.

The Restaurant

Host was located just over 1km from our hotel. We tried to book a taxi en route but they didn’t want to know as it was so close and Uber has been banned there, so it was on foot we went.

The restaurant was a situated on the corner of the street, luckily for us on the same main road we walked from the hotel, so there was no weaving in and out of back streets to find it. The interior was a fusion of industrial lighting paired against Scandic design and wood everything. I really liked it as it felt warm and endearing from the bitter wind on our trek there.

 

 

There was a hole in the middle of the wall with perspex, giving an insight into the workings of the kitchen and the gold splash board behind the cooker, that we saw scrubbed after nearly every pass. It was so clean in the kitchen, we’ve never seen anything like it. They literally scrubbed the kitchen, top to bottom every half an hour.

The Food

Opting for the evening at Host package we had our glasses topped with a sparkling wine to ease us into the evening along with a bowl of fresh, crunchy balls of dough with a whipped buttery cream to smother in, till our hearts content.

Shortly after we were also served our first paired wine to go with the first course. Not our first course, but one of the many surprise additions to our menu we gladly welcomed.

The wine, a Lil Buteo with almost Perry like qualities in both taste and cloudiness.

 

 

The surprise course was a sort of shrimp on toast with a waffle instead of bread. Not sure of the exact mixture within the prawns as it was lost in translation and wasn’t on the menu. It was bite sized and well received by both of us.

The first course on the menu was a Witchflounder with cauliflower and blue mussel sauce. A soft, meaty and white chunk of fish, ladled in the creamy mussel sauce at table side, flecked with mini florets of broccoli and the crunch of nuts to add a bit of texture and bite.

 

 

Next was one of my favourite dishes of the evening. Soft, tender slithers of birch smoked scallop meat, tossed in a subtle horseradish cream with a kick of sweetness from the cubes of apple. A simple concept but executed fabulously. Presentation was on point too, sat on a bed of stones.

We were treated to another surprise course next. An artichoke soup with crispy shards of fried artichoke sprinkled over. This was delicious and the crispy bits on top left me wanting my own pot, to douse every dish with. If I was in the corner away from prying eyes, I would of licked the bowl clean.

To go with the dish we had a mini tree that was hiding a few extra surprises to nibble on.

 

 

Another seafood course was up next in the form of Norwegian lobster with sea buckthorn and pickled carrots. The lobster meat had an almost charcoal, smokey BBQ taste to it, which I thought worked perfectly with the Yuzu IPA beer it was paired with and the zingy pickled carrots.

For our next course we had a choice of cod or beef. Having had a mainly fish fest so far, I was swaying more towards the beef. To make it easy, Llio went for the cod with lingonberries and crispy chicken skin and I went for the beef tenderloin with lingonberries and celeriac for a 50DKK surcharge. The beef also came a different, more punchy red wine, to go with it.

 

Beef main dish at Host restaurant Copenhagen

 

As expected the beef was meltingly tender, with a healthy scattering of crispy celeriac. The same sauce was used on both the cod and the beef, which was interesting. It could have been the lingonberry as I couldn’t work out where else it was on my dish.

We were now past the savoury courses and into something a bit sweeter, along with our final glass of wine came in the form of a 28 year old dessert wine.

Rose tinted and sweet, but not sickly sweet as the dessert of liquid nitrogen frozen hazlenut ice cream with pear and white chocolate didn’t warrant a roundhouse kick of sweetness to match it.

 

 

The bowl resembled the little Calipo Shots I used to love as a kid. With the multicoloured, frozen balls of ice, giving you a multitude and explosion of fruit, chocolate and nuts with each spoonful.

Our final dish was our last surprise course too. This featured a metallic, spherical meringue dome, dusted with a fine crimson powder atop a creamy base with added foliage for effect.

 

Meringue surprise course at Host Copenhagen

 

To be honest, I think I preferred this dish to the actual one on the menu. Even though the ice cream, chocolate and nut balls were nostaligic, this just tasted and looked like a grown up dessert. Again not overly sweet, but the flavours just worked in tandem.

Last but not least was the chocolates and coffee. The chocolates came out presented amongst some wood chippings, with around 3 varieties to savour and one making you question whether you were actually about to chomp on a nugget of wood, it was so realistic.

 

Chocolates and coffee at Host Copenhagen

The Verdict

I loved my visit to Host, from start to finish. From the rustic Nordic ambience of the restaurant, to the friendly and charming service we received and not to mention the epic measure of pairing drinks with the delicious food. There were no 30ml shots of wine to go with each course, that left you gasping for liquid refreshment after the first bite of food. You get a full serving with each course.

I thought it was amazing value for money with it costing about £105 per person for around 8 courses, with 6 drinks and chocolates. Which by UK standards would be pretty good, but for the extortionate cost of eating and drinking in Copenhagen, this was an absolute steal without compromising on quality.

I’d highly recommend a visit to Host if you are ever visiting Copenhagen and I will definitely be interested in trying some of the other restaurants in the Cofoco family.

 

Contact Details

Address: Nørre Farimagsgade 41, 1364 København, Denmark
Website: https://cofoco.dk/en/restaurants/hoest 

I saw Warpigs on a Netflix food show, starring American hip hop star Action Bronson not too long ago and when we booked a trip to Copenhagen I put it on my hit-list of places to visit.

I didn’t realise at the time that the venue was a collaboration between one of my favourite Danish craft brewers Mikkeller and the American 3 Floyds brewery.

The location of the Texas BBQ and brewpub was quite fitting, as it was located within the old meat packing district in Copenhagen. The expansive series of buildings has become a mecca for good food and drink in the city in the past few years. From a restaurant point of view, the buildings already have everything you need to setup shop with with the sterile environment and white tiles, which we noticed haven’t been altered much in most of the venues when we walked past.

Warpigs at the meat packing district in Copenhagen

We were staying less than a 10 minute walk from the meat packing district so we took a stroll over to see what else was about. The Warpigs brewpub looked huge from a distance but it is long and narrow from inside. They also have a merch and bottle shop next door, which had shut shop for the day by the time we got there.

There’s a communal dinning vibe going on with long tables in rows and some tables laid out across the length of the window to the outside, which suited smaller groups and couples. We managed to nab one of these seats pretty much straight away, considering it was rammed in there.

Drinks

There’s no table service so you have to order your drinks, consisting of over 20 Warpigs special beers, so you know your getting something totally different, which you won’t get anywhere outside of the venue. I went for a 6.8% Frank the Tank IPA and Llio going for the only sour on the menu at the time. They don’t do full pints and are more akin to an Australian scooner at 400ml for a large and 200ml for a smal or half. They were slightly high on the ABV, both being around 7% mark and they came to 131DKK or £16 in English notes. Not cheap, but then I’m surprised they don’t charge you to breath in Denmark as prices are outrageous everywhere.

Mikkeller beers at Warpigs Copenhagen

Food

For the food, you have to go up and order and it’s a bit like the school canteen, where you get a metal tray, tell the server what meat and what weight you want. They then weigh each item of meat in front of you and add it to the tray. Same goes for sides but these are per pot size, so no weighing involved.

Warpigs food menu Copenhagen

I had to have two trays to fit our food on as I went a bit nuts on the sides.

I ordered:

  • Southern fried shrimp
  • Hush puppies with pimento cheese
  • 1/2 lb of medium hot wings
  • 1 small mac n cheese
  • 1 small slaw
  • 1 small spicy pickles
  • 1/2lb hot links
  • 1 small burnt end beans
  • 1/2lb brisket
  • 1/2 lb of medium hot wings
  • 1/2lb smoked pork loin

The cost of the food alone came to 605DKK, around £73.50. Again not cheap considering we only had 4 meats and the smallest portion they did but then it is Copenhagen prices.

We both enjoyed the food, with the meat both tender and full of flavour. I was probably more into the sides as I love little nibbles but the meat we did have was damn tasty. Sadly they had run out of a few things I tried ordering like the pork ribs and special hot links but there was plenty of other things to choose from. These included the standard hot links and another pork special of smoked loin instead of the ribs, which had a nice crisp to the crackling.

Warpigs bbq and brewpub review Copenhagen

Also on the menu was beef rib, which would have been a contender had I not ordered the brisket but I’m not a great fan of ordering by weight when you’ve got a Jurassic proportion bone sticking out of the meat. It was also the most expensive meat per weight on the menu.

It was an absolute onslaught of food to be fair and I was left feeling a bit sorry for myself about 15 minutes in, after letting my eyes get the better of me when ordering. I’d have two minutes breather, a little burp then attack the smoked feast again before failing again.

We managed to fill two of the little paper bags with bits to take back home with us for a packed lunch instead of wasting it too, which was handy. I’d probably not need to eat for at least two days after what i’d just eaten mind.

The Verdict

I did like here, from the relaxed dinning, extensive beer list and just because I’m BBQ craving, smoked meat loving fiend.

Craft beer and hot wings at Warpigs Copenhagen

I couldn’t fault any of the food we had, apart from a slight issue with not getting my chicken wings and only realising part way through our meal. After showing them my receipt, they threw them straight in the fryer and were ready within minutes.

The cost of £73 just for food seemed a bit steep at first but in the grand scheme of the cost of everything in Copenhagen, it wasn’t too bad.

If you’re visiting Copenhagen I would definitely recommend a visit to Warpigs, if not for food then they are equally equipped to satisfy your fermented hopped needs with over 20 own brewed beers on tap.