The Monthly Bite: Best New Openings in Copenhagen Vol. 13

 
The weather is still good in Copenhagen, which means you’ll likely feel inspired to get out and do all the things. Make sure one of those things is eating, because there are some great new restaurants in the city. Whether you’re looking for a vegan restaurant or a tasty sandwich at a Japanese-inspired eatery, this month’s openings are for you.

Note: remember that in order to sit inside, you still need to present your Coronapas: proof of a vaccination or negative COVID-19 test within the last 72 hours.

Here are the best new restaurant openings in Copenhagen this month:

Bistro Lupa

Bistro Lupa is a new plant-based bistro on Melchiors Plads in Østerbro. It’s owned by Australian entrepreneur Jason Renwick, who started the popular Souls as well as its sister (gourmet) restaurant, Ark, in central Copenhagen.

Head chef Brett Lavender explains, “You can come here for multiple things. You can come for brunch, for lunch, for dinner, for a date night or with your family, or you can sit outside and drink and have a little bit of food. This is versatile restaurant.” They have a selection of kombucha, beers, and European natural wines.

Bistro Lupa restaurant demonstrates just how creative and delicious plant-based food can be. We especially recommend the “LFM” (Southern style fried blue oyster mushroom). It’s crunchy, spicy, and full of flavor.

Bistro Lupa’s Head Chef Brett Lavender talks us through some of their signature dishes:

Milk Bread Sandwich

Charred Blue Oyster Mushrooms / Almond Cream Cheese / Walnut / Miso Glaze

“It’s based on our milk bread, adapted from Japanese sweet milk bread, that we bake in-house with unsweetened soy milk. It’s made fresh every single morning. The blue oyster mushroom comes from our co-owned farm, which is in the Nordvest neighborhood of Copenhagen, so we grow these mushrooms ourselves as well. It has a nice little spice mix that resembles pastrami. Inside is a miso and walnut mixed herb salad with pickled onions and gherkins, all pickled in-house. The miso spread is also homemade.”

Summer salad

Charred Romaine / Yeast Emulsion / Red Onion Vinaigrette / Puffed Buckwheat

“This one is our summer salad, based on our almond ricotta. We make this ricotta in-house. It’s a mix of soaked, blitzed almonds, plus we make an almond cream cheese. It takes about three days to make. We use the whey from one of the cocktails in the bar to mix together in a ratio that gives a ‘ricotta-feel’ for the cheese. It has brined and charred apricot with Danish peas, dressed with a bit of citronette, and pea sprouts, chive flowers, and some grated almonds. We do this for brunch and on the dinner menu.”

‘LFM’

Blue Oyster Mushroom / Southern Fried-Style / Smoked Chili Glaze

“This is our blue oyster mushroom from Funga Farm. It’s ‘Kentucky Fried-style!’ We salt the mushrooms and leave them for three days to draw the water out, since mushrooms are 90% water. It changes the texture so that they are a little bit more chewy and kind of resemble chicken. Then we add our secret spice flour mix and homemade BBQ sauce.”

Sweet Potato Tart

Marinated sweet potato over short crust pastry, glazed with a cloudy apple reduction

“We developed a vegan short crust pastry. Inside, and on the side as well, we have Swiss Brown mushroom purée. We marinate sliced sweet potato with garlic and lemon thyme, then let it macerate. We then roll it into this elaborate shape on top, which takes forever. It’s highly laborious. It’s cooked to retain a small amount of crunch and then glazed with a cloudy apple juice reduction. It’s served with a seasonal salad and dressed with citrus.”

Chocolate and Hazelnut Marquise

Hazelnut Milk / Cacao Soil / Orange Tagetis

“This dish is made with hazelnut milk and roasted hazelnuts, made to play on the flavors of Ferrero Rocher and Nutella: chocolate and hazelnut. There’s a chocolate hazelnut Marquise (like a chocolate mousse). There’s hazelnut praline folded through the mousse. You really can’t go wrong with those flavours!”

Coconut Mascarpone

Rhubarb / Strawberries / Tarragon Crumble

“This is a coconut mascarpone. We’ve got rhubarb and strawberry underneath. The rhubarb has been compressed in a vanilla, black pepper, and lemon syrup. There’s no cooking of the rhubarb itself – it is macerated. It’s a bit crunchy and acidic, as well as sweet. Hidden under it all is a tarragon crumble, and on top is chervil. We serve this one nice and cold. you get a fatty coconut mascarpone feel with the fresh, sharp fruit flavours.

Kombucha and Iced Coffee

Bistro Lupa

Marstalsgade 8
2100 København Ø

Opening Hours:
Sun – Tues Tue Closed
Weds 5:00 – 10:00 pm
Thurs 11:00 am – 10:00 pm
Fri & Sat 11:00 am – 11:00 pm

Kōnā

Kōnā was an idea that has been on the mind of Austrian chef Philip Inreiter for many years. “We call it a Japanese-inspired eatery, so you have flavors that you associate with Japan but with ingredients that you find around here in middle Europe,” he explains.

“Given that the space has two levels, it turned into two restaurants. Downstairs, there’s Omakase with 20 seats and an eight course menu that’s constantly changing. Omakase means ‘in the hands of the chef’ in Japanese. Upstairs, there’s Izakaya, which in Japan is a place where people drop in, get a couple of drinks, and couple of snacks and leave again.”

Philip Inreiter is Austrian and has worked in kitchens around the world from Eleven Madison Park in New York City to noma and Relae in Copenhagen. After a year spent in Tokyo, he opened Slurp Ramen Joint in 2018. Now Philip spends 10% of his time at Slurp and 90% at Kōnā, which he opened mid-Corona in November 2020.

And the meaning of the name? “Kōnā” means corner in Japanese. Philip explains why they chose it: “Things always happen on the corner, and it is a corner building, and it just seemed to be like the perfect name for that restaurant.”

Upstairs, we recommend the Sando, which means sandwich in Japanese. The Katsu Sando is especially excellent. It’s a milk bread sandwich with breaded pork loin cutlet, cabbage, parsley, mayo & tonkatsu sauce.

Kala’s Kimchi

Made by Kala, Copenhagen’s own Kimchi Queen (above right).
 

Katsu Sando

Milk Bread Sandwich with Breaded Pork Loin Cutlet, Cabbage, Parsley, Mayo & Tonkatsu sauce.

Mackerel Sashimi

Chicken Wings

Fried Chicken Wings with Nanami and Szechuan Pepper.

Kōnā Ice Cream

Omakase (Downstairs)

Downstairs at Omakase, they currently have a seafood and vegetable set menu, created by head chef Jessica Natali. The idea is that the constantly changes around to keep things interesting.
 

Kōnā

Bag Elefanterne 13
1799 København V

Opening Hours:
Sun & Mon Closed
Tues – Thurs 5–11pm
Fri &S at 12–3pm, 5pm–12am

Want more of the best Copenhagen restaurants, bars, and cafés?

Images by Freya McOmish.