Copenhagen is only 20 minutes away from Malmö by train so you can imagine how many Swedish people there are in Copenhagen any given day. A lot of Swedes work here and lots come as tourists. And although I love to visit Copenhagen myself, I don’t like feeling like a tourist here. I feel I have spent too much time here and know it too well. Plus the language isn’t a problem; I can even count in Danish (which is a bit tricky for some).

Although very cosy and nice, I didn’t want to run the risk of ending up in Nyhavn where all Swedes hang out. It is by the riverfront and lovely but I have yet to find a nice restaurant that isn’t a tourist trap there. Instead I did some research on aok.dk (All about Copenhagen) to find somewhere low key with nice food and suitable to bring a baby to. Fortunen had all that and we really enjoyed our evening here! And the secretly enjoyed being the only Swedes in the restaurant despite the very central location.

It was super windy here by the river so we sat outside and had a drink but went downstairs into the cosy restaurant to enjoy our meal.

The menu consists of small plates (which I love) and you could choose any three for DKK 250 which we thought was great value for money. Maria and I chose the same dish to start and absolutely loved this creation of girolles, corn, potato foam and pickled onion.

Daniel chose the poached egg (which was very lightly poached and therefore when you stirred it became a sauce) with beetroot, yellow beets, peas, charred leek and parmesan. Also very nice!

The next dish for Maria and I were the hanger steak (onglet) with seaweed, shiitake (?) mushrooms and a soy jus. A great combination of flavours that really worked. And the meat was fabulous – one of my favourite cuts.

Daniel had  cockrel with lentils and little gem lettuce and really enjoy the whole dish but the jus from the lentils was amazing.

After these dishes Maria and I were quite content and could move on to pudding, but since the dishes weren’t that big we completely understood that Daniel might need something more. He was so considerate that he ordered what he estimated was the quickest dish on the menu (all cold ingredients) so we didn’t have to wait too long. It was mackerel with buttermilk, broadbeans and dill and looked super fresh and light but might have been even better to start with than after a warm dish.

Then it was time for pudding. This time Daniel and I chose the same one; olive oil icecream with strawberries, beetroot meringues and white chocolate. It was incredibly nice!

Maria’s dish was even more interesting with the combination of vanilla icecream, buckthorn, caramel and dried black olives. It was gorgeous too!

I can highly recommend this restaurant. I love the mix of gourmet food combinations (that work) without the fuss, the nice ambiance and attentive service (at least from our waitress, not sure about the others).

Fortunen — Bar & Spiseri
Ved Stranden 18
1061 København K