Høst

A restaurant from the Cofoco (Copenhagen Food Collective hospitality group), its name in Danish means ‘harvest’. As you can imagine, the New Nordic food movement very much focuses on in season and foraged produce and you dine here with a sense that a Norse god has prepared this stunning dinner just for you.

They only do prix fixe here, and you have the option of choosing from a 3 or 5 course menu (350/450 DKK), with wine match of course if you’re game. Being the pleb I am, I forgot that when dining at such establishments 3 courses really means 5, and 5 courses really means 10. So do take this into account when deciding on whether to spend or splurge.

Would it be too cliche to say that Høst emanated hygge? Although it was bitterly cold outside, inside was warm and inviting, with white painted brick contrasting wooden boards and soft yellow lighting. Someone, my guess a millennial, clearly has a penchant for indoor plants and uses them strategically to make one feel like they’re sitting in a sparsely wooded forrest.

My meal started with an amuse bouche of the most exquisite croquette to ever pass my lips. A crisp, panko-crumbed croquette of langoustine accompanied by a salad of cucumber pearls and delicate micro-salad with a sprinkling of… ashen garlic? I honestly don’t know. But the robust flavours of the croquette felt like the chef had captured the essence of the sea, and crumbed and fried it.

The first (advertised) course was a piece of the most delicately baked hake; tasting it makes it hard to believe much cooking as been done at all. It was moist and just short of buttery. The hake was paired with almost jam-like tomatoes and an aerated tarragon sauce which had a subtle verdancy that added a bit of vibrancy to the dish.

Next was a birch smoked scallop with horseradish and green bean. Served like the Birth of Venus in a scallop shell, the smoked scallop had a subtle smoked flavour and was soft and almost gelatinous, the sweet spot between raw and cooked. It’s dressings were herbaceous with spring onion; the unexpected occult crispy chicken skin I discovered added an unexpected meatiness, lifting this wee course into the superlative

I could rattle on about each course I ate but I think you can tell that each was superb and thoughtful. If Noma is out of reach (both physically and fiscally), I couldn’t recommend Høst more.