Kødbyens Fiskebar just sits back and waits for you to come and enjoy its fine fish and fun. It’s big, has a jellyfish tank and is in the awesome old meat packing district of Copenhagen. It also has succulent food and delectable drinks served to you by attentive, informed, efficient and (some) very creatively tattooed staff. It’s the perfect place to go with friends who want to take time out and chat about nothing and everything over fabulous food.

Two of my friends got sick and couldn’t make it but I was left with three delightful individuals. One American guy who I met for the first time looked exactly like Tom Hanks to me. But, nope, he was the husband of my girlfriend. He had the same endearing humour though and worked for AARP, the American Association for Retired People.

Call me crazy but I love AARP Magazine! I don’t think I’ll ever be retired or living in the US, but at least the publication cuts through the crap and gives you practical advice on health, money, food, scams and ... when you need to find out what happened to Bo Derek or Sinbad or even if Gordon Ramsay has turned 50 and Christoph Waltz 60, you’ll find it in AARP!

I’m pretty sure I expressed my enthusiastic support for my girlfriend’s husband’s job to scare him sufficiently (choose your own emoji here). Fortunately, that’s when the last of our party came in and saved the situation. Well, sort of. He’s tall so I had to make fun of him since I’m short. Listen, a lower center of gravity will always topple after the higher one goes down ... I'll double google that later to confirm.

This guy is also Danish so I can’t understand anything he says. No, of course he speaks perfect English, pretty good French and so many other languages. So, my girlfriend rightly ignored my Danish language rant and asked him to translate and pronounce some of the words she had enjoyed identifying in the city. He seemed to get them all correct but I would get a second opinion just to be sure!

The evening was so lighthearted and lovely that we stayed there until staff began cleaning up and closing. I think they even started winding everything down by playing the seemingly ever-present 80s tunes I also heard before at Bror. Maybe this musical decade is just a Copenhagen chef community thing. Don’t know, I’ll have to go back, eat more and investigate!

CPH now has a reputation as a foodie’s paradise with more Michelin stars than you can shake a stick at; once again Noma has been decreed the world’s best restaurant. Lot’s of people come here for Nordic food breaks; if you do make sure you don’t get food poisoning for the whole weekend like Steve West!

We’re not quite in Michelin star league, but we’ve managed to move on from the offerings of McDonalds Denmark (only two visits in total including the journey here); here follows some of the highlights focussing on Kødbyen, the trendy meat packing district in Vesterbro. There are lots of cafe bars on Sønder Boulevard, here we are having tea at Dyrehaven with the kids.

Albert hanging out at the Dyrehaven, in his Phil n Ted Me Too!

Randomly this cafe is in the rough guide to CPH; I’m not sure there’s much to pick it out from the other cafes on the boulevard other than the impressive location, especially as we sat on the corner table. We were going to get a deli board for the kids to share but it has been replaced by shrimp. Immy loves prawns so we ordered this. She got a portion of ~100! She’s got the idea of how to peel now at least, and we had prawn leftovers at home for the next two days.

The Dyrehaven epitomises the standard of food in Denmark. Looking at the three key business drivers of speed, quality and cost, Danish restaurants are all about quality. This is my kind of country! One where food is a bit more expensive, takes a little bit longer but is always of a high standard. You get the impression that everything is cooked fresh.

When my mum and dad were here we checked out mother in the meat packing district. This is the area of the city where all of the cattle used to be processed and sold; you can find imaginative street names such as slaughter house way. Recently it’s under gone urban regeneration. It’s make up now is approximately

30% Meat packing, fishmonger and original businesses. In quite a few you can watch them at work through large windows!

30% Restaurants, with a mixture of cheaper takeaway’s and high end establishments

10% Art galleries

10% Late night bars and small music venues

20% empty

Even in the three months we’ve been here two new places have opened, one of which is an indian restaurant.

Mother is billed as the best pizza restaurant in town, complete with kitchen open to the restaurant floor and two wood burning stoves. It was a nice pizza here but I’m not sure it was worth the hype. I’ve not seen any chained pizza restaurants here; maybe there’s an opening for Pizza Express. Albert loved the pizza but given that I found him eating both a paperback book and toilet roll tube today it’s faint praise.

We tried out Mad Klubben (which means food club) a chain of very popular restaurants across the city. The rough guide recommended this a great place to take the kids, so it came as surprise that they didn’t have a children’s menu and wouldn’t do us any half portions. It was a tasty food but a complete failure on accommodating young children.

We’ve managed to get out for a few precious child free evening meals when visitors have kindly baby sat. Since there were only going to be a couple such occasions we didn’t worry about our budget. First stop the Michelin listed Fiskebar right in the heart of Kødbyen; this is apparently the best fish restaurant in town.

The highlight here were the starters from the raw bar. Abi had King Crab served in a mini glass cloche whilst I had Scottish Razor Clams served on edible faux shells made from seaweed. The mains didn’t quite meet this standard, but it was going to be hard to top.

We sat outside in the setting sun; I had to make use of a blanket as it wasn’t as warm as I’d thought. Rhubarb is very big in Denmark, although Abi was convinced that it couldn’t match up the quality of Yorkshire Rhubarb.  We shared desserts and I ordered the rhubarb and it was up to scratch.

On another night we went to Paté Paté just around the corner in Kødbyen. Here all of the dishes are starter sized allowing to you to try a fish, veggie, and meat dish and still have space for desert. In fact the desserts are so well respected here lots of people just call in for dessert when they’ve had dinner elsewhere. The whole meal was a really high standard and I’d recommend this restaurant as well.

Jumping back to our Copenhagen trip for a bit today...

We had heard that Danish oysters were in season and were dying to try them. After our delectable dinner at Amass, we were chatting with Chef Matt Orlando and mentioned this him. "You have to go to Fiskebar!", he exclaimed without hesitation. So we knew that's where we were headed for dinner the next night...

Located in Copenhagen's old meatpacking district, Fiskebar had a long line at the door when we walked up. We were shocked to discover there was a two hour wait, even for seats at the bar. However, outside tables were available immediately as it was a bit chilly that night, so we took a seat under the closest heat lamp, which is why the color on these pics will appear at bit off.

Turns out they only had one Danish oyster on the menu in addition to a selection of French bivalves. As the local oysters was eight buck a piece (!!), we ordered one of each, along with a platter of others from Bretagne and Normandy...

You could easily see why the Danish oysters, which were Belon from Limfjorden, had a heftier price tag as they were huge!

And they were delicious!! Briny and meaty, easily one of the best oysters I have eaten anywhere. Definite top three. And worth every penny!

Next up was local razor clam, served on a cracker "shell"...

Lovely to look at with edible flowers, asparagus cream and fennel salad; equally wonderful to eat...

Homemade bread with a dill butter...

I went with the fish and chips, which were excellent...

Served with a homemade remoulade and seaweed flaked fries...

No offense to my friends in the UK, but one of the best versions I've ever had the pleasure of eating...

Then we also had the daily catch, which was brill...

Served with romo shrimps, celeriac, hazelnuts, lovage, mussel sauce and bone marrow. Another truly incredible dish...

As we were leaving, we noticed that there was a open kitchen, open to the public actually, right in front of their "parking lot". Very Danish...

After this most amazing meal, we left wondering my Fiskebar isn't getting as much hype as some of the other Danish restaurants we always hear about... because it truly deserves it!

KØDBYENS FISKEBAR

Flæsketorvet 100

Copenhagen 1711

Denmark

+45-3215-56-56