madklubben, Vesterbro

Last night Emily and I snagged last minute reservations at madklubben. It was quite nice and, by Copenhagen standards, reasonably priced. I should change that - it was reasonably priced by most standards.

When we walked by the other day, I thought it was a furniture store!

As we walked up, there was already a line waiting to get in for dinner. It's a small place, and as such the early seatings are required to be out by 8:15 20:15. The host was very friendly. He directed us to our table and provided a menu in Danish as well as one in English. I'm getting used to giving the blank, please-speak-english-to-me stare. Thank you Danes for putting up with it.

madklubben rotates its menu regularly and also has something called the "staff meal" or "personalemaden" which is exactly what it sounds like. It's the meal that the staff eats. This evening it was veal / pork meatballs in a curry. It sounded delicious but was unfortunately gone by the time I had made the decision to order it.

Our waiter Thomas was extraordinarily friendly - he helped us with our Danish as we helped him with his English.

At any rate, we started with glasses of cava, a sparkling wine from Spain. Very nice and super affordable - 35 DKK a glass. Emily had the lune jordskokker as a starter - a salad of Jerusalem arichokes, thinly sliced pears, with a walnut vinaigrette. I went with the tomatsuppe, which as you'd suspect was tomato soup. Both were tasty - I especially liked the goat cheese in my soup.

For the entree, we both went with the lammeculotte and a side of fingerling potatoes to share. The lammeculotte was slices of lamb, seasoned with tarragon, over parsley root, and topped with pickled onions. We really enjoyed the sweetness of the broth / jus - it paired nicely with the slight radish / turnip-like pungency of the celery root. I think that this is a common prep of lamb here, and I enjoyed it - I would have liked more pickled onions!

For dessert, we shared the braiseret ananas, a braised pineapple topped with coconut sorbet, crispy coconut, and almonds. Delicious.

All told, I would definitely come back - the gentleman seated next to me ordered the burger, which looked delicious. It's a small menu, but we'll definitely take a look when it changes over in March.

For two appetizers, two glasses of sparkling wine, two entrees, a bottle of red, and dessert we were just over $100 USD. Not bad. To remember, tipping is minimal / non-existent here and all bills include any tax.