Manfred's & Vin

Although I’d known since December that I would be visiting Scandinavia on business, the actual dates and locations of visits were still being finalised on January 3 as I was due to fly out that day. As things slowly crystallised Copenhagen visits were confirmed for the Monday so I flew in on Sunday night.

I’d first heard about Manfred’s & Vin in an article in the New York Times in September that gushed with praise about it. Reading through the article, the idea of a restaurant with a set menu that changes daily, with the courses chosen by chefs, sounded very appealing. The fact that it was open on a Sunday night also helped matters.

The restaurant was opened in 2011 by Christian Puglisi who’d formerly worked at Noma. He is best known for opening Relae across the street (Jaegersborggade) from Manfreds. Relae currently holds a Michelin star.

Manfred’s is a short taxi ride or 15-minute walk from the centre of Copenhagen (I took the taxi there and walked back on a cool crisp Copenhagen evening). Jaegersborggade features a mix of apartment blocks and small businesses and Manfred’s occupies the corner of an apartment block. The front door is down a few steps from the street and the chef’s station is immediately to the right as you enter the building. The main dining room is through an archway and there’s only room for 5 or 6 tables as well as the seating at the bar.

The menu is brief with only six a la carte items. The chef’s choice menu featured two vegetarian dishes, an egg dish and a fish or meat dish. The chef’s choice option seemed too good to pass up so I a glass of wine, the tasting menu and waited for the food to start. It turned out I didn’t have long to wait and as it turned up so quickly I wasn’t sure whether it was a taster for the actual menu. The first dish was baked sunchokes with yoghurt, bergamot and chives. I’d eaten a few before taking the photo below. I love Jerusalem artichokes but have to say this was not a great way to treat them. Baking left a tough skin with a mushy inside although the taste was okay if a bit one note. The yoghurt serving as a dip worked nicely but I hated the bergamot that trampled everything in its path. Not a good start.

The basket of bread that arrived next was good though. Plenty of wonderful crusty bread is always welcome.

But never mind, I was still feeling optimistic because the egg dish was next. Poached egg was served with grilled leeks and bacon crumble. The egg could have done with a few seconds more cooking to firm the white up a bit more but it tasted just fine. The grilled leeks were delicious especially in combination with the egg. Unfortunately there was too much of the salty bacon crunch that was quite overbearing compared to the other ingredients. 

The next dish was actually quite lovely. Roasted carrots with spinach, parsley and pumpkins seeds revolved around wonderfully sweet carrots with a contrast of tastes between the charred skin and the juicy core. The dish was carried by an intense vinaigrette dressing and the flat leaf parsley was a wonderful addition. The dish may have been simple but it gave a glimpse into why others rate Manfred’s highly.

I’d hoped that the final dish would be fish but it turned out to be braised veal served with anchovies and capers. The meat was wonderfully tender and it was a decent balanced dish. However, the presentation and the fact that this was the supposed crescendo of the meal left me pretty underwhelmed. And that seemed to sum up Manfred’s for me. I passed on dessert because I didn’t think there was any way dessert was going to redeem the meal as a whole.

Overall verdict
What a disappointment. I really wanted to like Manfred’s but there were too few high notes for me to recommend it to anyone.

Would I revisit Manfred’s & Vin?
Unlikely.  Visits to Copenhagen are likely to be occasional at best and Copenhagen isn’t short of interesting places to try.


Overall Rating 2/5