Admiralgade 26 — Restaurant in Copenhagen Municipality

Update: noticed my review was removed because it violated content guidelines but clearly it didn’t. Anyways, reposting here:

I hesitate on posting this review because I have never posted a negative review of a restaurant before, especially given how times are difficult with covid. However, my dining experience tonight was so spectacularly strange and bad that I was left speechless and felt compelled to share what had happened.

First, it took them almost three hours to serve six rounds of courses - the tasting menu is nominally branded 10 courses but it’s essentially a combination of medium-sized dishes and bite-sized dishes served simultaneously. I often waited for 20 minutes or more between each course, which was not pleasant. The meal felt like it dragged on forever.

Second, I had to ask the employees four times for my phone back. When I first sat down, I asked them to charge my phone, and an hour into the meal, I wanted my phone back to check some messages, but I had to ask two different employees four times for my phone. They weren’t even that busy —there were moments when they were just standing around. It is clear they just didn’t prioritize or care about my request.

Third, the dishes themselves were lackluster, with these dishes can be best described as interesting. The only good dish was the fish, which was perfectly cooked, and complemented by two delightful sauces. One particularly bad one was the mushroom and miso soup. It was extremely salty that I almost gagged when I took my first sip, but I tried my best to consume it all.

Fourth, I didn’t have a fork for the course that’s cheesy potato noodles (think of cacio e pepe but with less cheese, no pepper, and julienned potatoes instead of pasta), a flavor combination that I didn’t find appetizing. After my course arrived, I waited for 15 minutes to find someone to give me a fork. When the server finally came around, he asked me if everything is all right, and I asked him for a fork. He didn’t even acknowledge the fact that I didn’t have a fork to begin with, making it very hard to eat the noodles. In my opinion, the most basic thing servers should know is that the diner should have a fork, knife, and spoon. This, coupled with the phone situation, made me feel like they were gaslighting me by making me feel bad about my simple requests. Also, I noticed that they filled other tables’ waters but I had to ask to get my water refilled.

Fifth, toward the end of my meal, I began experiencing stomach pains, which I’m not sure are related to this meal in particular. Anyways, I went to use the restroom for no more than 10 minutes before I heard this aggressive knocking on the door. One of the servers was telling me how they were worried about me since I left my credit card with the check and disappeared. This is ridiculous because I was gone for less than 10 minutes, and there were plenty of times when they made me wait much longer for a fork or food. He went onto say I needed to hurry up because they needed the table for someone else. I think I apologized and said I’ll be out soon, which looking back is crazy because why should I apologize for having stomach issues and then using the restroom? This was extremely stressful because when someone has bowel problems, it’s outside of their control how long they stay on the toilet for. Also, if they urgently needed my table, why didn’t they deliver the courses in a more timely manner? They should blame their own pacing rather than the less than 10 minutes I spent in the bathroom.

Overall, the service was polite but tinged with passive aggressiveness, with the employees’ comments making me feel bratty for my requests of having a fork to eat my noodles and getting my phone back after four attempts, along with using the restroom and not finishing a dish. The food was mediocre as well. The entire experience was quite uncomfortable and truly bizarre. I still can’t really wrap my head about what...

This epitomises - for me at least - the perfect eatimg experience. Admiralgade 26 is a mix between a restaurant and a wine bar. It consists of an elegantly decorated single room with a high ceiling . You can sit at either a high bar table, in comfortable fauteuils or at a regular table. The window seats are littered with books on modern architecture and the walls with idiosyncratic works of art (among others a beautiful Goya etching!). Service is excellent. The food is high end; subtle but without prentensions. I enjoyed a few excellent oysters, charred leek with a subtle sauce gribiche, exceptional home made sourdough bread (moist and heavy with a dark crust), fish roe with pickled onions and velvety sour cream. All accompanied by a very good, idiosyncratic, selection of wines by the glass: among others an Austrian Morillon, a very good Hungarian pinot noir and a very unusual orange wine made entirely of the juice of muscat grapes. Last but not least, I have to mention the friendly and hospitable service. I eat out a lot but my evening at Admiralgade...

Two little stories to tell you about my experience: 1 - the wine pairing is 490. Decent selection. At one point I have a used empty glass, and a glass of white. Waiter comes with a bottle of red as I am talking to my friends, reaches over, takes my white wine and pours it over in the other dirty glass, then pour the red in the used white wine glass 2 - We’re in between dishes and I have my elbows on the table, crossing my hands and resting my chin in them. Waiter comes in with cutlery, doesn’t say a word, and literally nudges me with three little taps with his forearm so that I move my elbow. Not a word.

So depending where you’re from you may feel that this restaurant just takes anyone for “service” and doesn’t go through the trouble or expects any sort of good manners for a 900 quid experience. The food is terrific don’t get me wrong. I’ll just never go...