cleo — Restaurant in Copenhagen Municipality

I have been passing by this little gem for years, and finally ventured to visit on a Monday during the summer holidays. The place was buzzing but not full.

The four of us opted for the 8 serving sharing course menu and a bottle of Chardonnay, plus an extra dish of grilled apricots, which are in season. I would describe the food we had as seasonal contemporary modern with fusion touches.

The menu came in four rounds, and was very well balanced. The first three courses was the mackerel which was fresh and delicately combined with sweet pineapple, a spicy sweet melon dish with gochujang and their flavourful pizza bread. Second serving was a very delicious middle course with corn, polenta, and chanterelles that worked very well in its own. The third serving was a fresh cucumber salad, haricot vert with a Thai nam jim sauce, and grilled pork with n’duja flavoured sauce bearnaise. The mix of flavours, consistencies and the fresh veggies and meat worked very well. To round it all of and clean the pallet came a yuzu sorbet as dessert.

All in all, a great example of how you can combine traditional modern ways of cooking with a plethora of exotic flavours and make it all work together. I’m so happy to see this type cuisine in the Copenhagen food scene.

On top of that, the service was on point and made sure the vibe and atmosphere was pleasant and enjoyable.

Thank you all for...

We had the most wonderful dinner at Cleo tonight.

Food - What a delightful experience. I was intrigued about the lack of meat on the menu (we specifically did the 10 course which only has 1 fish dish). But I could not have been more impressed. It was a flavour festival in every single dish! Beautifully crafted flavour combinations, textures and temperatures. The star of the show was the artichoke course - absolute perfection. I must also highlight the subtle Asian flavour themes throughout, seeing some classics like miso, kewpie mayo, and kimchi.

Service was flawless. Lovely staff that were attentive but not overbearing. We didn’t feel rushed to give our table back and enjoyed the pace of the courses. Some might feel the service is “slow” but we enjoyed it. This is not a restaurant to arrive in a rush.

Lovely atmosphere. We were having a date night/ birthday celebration and it couldn’t have been better. Super cozy, modern meets rustic, with nice music playing.

In summary, we highly recommend this place to a foodie that likes some fun...

We came for the 10 servings tasting menus:

Food has some intriguing Asian influence but overall there is nothing that really emerged (but several were disappointing). Among the 10 servings there was one radicchio salad, one bread loaf (partially burnt) and a couple amuse bouche served at the beginning. The main was grilled mushrooms with some miso sauce (if you order that separately, that’s 190dkk!!), again ok taste but…

Service was friendly and pleasant. Waiting time between servings was way too long. We sat at 20:40, we left around 3 hours later. Vibe was cool.

2 big menus + 1 average priced bottle from the list = 800dkk per person. Too much for what you get, especially considering the very low price of ingredients. Unfortunately I would probably...