ERA ORA
Overgaden neden vandet 33B
1414 Copenhagen K
Phone +45 32 54 06 93
Overall rating: 6.5/10
Date of visit: October 2009
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Era Ora is the only Italian restaurant in Denmark with a Michelin star, which it has held since 1997. The interior itself is quite beautiful.
We had five courses, and the meal started out quite nice with a course of three small starters: Raw scallops filled with salmon eggs, a cherry tomato with pesto, and a piece of superbly cooked cod. Cod can easily become dry, but this was just super juicy. This course was fairly mild and elegant, but still very pleasant. It was my favourite dish here.
Next up was a pasta dish with chickpeas, pancetta, rosemary and a bit of chilli. It was pleasant enough, but not really anything special. Sorry for the photo. I forgot to take a picture before digging in.
Then came the main course: Venison with borlotti bean puree, borlotti bean ratatouille, strips of carrot and squash, and a grilled onion. The meat was one of the tougher cuts. Personally, I prefer the finer cuts for venison, but that’s just my personal preference. It was very tender, but just not as flavourful as I would have liked it to be (which it might have been with a finer cut). The beans were pleasant enough, but just tasted like beans – nothing else. So, all in all just not very interesting.
Our first dessert was a semolina cake with grape sorbet. The cake was completely devoid of any flavour. It seemed to be simply flour, sugar, butter and eggs – no vanilla, lemon, rose water, almonds, apples, or anything else that would have given it some kind of flavour. The sorbet was pleasant, but with that cake the dish itself was not really a success. It looked very pretty, though.
Our last dessert was my second favourite of the night: A small puff pastry “ravioli” filled with apples, on top of caramel. That combination worked very well. There were also an ice cream and some other elements on the plate, but I simply don’t remember what it was (the ice cream was probably vanilla). I do remember that the white chocolate powder on there seemed a bit silly. It evaporated the minute I put it in my mouth, but that’s how that type of powder is. I’ve had it in other restaurants as well, and my experience there was the same.
So, overall the food was good, but not great or amazing in any way. Everything was well cooked (especially the magnificent cod) and nothing was burned or undercooked. The problem with the food was that it simply lacked inspiration. A friend of mine had been to Era Ora and said exactly the same thing.
Overall, the dishes looked very nice, but the juices from the venison had run all over the plate, and the caramel for the last dessert had been smeared a little bit across the plate too. That is my only complaint about the presentation – everything else looked great.
The service was good, but nothing spectacular. Everybody were friendly and helpful, but there were two major problems: We seemed to be served by someone new for each course, and one waitress didn’t speak any Danish. That’s not a problem for me, but my dad doesn’t speak English, so I had to tell him what was on the plate after she had left (and I didn’t get all of what she said before she ran off). The other problem was that we waited way, way too long between every single dish.
The white wine, Villa Fidelia Sportoletti, was simply the best white wine I’ve ever had. We went to see their wine cellar, and it was both nicely presented and impressive in its stock. I’m not big on wine, but as far as I know Era Ora is a particularly good restaurant to go to in Copenhagen if you’re a wine aficionado and not afraid to pay big bucks for it.
As mentioned above, the food was good but not great. Five dishes were, if I’m not mistaken, 650 kroner per person (€87). That’s not the most expensive meal in Copenhagen, but I just didn’t feel that we had spectacular and flavourful food that was worth that kind of money.
A glass of white wine was 150 kroner (€20), but an entire bottle of that particular wine could be bought at retail for 180 kroner (€24). I even bought that wine at a special offer for 100 kroner (€13). The Danish taxes make everything in restaurants more expensive, but I had a glass of white wine at AOC (clearly my favourite restaurant in Copenhagen so far) that was very similar. That cost me 100 kroner (€13) for a glass, and a bottle would set you back 235 kroner (€31) in retail. That seems more reasonable.
Other restaurants in Copenhagen like AOC, Kokkeriet, Herman, and Cofoco are definitely better, although Cofoco is not quite up to the standard of the other three (but it is also a lot cheaper).
A couple of months after our visit, I read a big review in one of the Danish national newspapers that basically said the same thing: The food was well-cooked, but just not spectacular or interesting.
Dansk anmeldelse
ERA ORA
Overgaden neden vandet 33B
1414 Copenhagen K
Phone +45 32 54 06 93
Sammenlagt vurdering: 6.5/10
Besøgets dato: Oktober 2009
Era Ora er den eneste italienske restaurant i Danmark med en Michelin-stjerne, som den har haft siden 1997. Selve restauranten er ret elegant.
Vi fik fem retter, og måltidet startede ret godt med en ret bestående af tre små forretter: Rå kammuslinger fyldt med lakseæg, en cherrytomat med pesto og et stykke perfekt tilberedt torsk. Torsk kan nemt blive tørt og kedeligt, men det her stykke var virkelig saftigt. Retten var rimelig mild og elegant, men stadig rigtig dejlig. Det var min favorit i måltidet.
Næste ret var en pastaret med kikærter, rosmarin og lidt chili. Det var i sig selv velsmagende nok, men på ingen måde noget spektakulært.
Så kom hovedretten: Vildt med en borlottibønnepuré, ratatouille med borlottibønner, juilennestrimler af gulerødder og squash og et grillet løg. Kødet var en af de grovere udskæringer. Personligt kan jeg bedre lide de finere udskæring af vildt, men det er bare min personlige smag. Det var meget mørt, men ikke så velsmagende, som jeg godt kunne have tænkt mig (hvilket det måske kunne have været med en finere udskæring). Bønnerne var fine nok, men de smagte bare af bønner – intet andet. Alt i alt var den ret ikke videre interessant.
Den første dessert var en semolinakage med druesorbet. Kagen havde ingen smag overhovedet. Den lod ikke til at bestå af andet end mel, smør og æg – ingen vanilje, citron, rosenvand, mandler, æbler eller andet, der kunne give den noget smag. Sorbeten var ganske god, men sammen med den kage var retten som helhed ikke videre vellykket. Den var dog flot anrettet.
Den sidste dessert var min anden favorit den aften: En lille “ravioli” af butterdej fyldt med æbler oven på et leje af karamel. Den kombination fungerede rigtig godt sammen. Der var også en is og nogle andre elementer på tallerkenen, men jeg kan desværre ikke huske, hvad det var (isen var nok mælk eller vanilje). Jeg kan dog huske, at det hvide chokoladepulver virkede lettere tåbeligt. Det svandt ind det øjeblik, jeg puttede det i munden, men sådan er den slags pulvere. Jeg har også fået det på andre restauranter, og her har oplevelsen været det samme.
Så alt i alt var maden god, men ikke fremragende eller spektakulær på nogen måde. Alt var veltilberedt (især den fremragende torsk), og intet var brændt på eller råt. Problemet med maden var, at det simpelthen var kedeligt og lettere fantasiløst. En af mine veninder har også været på Era Ora og sagde nøjagtig det samme.
Generelt var retterne flot anrettet, men kødsaften fra vildtet var løbet ud på tallerkenen, og karamellen i den sidste dessert var også blevet tværet lidt ud på tallerkenen. Det er det eneste, jeg kan klage over med hensyn til anretningen – resten var flot anrettet.
Betjeningen var også i orden, men ikke noget videre. Alle var venlige og hjælpsomme, men der var to store problemer: I stedet for at have den samme tjener hele vejen igennem, blev vi betjent af en ny tjener, så godt som hver gang vi fik en ny ret, og en af servitricerne talte ikke dansk. Det var som sådan ikke noget problem for mig, men min far taler ikke engelsk, så efter hun var gået, blev jeg nødt til at fortælle ham, hvad det var for noget mad, vi fik (og jeg fik ikke fat i det hele, inden hun løb). Det andet problem var, at vi ventede alt, alt for lang tid mellem hver eneste ret.
Hvidvinen, Villa Fidelia Sportoletti, var simpelthen den bedste hvidvin jeg nogensinde har smagt. Vi så deres vinkælder, og den var både flot og imponerende i dens omfang. Jeg er ikke den store vindrikker, men så vidt jeg ved, er Era Ora et særdeles godt sted at tage hen, hvis man går meget op i vin og ikke er bange for at betale for det.
Som nævnt var maden god, men ikke fremragende. Hvis jeg ikke tager fejl, kostede fem retter 650 kroner per person. Det er ikke det dyreste måltid i København, men jeg syntes ikke, at maden havde nok smag eller var spektakulær nok til at retfærdiggøre den pris.
Et glas hvidvin kostede 150 kroner, men en hel flaske af den samme vin kunne købes i en forretning (Theis vine) for 180 kroner. Jeg købte den faktisk på tilbud til 100 kroner for en flaske. Alle de danske skatter gør selvfølgelig alting dyrere på en restaurant, men på AOC (klart min favorit i København indtil videre) fik jeg et glas hvidvin, der var næsten magen til mht. til smag. Det glas kostede mig 100 kroner, og en flaske kostede 235 kroner i butikken (som tjeneren gav mig navnet på). Det virker mere rimeligt.
Jeg synes, at andre restauranter i København som f.eks. AOC, Kokkeriet, Herman og Cofoco er klart bedre, selvom Cofoco ikke er helt oppe på det samme niveau som de tre andre (men prisen er så også kun omkring halvt så høj).
Et par måneder efter vores middag læste jeg en stor anmeldelse i Jyllandsposten, som stort set sagde det samme: Maden var veltilberedt, men bare ikke spektakulær (de nævnte det samme problem med bønnerne).
