Tabu
Vesterå 5
9000 Aalborg
Telephone: +45 88 19 60 58
Overall rating: 8/10
Date of visit: May 2017
Jump to Danish review – Gå til dansk anmeldelse
Restaurant Tabu reopened recently with Michael Miw Pedersen at the helm, after it had closed under the previous ownership. When we came here the restaurant was full, and that was probably partly due to Miw’s fame in Northern Jutland, but also the good reviews and the affordable prices all things considered.
Wednesdays and Thursdays, the restaurant offers a set menu consisting of five courses + snacks and including a wine pairing consisting of five glasses of wine, or alternatively you can drink homemade juice instead. All this at a price of 750 kroner (€100). It’s also possible to order the five courses without drinks for 600 kroner (€80). It’s also possible to go for four or just three courses for a lower price, but as you can tell, five glasses of wine or juice will be included for just 150 kroner (€20) more, and it would be a bit silly to order drinks on the side, as the price would amount to the same or even more. It’s also worth noticing that the pourings for drinks were definitely not small.
We also had two large bottles of water priced at 40 kroner (€5.50) each.
During the weekends, the menu, as well as the price, is expanded.
We chose to go for one menu with wine, and one menu with juice and then shared the drinks. Although the wine was okay, the juice was the most interesting and tasty of the two options. I drink much wine, but compared to other wine pairings I’ve had the wine pairing here was pleasant but not the best I’ve had. The juices were far more interesting.
The five courses + snacks turned out to be far more than that.
We started out with a small snack, which was thin, crispy rye bread with mayonnaise, shrimps, cress and dehydrated egg yolk. Very tasty. We also had our first drink here, which for the wine pairing meant a glass of riesling. The juice was elderflower and lilac.
The next snack was served in the same style: A grilled cracker with crab. Also very tasty.
Then came langoustine which was grilled wrapped in bacon.
The first proper course was claws of lobster served cold, covered in a jellied disc of cream and served with a cream sauce with ramson oil. The juice was asparagus and cucumber. As odd as it sounds it was actually quite good.
The second part of the first dish was also lobster, this time the tail with coral, which gave it a very intense flavour. The tail was under the foam on the picture, and the foam was made from a stock of the lobster shells. Even though the flavour was good, the texture was not the best I’ve ever had, but that texture I’ve only had once in my life (at Victor’s Gourmet Restarant).
Brill was served with green Danish asparagus and a mayonnaise with herbs. Having been used to bitter and sour imported asparagus, it was a real treat to eat asparagus as tasty as these. Here we had our second drink, which was also white wine, this time a chardonnay. The juice was cold kombucha tea.
Roe deer was cooked quite red and was served with pickled parsley roots, a parsley root purée and a jelly made from the pickling liquid, as well as a deer sauce. For drinks was a glass of red wine, I believe pinot noir, which was the restaurant’s own import. The juice was blackcurrant fermented with a fungus. It had a “special” flavor, but this is purely meant as a compliment. It was very rich and deep in flavour and might have been the highlight of the juice pairing.
Next up was cheese, which is a part of the meal that I usually skip, as I’m not that big of a cheese eater. This course came in the form of a foamy cheese called retro as well as a roll of commandante with pickled hip inside as well as red sorrel on top. The wine for this was a Spanish rosé, while the juice was mayflower.
The onslaught of desserts started with a small pie of elderflower and marengue. We both agreed that the base was a bit like cardboard, but it still a lovely little bite.
Next up was a leaf made from sugar with rhubarb flavour. I had a similar thing at Geranium, and both places they tended to get stuck to my teeth, although this one here had pleasant flavour.
The actual dessert was rhubarb ice cream with rhubarb jelly and salty caramel with a bit of frozen yoghut (the small white pieces) and edible flowers. The wine for this was muscat, while the juice was a very nice rhubarb drink. I make that myself as well. This was different, but just as good, and better, and sweeter, than the rhubarb drink at Geranium.
The rhubarb theme was completed with something that should have looked like the same concept as the beginning of the meal: oysters. But since we had asked for no oysters, it wasn’t the same thing, but it was lovely nonetheless: An elastic ball of rhubarb with a bit of “koldskål” (a Danish buttermilk soup with vanilla, egg yolks and lemon) poured around it. A lovely ending to a solid meal.
The service was good too, although it didn’t start quite so well. Before booking the table I called the restaurant and asked if it was possible to avoid oysters and mussels and clams. They said yes and asked me to make a note about this while booking online. Our waiter, however, insisted that they would serve us oysters, and then we could just not eat it and send it back out if we didn’t want it, and he also argued that we would probably actually like it, as they cooked the oysters differently than what was standard procedure.
This discussion went a bit back and forth, and in the end he came back and said that we could be spared the oysters. I can’t say if we then just had one serving less, but when you look at how much food we had for the money, I haven’t been upset that we might have had one less serving than the other guests (if we even did).
We didn’t encounter any other problems for the rest of the night, and while I do have a personal preference for the style of waitering in Southern Europe (really, it’s just the people), then I don’t have any other bad things to say about the service in Tabu.
The price at Tabu is worth noticing. I couldn’t imagine that they make much money here, when you consider all the stories you often hear about the lack of income in similar restaurants in Copenhagen, where the menus are often at least the same price – but without any drinks at all. And the food in Tabu was at the same level as several of the best restaurants in Copenhagen. The style of cooking was a bit more classic and slightly less creative than places like Kokkeriet and Geranium, but with 12 servings including five drinks for 750 kroner (€100) it’s a far better price than Kokkeriet, where 12 servings are 1.200 kroner + drinks, and when I went to Geranium in 2012, ten servings was 1.000 kroner, but I believe the price has gone up considerably since then. So, I haven’t been to other restaurants in Denmark where I’ve had this great value for money, when you consider both quality and price.
After eating at Tabu, it was quite obvious that this was easily the best restaurant I’ve been to in Aalborg.
Dansk anmeldelse
Restaurant Tabu genåbnede for nylig med Michael Miw Pedersen ved roret, efter den havde måttet lukke under den tidligere ejer. Ved vores besøg var der fyldt, og det skyldes da nok til dels Miws berømmelse i det nordjyske, men også de gode anmeldelser og de rimelige priser alt taget i betragtning.
Onsdag og Torsdag tilbyder restauranten en menu på fem retter + snacks inklusive en vinmenu på fem glas vin, eller man kan erstatte vinen med saft. Alt i alt til en pris på 750 kr. Det er også muligt at bestille de fem retter uden drikkevarer for 600 kr. Derudover kan man også vælge fire eller tre retter til en lavere pris, men som man kan se, får man fem glas vin eller fem glas saft med til 150 kr. mere, og det ville næsten være dumt at købe drikkevarer ved siden af separat, da prisen ville ende på det samme eller mere. Det skal også nævnes, at vinportionerne absolut ikke var små.
Vi drak også to store flasker vand a 40 kr. stykket.
I weekenden bliver menuen, og prisen, udvidet.
Vi fik én menu med vin og én menu med saft og delte så om drikkevarerne. Selvom vinen også var okay, var saften dog det mest interessante og mest velsmagende. Jeg er ikke den store vindrikker, men sammenlignet med andre vinmenuer, jeg har fået, var vinen behagelig, men ikke en topscorer. Saften var langt mere interessant.
De fem retter + snacks viste sig at være langt mere end det.
Vi startede ud med en lille snack i form af et tynd, sprødt stykke rugbrød med mayonnaise, rejer, karse og dehydreret æggeblomme. Meget udsøgt. Vi fik også her de første drikkevarer, hvilket for vinen var en riesling, mens saften var hyldeblomst og syren.
Næste snack var i samme stil: En grillet kiks med krabbekød. Igen meget velsmagende.
Derefter fulgte jomfruhummer, der var grillet indpakket i bacon.
Første egentlig ret var kold hummerkløer dækket af geleret fløde og en flødesovs med ramsløgsolie. Saften var asparges og agurk, og selvom det lyder underligt, så smagte det faktisk ret godt.
Anden halvdel af første ret var igen hummer – denne gang halen med koral, hvilket gav en meget intens smag. Halen var at finde under skummen på billedet, og skummen var lavet af fond fra hummerskallerne. Selvom smagen var god, var konsistensen ikke som den bedste hummer, jeg nogensinde har fået, men den konsistens har jeg også kun oplevet en gang i mit liv (på Victor’s Gourmet Restarant).
Slethvar blev serveret med grønne, danske asparges og kryddermayonnaise. Når man har været vant til de bitre og sure importerede asparges, føltes det virkelig som luksus at få asparges så lækre som dem her. Vinen var en chardonnay, mens saften var en kold kombucha-te.
Sommerbuk var meget rødstegt og blev serveret med syltede persillerødder og en gele lavet på syltesaften samt persillerodspuré og en vildtsauce. Vinen var en sablet, mens saften var solbær gæret med en svamp. Det smagte meget “specielt”, men det er udelukkende ment som en kompliment. Det var en meget kraftig saft, og den var måske saftmenuens højdepunkt.
Så var det tid til osteserveringen, hvilket ofte er en ret, jeg springer over, da jeg ikke er den store ostespiser. Her var det en skummet ost, der hed retro, samt en rulle commandante med syltede hyben indeni samt lidt rød havesyre på toppen. Vinen var en spansk rosé, mens saften var hvidtjørn.
Så begyndte dessertbombarderingen, først i form af en lille tærte med hyldeblomst og marengs. Vi var begge enige om, at bunden desværre var lidt papagtig, men stadig en herlig lille hapser.
Derefter kom et sukkerblad med rarbarbersmag på bordet. Jeg fik en lignende kreation på Geranium, og begge steder havde de tendens til at sætte sig fast i tænderne, omend smagen i det her blad var behagelig.
Den egentlige dessert var rarbarberis, marengs, rarbarbergele og saltkaramel samt lidt frossen yoghurt (de små hvide stykker) og spiselige blomster. Vinen hertil var en muscatvin, mens saften var en rarbarberdrik. Jeg laver selv rarbarberdrik hver sommer, og den her smagte anderledes, men var lige så god, og den var bedre, og sødere, end rarbarberdrikken på Geranium.
Rarbarbertemaet blev afsluttet med noget, der skulle have lignet samme koncept som indledningen på måltidet: østers. Man da vi havde frabedt os østers, var det ikke det samme, men det smagte godt alligevel: En elastisk rarbarberkugle med lidt koldskål hældt ved. En dejlig afslutning på et solidt måltid.
Betjeningen var også god, omend den ikke startede helt i top. Før jeg reserverede, havde jeg ringet og spurgt, om man kunne undgå østers og muslinger, og de sagde ja, men at man bare skulle skrive det på, når man reserverede bord online. Vores tjener insisterede dog på, at de ville servere østers for os, og så kunne vi bare sende det ud igen, hvis vi ikke ville have det, og han argumenterede også for, at vi nok godt ville kunne lide, da de tilberedte det på en anden måde end sædvanligt.
Diskussionen kørte lidt frem og tilbage, og til sidst kom han tilbage og sagde, at vi godt kunne skånes for østers. Jeg er dog ikke klar over, om vi så bare fik én mindre servering, men når man ser på, hvor meget mad vi fik for pengene, har jeg ikke mukket over, at vi måske fik én mindre servering end de andre gæster.
Resten af aftenen forløb dog uden problemer med hensyn til betjeningen, og selvom jeg personligt har en forkærlighed for tjenerstilen i Sydeuropa, har jeg ikke andet dårligt at sige om betjeningen på Tabu.
Prisen på Tabu er værd at bemærke. Jeg kunne ikke forestille mig, at det på nogen måde var en overskudsforretning, når man tænker på alle de historier, man hører om den dårlige økonomi blandt restauranter af samme kaliber i hovedstaden, hvor menuerne oftest er minimum samme pris – men uden drikkevarer overhovedet. Og maden på Tabu var på samme niveau som flere af de bedste restauranter i København. Stilen var lidt mere klassisk og en anelse mindre kreativ end steder som Kokkeriet og Geranium, men med 12 serveringer inklusive fem glas drikkevarer til 750 kr. er det en langt bedre pris end på Kokkeriet, hvor 12 retter koster 1.200 kr. + drikkevarer, og da jeg i 2012 var på Geranium, betalte jeg 1.000 kr. for ti serveringer til frokost uden drikkevarer, men prisen er vist steget væsentligt siden da. Så jeg har ikke været på andre restauranter i Danmark, som har givet så stor valuta for pengene, når man sammenligner pris og kvalitet.
Efter besøget var det nemt at konkludere, at Tabu har været klart den bedste restaurant, jeg har været på i Aalborg.
