Nordic culinary magic: The restaurants you need to book in Copenhagen and Oslo

From the humble pickled herrings of Fika Cafe all the way up to one of the city’s most expensive restaurants, three Michelin-starred Zen, Scandinavian restaurants have more than made their mark in Singapore.

It’s no surprise then that a visit to two Nordic capitals, Oslo and Copenhagen, makes for a thrilling gastronomic escape, reflecting the region’s status as one which has made a huge impression on the global culinary map and continues to reinvent itself through exceptional innovation.

We started in the Norwegian capital of Oslo, a vastly underrated city which reflects Norway’s decidedly modest view of itself.

EKSPEDISJONSHALLEN, SOMMERRO HOTEL

Its name is admittedly a mouthful, but this elegant, expansive dining room is one of Oslo’s most striking – and yes, Instagram worthy – places to eat. Sommerro is a luxurious Art Deco hotel in Oslo’s West End, the HQ of the city’s electric company before a multi-million-dollar renovation. Ekspedisjonshallen  – or Expedition Hall – is its flagship restaurant-bar, an all-day dining spot which offers live jazz, brasserie plates, long brunches and top-drawer cocktails.

Halibut with spring cabbage, spring onion and champagne butter sauce, or baked lobster with lemon herb butter, salad and mustard dressing are two renditions of first-class local seafood. A set lunch at the equivalent of SG$55 lets you add to your main with a dessert such as milk tea soft serve ice cream with marinated cherries.

WINTHER

A deli, restaurant and Oslo’s only producer of real-deal Italian cheeses including burrata – yes, really – Winther brings a ray of Mediterranean sunshine to the often-chilly capital. Named for the charismatic owner and director of Cheese Production, Siri Helen Winther, the magic happens in a tiny artisan cheesemaking facility where organic milk from beautiful Norwegian red cows turns into award-winning ricotta, burrata, stracciatella and more.

Dishes served in the relaxed two-floor restaurant include impeccable pizzas from a wood-fired oven and homemade pastas such as gnocchi with their own ricotta, spinach butter and Parmegiano Reggiano – which is one cheese they have to import. Duck breast or monkfish are well-executed mains, while their tiramisu and cannoli are rightly acclaimed as a way to end in style.

THEATERCAFFEEN

Another Oslo icon comes at Theatercaffeen, an atmospheric Art Nouveau institution unchanged since opening in 1900. It features 87 portraits of Norwegian cultural personalities on the walls, from authors to actors and painters to composers, all of whom were regular guests over the years.

Lunch featured a bona fide Norwegian classic in the form of an open sandwich, decked with sweet pink shrimp from Lyngen, egg mayonnaise and dill, served with perfect fries and a crisp glass of Sancerre. Dinner raises the bar with plates including vendace roe – some call it Norwegian caviar – with red onion, sour cream and lemon, or turbot with cucumber, mushrooms and orzo, once again emphasising the stunning quality of the nation’s seafood.

Desserts also tempt, but we wandered a few minutes to Bollebar where beloved local buns – like a play on doughnuts, devoured by kids after school – are filled with a wide range of decadent fillings and served with excellent coffee.

PALMEN

Finally, to another beautiful dining room where history is all around you – literally. Palmen is located on the ground floor of the historic Grand Hotel, a storied property which has played host to the Nobel Peace Prize winner who stays in their Nobel suite during the award ceremony every December. Other regular guests over the years have included Norwegian cultural giants such as author Henrik Ibsen and the artist Edvard Munch.

In the dining room decked with palms, chefs oversee an innovative continental menu with Nordic twists, translating into dishes such as a sensational king crab salad, delicately layered with apple, or a favourite national meat of elk, its undeniable gaminess lifted by a fabulous jus.

Be sure not to miss aperitifs – or indeed digestifs – at their award-winning bar called Othilia, where creative cocktails are based on different decades in the hotel’s history since opening in 1874, while art includes originals by Andy Warhol, Tracey Emin and more.

COPENHAGEN

From Oslo, it’s a 70-minute flight to Copenhagen, but if time is on your side, then taking the train is a relaxing and clearly environmentally aware option. It took around seven hours with one change, but the time sped by when sat in spacious seats with views of the picturesque Scandinavian countryside to distract from working on fast Wi-Fi and drinking surprisingly good coffee.

MARCHAL, HOTEL D’ANGLETERRE

Travelling by train invariably lands you in the heart of the city, in my case just a 15-minute walk from the beautiful and historic Hotel D’Angleterre, regarded as Copenhagen’s finest place to stay since way back in 1755. This five-star member of Leading Hotels of the World offers 92 sublime rooms and suites, an award-winning spa, a Champagne bar and a one Michelin-starred restaurant, Marchal.

Chef Jakob de Neergaard oversees the French-inspired gastronomy, including breakfast, a famous Sunday brunch and a very tempting Krug afternoon tea. But it’s at lunch at dinner where his elegant cuisine comes to the fore in exquisite tasting menus.

Stellar bites to start included caviar that crowned lobster and Jerusalem artichoke, cleverly served in the tin, before a crispy tartlet of brown crab, kohlrabi, tarragon and the citrus lift of calamansi. Turbot with grilled broccolini came in a fabulous sauce of turnip and mussels, before one of de Neergaard’s signatures of pigeon royal with beets, blackberries and a jus of Madeira and balsamic. A coconut sorbet to wrap featured passionfruit, mango and pineapple, again reflecting delicate Asian culinary accents, perfectly in tune with French technique.

CONNECTION BY ALAN BATES

Next, another meal which celebrates Copenhagen’s embrace of global culinary talent and underscores why so many great chefs call it home. A case in point, Connection by Alan Bates where a young Brit simply dazzles in one of Copenhagen's smallest gourmet restaurants with just 18 seats around three chef’s tables.

Bates named the restaurant to reflect connections, both between diners and tastes. The approach is elegant, namely to prepare either five or nine courses of the finest seasonal produce available. Given his experience at legendary establishments such as The Fat Duck and El Celler de can Roca, dinner is unforgettable.

For example, a humorous riff on a popular Danish post-drinking snack called a ‘Cowboy Toast’ is reinvented as brioche fried in clarified butter that he fills with whipped and frozen chicken liver and foie gras parfait, 25-year-old balsamic vinegar, a gel from the famed Hungarian dessert wine Tokaji - and copious shavings of black truffle.

Danish sea bass, grilled on the barbecue, is served with a Robuchon style mashed potato – think more butter than you can imagine – with smoked eel, Buddha’s hand and two sauces, a mussel velouté and a mushroom consommé. Throughout, cooking and hospitality of the highest order meant that Michelin may soon recognise them with the star that they so richly deserve.

NOMA

One restaurant above all others has both created and cemented Copenhagen’s reputation as a world-class dining destination. Noma opened back in 2003 but continues to reinvent itself, its mission and its cuisine, winning every plaudit imaginable, from multiple firsts in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants to three Michelin stars. They’ve even launched their own range of produce under Noma Projects to let home chefs sprinkle some of their culinary fairy dust through corn yuzu hot sauce and many more creations.

The famous foragers have followed the seasons and produce in Denmark but also in global pop-ups, including Kyoto – somewhere that they will be revisiting this year, from Oct 8 to Dec 4, once again at Ace Hotel. Although reservations in Copenhagen and overseas are notoriously difficult to secure, plan well ahead and for Japan, tables will be released from May 14.

At their home in Denmark, guests can look forward to the Ocean Season experience until the end of May. After walking through the main door which is covered in a stunning mosaic of seafood shells, dishes include a cod head with a barbecued cod tongue, or a painstakingly deboned langoustine.

Scallops, oysters, mussels and sea urchin are some of the other maritime ingredients which feature across a tour de force dining experience underpinned by innovation and ceaseless creativity like few other restaurants on the planet.

KOAN

Finally, to Koan, named after a riddle-like question in Zen Buddhism which helps to transcend boundaries and create open minds. It’s a philosophy writ large in the cuisine of chef Patron Kristian Baumann who was adopted from Korea as a baby and grew up with Danish parents just outside Copenhagen.

Just steps from the city’s iconic Little Mermaid statue, this is a remarkable place to enjoy cuisine which makes the most of Nordic ingredients with South Korean flavours, reflecting Baumann’s story. To prove the point, Koan opened in 2023 and received two Michelin stars an astonishing 10 weeks later for its 17-course tasting menu served on stunning Korean tableware.

From the amuses-bouche through to the best souffle I’ve ever eaten, this was a tour de force of innovation, a meal unlike anywhere else. Highlights included a technicolour Korean mandu dumpling filled with fjord shrimp and chilli, a textural masterpiece of crisp chewiness.

Then caviar came with dried strawberries and tofu, a combination so unusual – but inspired – that you can’t help but smile. Exceptional pairings ranged from prestige wines to Korean sools to complete this immensely impressive experience.