Grønbech & Churchill

It is a lovely place down in a cellar where you see street level Copenhagen a place you need to know to actually find. I have to say I was expecting much more. It was a lunch meeting the place is perfect the service is great the place is quite and with a beautiful interior. We had the 5 course menu which started with squid with a ginger sauce it was for me the best dish it was ok tasty and quite soft it followed a lobster soup too salty the chunks of lobster to big to eat with the spoon and to uncomfortable to try to use a knife in the cup, it was followed by sole and white asparagus the fish was extremely fresh but tasteless very tender though, it followed by cheese 3 different kinds of arla unika very good my second favorite all matured several weeks. The dessert was very weird with lots of flowers and complex tastes. But all in all not impressed

I was at Grønbech & Churchill for lunch, had a «Light» menu but added caviar & white mousse dessert. Everything was so fresh and had so much taste. Now one of my favorite city center restaurants. :-)

Rasmus Grønbech used to be part of the team behind AOC when it was called Premisse. Our server Japer was a server behind the Paul (which recently closed) for 5 years. Even though it is unlike the long standing traditional restaurants as many of the other fine dining establishments, Grønbech & Churchill has the personnel that has been executing for a long time. The restaurant is a sleek modern 180 degree turn from most of the restaurants only being around since Sept 2011. In that time they suffered a flood that closed them down for 2+ months. Even then they managed to achieve their Michelin star this past March, no easy feat I imagine.
Located next to tranquil Churchill Park and the Kastellet fortress, it’s an unassuming corner space that if you’re not looking for, you just might miss. Im generally not into white spaces but when I walked down the stairway, the starkness and clean lines struck a chord. It is absolutely beautiful, with much modern art and otherwise minimalist aesthetics. We were greeted by Jasper who sat us along one of the long tables. We were offered the choice of two differing lunch menus, and corresponding wine pairings. So we decided to get both and do a switch half way to maximize our selections:
–Oysters sorrel
–asparagus. duck prosciutto, peas
–brill soup, coconut
–pork belly, garlic purée, olives, green almonds
–oyster blanquette, hake, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage,
–3 danish cheeses
–chocolate mousse, prune juice
–orange/​ginger, yogurt, mint sorbet
As with the restaurants aesthetics, the food was clean and simple but yet full of flavor. The oyster blanquette with the hake was black out good. Up to this point and the rest of my stay in the area Ive noted that ver simple things like the bread, butter and cheese were out of this world. Grønbech & Churchill executed these just as well as any restaurant out there to enhance their excellent dishes. The attention to detail certainly is a reason they got their star so soon.
We noticed at first the restaurant was empty and as it got later the restaurant would fill in. It seems the Danes like to eat lunch a bit later yet dinner around 7ish. I wonder why such the closeness in meals? We always seemed to be early for lunch but late for dinner. One of the tables that came in after us happened to be the owners of the Paul restaurant who were eating some of the newer test dishes they were contemplating putting out. Damn i wish I was in on that! After our meal Jasper gave us a tour of the facility, the kitchen, the private room, and much of the modern art that lies through the space. He finally gave us some of his recommendations for eating and drinking as a local before sending us on our way. They maybe the new kid on the block as far as restaurants go but make no mistake, they are every bit as good as any other fine dining establishment in Copenhagen.