May L.
Yelp
Summary: A solid upscale choice. 3.5 rounding up to 4 because its 1 of few choices for Sunday night in Copenhagen. Food is close, but not quite yet there. Service is excellent
In NY, I tend to be brutal in my review of upscale restaurants, because the city is Brutal and the competition is dog eat dog. In the more civil land of Copenhagen, I tend to be nicer about things. Among worldwide upscale restaurants it's a 3, but with the service and ambiance, I give it a 3.5 and round up rather than down.
Atmosphere: While uFormal is suppose to be the casual restaurant of the group, I would suggest not wearing casual attire. I was in sneaks and realized upon seating that I potentially should have wore something nicer as I watched ladies enter, take off their coat in the foyer and then primp to make sure they looked lovely in their dress and high heels. As for the styling, it's quite modern. They covered the walls in carpet squares, which up close looks odd, but overall is quite attractive and services the dual purpose of managing the echo of this extremely high ceiling space. There is a beautiful painting on the back wall and the light fixtures are quite unique. I do like that the wall behind the bar is a full wall of wine that goes up to the very top of their 15? foot ceilings. It's quite elegant.
The Service: My waiter was stylish, young and professional. I was promptly seated and he came quickly to offer a drink. He knew the menu well and took my order. Once the dish came, he described its contents once again. Very knowledgeable. The staff works together, as I was served dessert by another young lady rather than wait while my waiter was assisting other customers. The poured and replaced my water vase without my asking and almost without my noticing. That really is a sign of great staff, when the service happens and you don't notice. 5 stars.
The Food: An odd scenario where the sum of parts did not equal the whole. This is odd in French cooking. See, with French cooking, all of the elements of the plate must be eaten. You are suppose to fill your fork with a little bit of everything to understand what the cook was trying to do. If you do that for the majority of dishes you end up with something not tasty. If you eat each piece separately, it's quite delicious, in a way that is really why I'm willing to round up. In the off chance the manager or chef reads this and isn't so offended, they can take the criticism, I've left my thoughts on the dishes I had.
The wine - I had the 2011 Chinon. This wine tends to be a nice choice if you want something light and are going to have a mix of seafood and steak. It happens to pair well with salty and savory food, which takes the fruity (sharpe) taste out of the wine and 2011 was a nice year for the Loire valley.
The scallops - The waiter described this as a miso and salt flavored scallop, and it has some and I think the chef embellished this with watercress to look like snow. The scallop was sashimi and the flavoring was complex and clean. When added to the watercress you got a lovely delicate yet complicated flavor. However, the cucumber was too much. I think if he would experiment with the cucumber's thickness or use something more neutral in flavor, possibly like daikon or turnip, thinly sliced, he might have a better overall element. Instead, there is something the cucumber is doing such that when you pile the bite together (all 3) the salt flavor overwhelms. I tried this in 3 times just to be sure, because I've never had such a change in flavor happen before at a French restaurant (usually it's the opposite. I'm fairy sure this is why another gentleman thought that the food was unpleasantly salty.
The Entrecote with artichoke also has a sardine and is embellished, again with fresh watercress. It's about 3.5-4oz of meat. The entrecote, which in my case seemed like a ribeye cut was made perfectly medium rare with a nice brown lightly salt and peppered outer layer and an extremely juicy middle. The articoke was lightly seasoned and fresh. The sardine was of a very nice quality. But again together it was overpoweringly salty. I don't want to be too tough here. The use of sardine to season a steak is impressively creative, which is part of why I rounded up. I've never tried that before and in the right ratios, it's brilliant, because the saltiness plus the sardine flavor is quite unique. Not sure if the chef flash fried or if he/she butter basted. If it's the latter, I would experiment mashing the sardine up into the butter or just adding a butter sardine coating after you plate and then adding some sardine on the side so one could salt to taste. The sardine with the artichoke is also quite nice as well. The three in the right ratio with the fresh crisp watercress is just delightful.
Chocolate with Jerusalem artichokes and hazelnut. The chocolate gelato like yog is just fantastic