Geist

I feel like Geist doesn’t get as much International recognition as it should, and compared to the other popular restaurants in Copenhagen. This was actually my FAVORITE stop in Copenhagen. The atmosphere. The flavors. The service. It all blew me away.
I was dining (and traveling) alone so they placed me up at the bar overlooking the kitchen, which I appreciated. It’s nice to have some entertainment when you don’t have a dining companion. I also liked that when I asked the waitress for recommendations, she gave me a very well thought out and honest answer. I hate when I go into a place and they tell me everything is great. She actually gave me the house favorites and her personal favorites, and also told me what order she would have them served in based on the flavors — well done.
I was a little disappointed by the limited wine by the glass options since I was dining solo and couldn’t very well order a bottle for myself. Based on the recommendations, I started with the raw beef with creamy oysters and piment d’espelette. It was creamy and oily and just perfection. I almost went back the second night to order just this. It was my favorite of the evening. The next course was the spinach fried with walnuts and sorrel. The flavors were really nice on this as well. I mostly ordered it because I felt I hadn’t had any veggies on my trip, but I wasn’t disappointed with this course either. For my last course I had the turbot with fennel ravioli on gruyère. The fish and ravioli were cooked to perfection. The gruyère added a nice fattiness and richness to the dish. I couldn’t have been more pleased.
I also really appreciated the service. It was entertaining watching the chefs (I recommend sitting at the bar), the wait staff was knowledgeable and not afraid to make recommendations, and the runners always gave me a description of the dish as they were putting it in front of me. Also, the atmosphere couldn’t have been better. It was large, modern, and dark. I give this 5 stars and a huge thumbs up!

The restaurant is really wonderful at night. Just the entrance with the lighting makes it really inviting. Inside, nice round tables are ideal for group up to 6 – 7. So the 3 of us were pretty far from each other at our table.
Good reviews on the service, wine proposition and ambiance.
BUT, music became very loud and a little bit too much at one point. It was not cozy to talk anymore.
FOOD was tasty, pretty unique in the very pure way to present it. I like to think that we also eat with our eyes, but this mushroom stalk (around95kr i think), was just dark and boring in a black bowl and not worth the price with fancy name.
We also had the burned corn, presentation very pure again (not worth a picture). The best i had was the crab with potatoes mousse (around 185kr). The fish with ravioli were delicate and salty and an ok portion.
From my point of view, Expensive and small comparing to similar restaurants in the city. They came 3 times to give us bread without asking, they were probably afraid we leave hungry.
Other notes: no menu in english

Blew my expectations. Didn’t expect so many vegetarian dishes to be this good. Be sure to try their spinach and avocado dishes.
Considering the quality of the food I am happy to pay the price.
Update:
I revisited Geist and got some of the same dishes. Unfortunately, they were not as good as the first time. Perhaps because the head chef was on a trip out of town. Thus, I have to give them a lower rating because of inconsistency.

During my visit in Copenhagen, I gave Geist a try since it seemed like a well-​known and reputable restaurant. The ambiance is kind of chic, and classy at the same time. We were seated at the open kitchen where we could see the chefs cook, so that was a nice touch.
The menu sounded great on the books, however, the taste wasn’t quite up to par. Presentation could have been better for an upscale restaurant as well.
–The raw zucchini with pistachio and curry was done well. The zucchini was cut into thin slices to resemble pasta. The curry surprisingly went fairly well and actually enhanced the nuttiness of the pistachio. The curry cream was a tad on the heavier side though, so I wouldn’t mix the sauce as thoroughly with the zucchini.
–The raw beef with grilled leek was on the bland side. Some parts of it tasted good, and some not so much. It needed more seasoning.
–The salted and dried breast of young duck with gooseberry was toothsome and the gooseberry help livened the dish with some acidity and sweetness. However, it was salty to eat an entire plate of that as the proportion of salted meat to other notes on the dish was much more.
–The pot roasted cauliflower with truffle and salted butter was more on the disappointing side. While it was perfectly cooked to tenderness but still in tact, it lacked the umami flavor of truffles. Usually, any truffle dish will have an oomph and be heavenly. This one was not.
–The heart of lamb with cherries and sorrel was probably the best dish of the night. The lamb was tender, no gamey taste, and the balance of dish was just right. The sweetness of the cherries added to the lamb.
Although the food wasn’t bad, it wasn’t worth the hefty price that’s involved. Service was okay at first but as people started piling in, the wait for food easily became half an hour between each dish. My entire meal here was 3 hours. Not to mention… I waited over half an hour for the air in air in air tiramisu (which I really wanted to try), and it never came. I gave up after 40 minutes of waiting. Like seriously, what restaurant takes 40+ minutes to make dessert?!
Come here if you have time and money to waste.

What a great experience! Great food and the food here are trendy (but delicious and filling). Be prepared for small plates (tapas style), we bought several plates to share. The drink we had was this lemon drink. I can tell it was good quality alcohol because it didn’t give me stomach ache. If you’re looking for a fun and trendy/​artsy type of experience this is a great place to go!

Geist, a very popular spot for foodies, is runned by the inspiring chef Bo Bech (check out hos Instagram account @bobech — amazing photos). I visited this restaurant in May and was immediately enthralled by the fantastic atmosphere. Large beautiful place with an nice pulse that gave a sense of luxury.
Me and my company was diverged regarding the food though. Some of the dishes, or especially ingredients, was cooked to an absolute perfection, as for instance the asparsgus served with matcha powder. However, some dishes were quite dull… maybe due to our high expectations? Anyhow, if you want to eat exciting food that you don’t eat on a regularly basis — then Geist is a good alternative for you. However, be prepared that it is quite expensive.

Have I not written a review?! Oops — fantastic dinner!!! Our favourite meal in Denmark (Noma was closed the whole month of July!). We had the servers kind of order for us — making sure we got the highlights! It’s small plates so you can order as much or little as you want. It allowed us to try so many different things. It’s very modern — the radish dish will look like fettuccine Alfredo. The lobster has been transformed into a sea foam that your fork gathers up and it’s still got its lobster sashimi meat texture! It’s brilliant. The servers are all really nice too — oh and great cocktails too. Highly recommend this place!!!

The veal was one of the best dishes I ever had! The atmosphere is cool and loungy. However, the service is a bit on the low end — we had to wait almost an hour (?!) for our already reserved table (and the staff said it «was part of the game»).
Definitely worth going, but not if you are in a hurry.

We stopped by Geist to grab a drink and relax after a full day of sightseeing, and were very impressed by the ambiance and drinks. I did not try the food but the drinks were delicious and fairly reasonably priced (about the equivalent of £5 for beer, £11 for cocktails). For being right around the corner from touristy Nyhavn, this is a great little respite from the crowds and seems to draw a sophisticated, local clientele.

We had about 10 different dishes. Some were well prepared and very interesting and others were boring. Interesting concept though and nice presentations.
The reason for the three stars was the service. The waitress was kind of rude and clearly showed lack of training. We have visited many restaurants in many countries in the world and are used to different levels of service. When we visited Geist we expected a certain service level based on price, reputation and location. We would expect the waiter to be well trained in basic table service — not reach over the table across people eating, provide all wine service from the right, offer to describe the plates presented, present wines ordered before opening them — basic stuff.
To some customers this may not matter but it does to us. In a country like Denmark where there is a very professional education program for waiters there should be no excuse for this level of service.

Had dinner at there sidewalk bar area last night. The Spinach with Walnuts was very good. The Tartare of Lobster was excellent. The Grill Squid was the best we’ve had outside of Barcelona. The Turbot had just the right crispyness and the Suckling Pig was juicy and flavorful.
This place is just down the street from the touristy restaurants on Nyhavn. I would recommend having a drink at Nyhavn for the ambience and then go experience great Scandinavian food at Geist!

Don’t come hungry and expect to spend about 600 DKK or more per person.
This is tapas style and I tried the creamy oysters, thinking it would have oysters but only oyster purée on the radish strings made to look like noodles. It tasted of oysters but I sure craved some and thought they gave me the wrong dish.
For main course I had the scallops and the squid. I don’t like it when you cut up my whole scallops. I like a scallop whole when presented to my plate. Otherwise the taste was delicious. The squid with mushrooms also had an Asian flare so I really enjoyed that.
For dessert I couldn’t take all this trendy food so I went with the conservative one, chocolate mousse. It was good and small amount.

Found this place while walking around after a long day of museum visits. It is amazing. The food is awesome and the service the best I’ve had in a long time. I got the raw zucchini with pistachio and the sugar peas with fried egg and wild garlic; both were excellent. My companions had the grilled avocado with green almonds and curry, the spinach lightly stewed with walnuts and arugula, the salted and dried breast of young duck with cherries, and for dessert the chocolate mousse cake.

This place was absolutely awesome.
The atmosphere was really relaxed with lights dimmer low and a group of candles at the middle of our 11 person circular table. The place itself did not get very loud either despite it being packed and friday night.
The Food i got to try was all amazing:
Baby duck cured like prosciutto and put over red grapefruit**
Mashed potatoes with crab
Green asparagus**
Beef tenderloin with lemon shavings**
Sweat Bread (which is the pancreas of a small animal)*
Wasabi pie for dessert**
So i double starred the things i really liked. I also tried a bit of everything and within our group i think we may have ordered the whole menu.
The plates are not tiny but not big. They recommend 3 – 4 per person but i think 2 – 3 is more reasonable.
The only downfall they charged us about 5 USD per person for sparkling water without telling us but ended up removing that charge in the end

A disappointing restaurant that doesn’t know how to make simply good food.
When you first read the menu, everything sounds promising and very creative. When the good comes and you have a taste, you quickly realize they sacrifice good food for the sake of being creative and different.
I had three things:
Black radish with creamy oyster and black cardamom. They slice the radish so that it looks like pasta and the creamy oyster is a cream sauce. I think the cardamom is in the sauce but you can also see specks on top. So when you get the plate, you think you’re going to eat pasta. It smells like oysters and when you bite into it, you taste oyster. In fact, it’s like eating puréed oyster. Not exactly appetizing. The dish is also very one note so I got bored of it quickly.
Next up is potato mash with stone crab and salted butter. The potatoes are puréed until the texture is more like a thick sauce. On top of that is crab and then this foamy thing on top. It tastes overwhelmingly like butter. And it’s not the tasty butter that’s been cooked and flavored with the food somehow. It tasted like I was eating puréed butter. Heavy and bland. No potato flavor to be found. The crab was tasteless and overpowered by the butter.
Last dish was a dessert. Salted wasabi cream toffee. The first bite was actuslly pretty good. Like salted caramel but with a kick from the wasabi. But then as I ate more of it, the wasabi was way too overpowering. And the flavors didn’t mesh well. It tasted like toffee or salted caramel and someone squeezed some wasabi on top.
I did not leave satisfied, especially since this meal was not cheap. I had a glass of red wine along with my meal and the entire thing cost me $ 457 DKK which is about $ 65 USD. Keep in mind these dishes are more like tapas size. So I was both unsatisfied and still a little hungry.
All in all, I think this place is popular because people think the menu is unique and edgy but honestly, I’d rather have a hot dog than come back here. A hot dog is simple, tasty, filling, and cheap. Geist is none of those things.
The service was also slow as hell.

We stumbled upon this place after walking arounf Nyvahn street and once we saw the menu, we had to go in .
Their kitchen closes st 11 pm, so we had 15 minutes to place our orders. The hostess and server were very nice and accomodating and told us to just order all we want and to not stress out about the kitchen closing in 15 minutes.
This was very nive of them and I really appreciated that.
This place is a Scandanavian tapas place so everything is meant for sharing for atleast 2 persons.
We ordered a bunch of things :
1) sweet onions with sesame seeds and sesame oil — very unique presentation, quite good and sweet and salty at the same time. Wont make you cry.
2) lobster tartar with yuzu dressing. — again very unique presentation. Served cold and quite what you wouldn’t expect, presentation wise.
3) smoked eel with crisy green onions (I Think). Super yummy and crispy onion bulbs
4) suckling pig with crsipy artichoke in black truffle sauce– my FAVORITE. I can eat this by myself. Flavors are wonderful and melts in your mouth. Just try it when you visit. Trust me!!! Its a must!
5) grilled squid with balck truffles — just okay, would skip this one
6) white fish with fennel ravioli. — my 2^nd favorite. Must order. Very unique presentation again
7) chocolate mousse– good and sweet
8) slice of mango fruit with coconut sauce and saffron– yummy, perfect for me because it was not that sweet
8) lemon in lemon with thyme drink– with gin ofcourse, yum, had two of these
9) mezcal sour– smokey and good
10) free cotton candy. — with lemon rinds and it was amazingly not sticky in your hands.
The dinner was very expensive for 2 persons, costs us $ 300 but it was worth to have our first dinner date for 2015.
Will definitely recommend and come here again.
They also have a very nice décor and feel inside.

This place was a dream :) Such a cute restaurant, very warm/​friendly service and amazing food!
Must Trys —
Lobster Carpaccio — SO unique. I’ve never had lobster like this and the yuzu was a perfect compliment
Air on Air on Air Tiramisu — I love the deconstructed Tiramisu. Delicious flavors with out the heaviness
Zucchini — Loved the ribbons with the almond cream. Very unique — zucchini unlike I’ve had it before
Others —
Celerac — Tasty, hearty without being heavy
Cauliflower — who can go wrong with cauliflower and black truffle
Turbo — The ravioli was tasty, turbo was ok. In total the dish was good, but not blow you away
Overall I wish I could come back and try more! Great wine list too, and good people watching if you sit by the window!

I have fond memories of Geist from when I was in Copenhagen. I met up with 3 drunk Americans (don’t worry, I knew them) and they were causing all kinds of ruckus in this fancy pants restaurant. We tried all kinds of things on the menu, but I’ll tell you my favorites:
–pot roasted cauliflower with black truffle
–potato mash with brown stone crab and salted butter
–west coast turbot with fennel ravioli on gruyère
–crispy artichokes with pork belly and black truffles
–charred beef tenderloin with spinach
The dishes are all meant to be shared and since they’re quite small, each person would probably need to order 4 – 5 to be fully satisfied. The service was very friendly and we were well taken care of the entire night. We were taken care of so well that we just kept ordering wine without very much thought about the price tag. Luckily, our dinner reservation ran rather late and the kitchen closed on us so that probably helped out our wallets a bit. They also gave us cotton candy. We ate a little bit of it, but decided it would be more fun to make mustaches and beards out of it.
It was a great dinner, all $ 700 of it.

Here at restaurant Geist, chef Bo Bech, Denmark’s very own Gordon Ramsay, presents a modern take on Danish cuisine. The menu is small plates or tapas style to encourage sharing. Thankfully the servings aren’t too minuscule for the sticker shock price.
Start with a warm appetizer such as the potatoes with poached egg, then travel to the Orient with a salmon tartare in soy, ginger and sesame oil topped with roe.
If you feel the need to eat some greens, do it in style with a grilled salad crowned with gruyère and summer truffles.
While the cheeks of veal were fall of the bone amazing, the highlight of the evening was the grilled squid with onions and nasturtium. Just goes to show how you can have fresh seafood and bring it to life by simply charring it and lightly seasoning with salt and pepper. Let the food speak for itself!
Dessert lovers should indulge on the air in air in air tiramisu: there’s a reason why «air» is repeated 3x in the name. The raspberry sorbet is beautifully tart palette cleanser.
I loved the sleek and sexy ambiance of the restaurant and it perfectly blends in with the posh surroundings of Kongens Nytorv. The cool thing about Geist is you can choose your experience by asking in advance where to be seated: whether at their intimate courtyard setting, romantic dining room or the exciting bar area where you can view the kitchen action.
A memorable meal from my trip that won’t soon be forgotten.

After I had come back from Copenhagen last year, I couldnt wait to go return for the food. Luckily for me, Chef Bo Bech came to me to fill the void while doing a dinner at Bar Tartine with Chef Nicholaus Bala of Bar Tartine.
Not having been able to catch Geist the first time, Im glad to have caught him and Geist’s menu on the road as follows:
–Day old bread with chestnut
–Wafers of avocado with vaiar and almond
–Raw zucchuni with pistachio and fennel pollen
–Mushroom and cocoa bean dashi
–Spinach with green strawberries, sea beans and wild herbs
–Celeriac baked in sourdough with condensed buttermilk
–Raw fried turnip and radish with garlic
–Charred Beef Tenderloin
–Potato mash and salted butter whey
–Sorrel tart with chocolate meringue
Like most of the progressive Danish chefs, Chef Beck is putting together some very interesting texture and flavor combinations. The use of just a few ingredients in both contrast and balance of others shines through particular dishes. Some were completely unexpected while things like Potato and Butter whey were very comforting and referenced even by non Danish palates. It’s clear that Chef Bech is talented and has a knack for ingredient combinations. So if you’re in CPH you should definitely put Geist on your list