Restaurant Radio

Even when you step in from the busy street, you get the feeling that some of the city’s secrets do their very best to remain just that. Secrets. Looking around, nothing seems out of the ordinary at RADIO. Nothing hints at the fact that here, a meal quite out of the ordinary is served at the perhaps sharpest price point in Copenhagen. 

The dining room is small but open, adorned on one side by floor to ceiling windows and on the other by dark walls which save a few pieces of artwork, a partial view into the kitchen and a drinks menu are tall and bare. It is a warm, cozy setting – in the minimalistic sense of the word, but by no means does it stand out from other modern eateries scattered throughout Denmark’s capital city.

Secrect, word of mouth, value for money

The menu which offers two choices – a DKK 350 (EUR 47) three-course or a DKK 435 (EUR 58) five-course pris fixe – also does little to reveal the fact that between these tall, dark walls, culinary greatness can be found. The monthly-changing menu offers only a cryptic three-word introduction to each course and honestly leaves you not knowing what to expect from the experience. It also does absolutely nothing to hint at or even do justice to the complexity and beauty of the dishes offered at this tucked away Copenhagen Gem.

Secrecy and word of mouth seems part of the game at RADIO, though and the deliberately understated nature of the menu will soon have you heading towards surprise and awe once the first dish hits the table.

Halibut, cucumber and kefir for example refers to halibut denatured in rice vinegar following Japanese cooking tradition, served with slices of pickled cucumber, ribbons of kohlrabi marinated in apple juice, monk’s cress and an almost stereotypical green split sauce of Nordic cuisine. This particular version, however, made from kefir and herb oil to add a bit more twang to the decade-old classic and top a jaw-droppingly beautiful first serving at Restaurant RADIO.

Equally complex and overwhelming, the playfully titled dish “mushrooms, mushrooms and mushrooms,” covers about every conceivable texture and preparation of mushrooms imaginable – from raw over denatured, puréed, grilled and then a few – to create a mushroom dish so intensely flavorful, so playful and so original that even Noma would probably have been happy to call it their own. Yet, so surprisingly intense in flavor that it seems lightyears from the minimalist impressions often favored by the World’s once greatest restaurant.

A charming juxtaposition

It is within this surprising complexity of flavor at the center of a beautifully complex exterior that large parts of the charm of Restaurant RADIO suddenly and finally become obvious: RADIO is a trick of the eyes and a trick of the senses in so many ways, starting with the (non) descriptions on the menu and culminating with the apparent clash between what the eyes see and what the palate perceives.

The dishes, to a large extent, look New Nordic in appearance with strong focus on brilliantly bright, colorful servings delivered through precision and simplicity in plating of few but brilliant ingredients. Tasting the beautiful creations, however, reveals a flavor profile that is by no means as clean and subtle as one would expect from the appearance, but rather lengthy, intense, and deep.

This charming juxtaposition between what is expected and what is experienced is ever present at RADIO and is a small stroke of genius on behalf of former head chef Bendix Sixhøj Laursen. Laursen. Bendix earned his culinary upbringing in French-inspired kitchens, like Søllerød Kro and Bistro Boheme, and developed very early in life a strong love for French finesse, lengthy processes, and depths of flavor. A love he managed to carry with him into the hyper-modern, hyper-local and hyper-seasonal setting at Restaurant RADIO to create an unlikely fusion of Nordic seasonal dishes from local ingredients full of French undertones and a dash of world kitchen.

A boyish disregard for tradition

The fusion kitchen of Restaurant RADIO  stems from a love of New Nordic principles of locality, seasonality and beauty of plating, backed beautifully by a very French depth of flavor as well as ingredients and techniques otherwise frowned upon by proponents of the New Nordic dogma. 

This created in Restaurant RADIO something entirely unique: a place where a monthly-changing menu creates natural focus on the use of fresh, seasonal and local ingredients. Not to mention preservation of these flavors through pickling and fermentation. All while a boyish disregard for tradition and style offers a French twist in preparation and flavor profile seasoned liberally with undogmatic and exotic undertones when needed. 

The end results are ever-changing, never-repeating incredibly complex dishes shining with brightness and bursting with flavor – at a price point you wouldn’t think possible given the complexity in preparation, time and thought involved.

It is a complexity that takes a while to sink in, and it isn’t until sitting there at the end of the evening, eating your diversely textured dessert of local sheep’s milk yoghurt, ice cream from local blackberries, compote of Swedish blueberries, crackers and crumble that you finally come to appreciate the true potential of Restaurant RADIO: That a couple of young, humble chefs, who by no means meant to start a revolution has somehow still managed to do so in mixing contemporary Scandinavian with classic French cuisine in a relaxed setting at an unbelievable price point.