Copenhagen has a lot of small old restaurants. From the simplest to the best. Lots of them are in old buildings with tons of atmosphere and splendid food. Kanalen Café is one of these. The walls are filled with paintings of ships and other maritime...memorabilia. The place is very rustic, but the food is not!
They serve mostly Danish open-faced sandwiches, I had two kinds of herring, marinated and pickled. If herring is not your cup of tea, they have lots of other sandwiches to choose from. But my marinated herring is the best herring I can remember to have eaten, ever!
But please note: When I write sandwiches, those that Kanalen Café serve is not the usual type, with a piece of bread with a few pieces of herring. No sir! One sandwich is a piece of bread all right (several different kinds to choose from) plus a big cup filled with the herring or whatever you ordered. One “Sandwich” is almost I dinner buy itself. Two “sandwiches” was enough for me! Take three and you do not have to eat more for a day or two!
To this you drink beer and Danish Snaps (Aquavit). Both the best Danish Quality. Or wine if you insist. Instead of buying one snaps, then another, and then another, the Snaps bottle is put on the table to pour from, at your discretion. When you are done the waiter measure how much you’ve taken from the bottle, and you pay for what you’ve have drunk.
The waiters are in their own class! They are cheeky but in a funny and friendly way. Seems to me that they are used to have it their way, people come anyway, it’s worth it.
I asked if I could share one special entry on the menu with my wife, but the answer was a short NO! So, if you’re American and used to share food in the restaurant, forget it! The only thing you can share is the snaps bottle!
As I said, it’s a very popular restaurant for lunch, so you better order a table in advance. Friends go there to eat, drink and sing Danish drinking songs.
To sum it up; it’s fantastic food fantastic food in a very traditional Danish restaurant.More