Umami, go!

Just another Saturday night and we needed a place to eat. Why not treat ourselves with a little special something we thought!? So we succeeded in making a very-last-minute booking at the gourmet sushi restaurant Umami in Copenhagen. And once we had decided to go special we went all the way!
We started with a glass of champagne, of course, in the bar on ground floor.
We were then lead to our table on the first floor later and quickly decided to take the Omakase menu and be surprised by whatever the chef would invent for us this day. We did not regret…

Wine glasses waiting to be filled with white wine from Spain, the first on the wine menu. The usual shrimp crackers you know from chinese restaurants, here with a twist: classic shrimp, seaweed, duck and Japanese curry.

The first starter: tuna tartare in filo pastry with tapioca pearls. Yes, it is hidden down there in the fog of dry ice.

Sashimi of scallops served on chicory leafs filled with Norwegian löjrom and salicornia tops.
Jalapeno sorbeit in cucumber

Goose stock with foie gras and thinly sliced radish

Beef and potatoe croquettes. As simple as it sounds. Cooked to perfection.

REAL wasabi! We learned that it actually is not normal to be served real Japanese wasabi nowadays in sushi restaurants. Mostly you will get horse radish with green colourants. The waiter brought in a big chunk of kizami wasabi and grated it in front of us on a grater made with shark skin. The taste was more crisp and subtle than normal wasabi. We are spoiled for life…

Different types of sashimi and nigiri.

And something to finish of with:

Hhhmmm, something with salty ice cream, chocolate, pears and I don’t know. This last dish did not really make an impression.

A consolation-espresso followed and with that some more candy.

For the food I will definitely visit Umami again. The sushi and the beef showed that the kitchen truly masters the Japanese and French art of cooking but every dish had a spark of something unexpected so tradition was only the base. The presentation and the taste was sublime.
Our waiter was very attentive, never intrusive and he could explain very knowledgably about both food and wine. The wines did by the way accompany the food perfectly. For the sushi we actually had Japanese rice wine (saké) but for the rest we meandered around Europe from Spain to Austria.

Regarding the interior, the restaurant aims to be “cool, pleasant and yet romantic“. I am not really a fan of their definition of cool which is shiny, minimalistic and very “Lounge”. The lounge-look, the DJ and the lounge music coming along with him, belong to the last century in my opinion. That of course is personal taste but why else would I be writing this? So, Umami: keep doing what you are doing in the kitchen but get a new DJ and lighten up about your very firm coolness! Reinvent yourself  a little…

Find Umami on my google map of Copenhagen.