New Friends at Dinner

One of the delightful things about an international group meeting is the opportunity to make new connections. At the last Internations get-together, I met Suzanne, or Sooze, who is from the UK and also has a wonderful travel blog. She and I got together a few days later for a coffee and a meal… and what a meal it was. I’ll warn you now, Sooze’s description of the dinner will be a great deal more complete than mine… she is an awesome writer!

We met first for coffee with another friend at a lovely open-air venue, but, admittedly, the air that was open was also quite chilly. A couple of cups of decaf coffee later, combined with a delightful chat about idiomatic expressions and language characteristics, Sooze and I were on our way to a restaurant that I have wanted to try since I first read about it in January: the Restaurant Copenhagen.

Vegetarian restaurants here in the land of jamon, meat and cheese are hard to find. In my review of La Lluna, I was so pleased to realize that there is a cool vegetarian niche here in Valencia. I have also found a small “health foods” market very close by, and noted that they had some items that I had not seen in the supermarket. (Stay tuned for an upcoming review on that if I like it!) The Copenhagen, though, is a real treasure.

Beginning with attentive wait staff, Sooze and I reviewed the menu(s) — one in English and one in Spanish — and agreed that the main courses were awesome and did not need to hide behind a first course. What a great choice, because the meals that we ordered were delightfully filling and loaded with complementary flavors. Let me also say that the portions were perfect, and as we saw other tables completing the traditional 3.5 course meal (first course, entree, dessert, then coffee and maybe a small liqueur), it was clear that the mountains of food on the plates would have been overwhelming.

I ordered the “Copenhagen Burger” and Sooze had the “Hindú Curry” and both were hits. My burger was a multi-layered stack of delicious… an egg, greens, an incredible vegetable burger, cheese, a hand-crafted sauce, and all atop a wide wedge of grilled potato. The curry that my dinner-mate ordered was also delicious, and both were seasoned enough but in a way that enhanced the food without providing all of the flavor.

Dessert was equally amazing, and I ordered the white chocolate cloud from heaven mousse, which sat on the plate with a small scoop of the most intensely flavored smooth raspberry sorbet I have ever tasted. Sooze’s chocolate hazelnut tarte was beautiful and intense, and both desserts were completed with a fan/sail/billboard of corresponding chocolate.

Clearly, I have to go back. After a somewhat rough day, the company and the food really gave my day a much higher note.

Oh, and two weeks ago, the owners opened up a secondary restaurant as well… Malmö, which is also vegetarian. I have the schedule, and I am saving my pennies for visit!