The Copenhagen Restaurant and Bar

Real down-home delicious Danish food, but go a little easy on the Aalborg Aakvavit. It tastes great, but it does have quite a punch.

This month we decided to try Danish food in Pattaya, so we went down to the well-known Copenhagen Restaurant and Bar at 183/24 Soi Post Office (opposite the post office) in Central Pattaya to eat some genuine Nordic fare.

The Copenhagen is a small cozy place, a sort of home away from home where expat and tourist Danes like to gather, but we non-Vikings were made to feel very much at home by the owner Freddy. We had wanted us to try some real down-home Danish food and Freddy obliged with two very tasty items served together.

The first was the Copenhagen Plate (150 baht) which is not actually on the menu. Rather, it is a platter filled with whatever items the chef chooses to put on that particular day. Our Copenhagen Plate was covered with separate portions of sliced pork, fish, really good cheese, hard boiled eggs, two incredibly tender and delicious shrimps, beets and Danish meatballs. Every item was better than average, but if we could only order one thing again it would be the meatballs. They were truly outstanding. We were given a side plate with standard white bread and Danish brown bread and regular yellow and Danish white butter. The white butter and brown bread were really tasty.

Our other dish was "Wienerschnitzel med brasede kartofler og sovs" or Wienerschnitzel with sliced fried potatoes and brown sauce (220 baht). (Items on the Copenhagen's menu are printed in Danish, English, German and Thai - in that order.) The meat definitely had a Danish flavour - it did not taste like standard Teutonic Wienerschnitzel. The brown sauce, which came in a medium-sized bowl, really enhanced the flavor of the schnitzel and potatoes. It was a good-sized slice of meat and we ate every bit of it.

To wash this down we had beer and a couple of shots of Aalborg Akvavit, a delicious, clear Danish firewater with plenty of kick in it. On Freddy's suggestion, we finished the meal with "Pandekage med is" (pancake with ice cream) which was as good as it sounds (90 baht).

The Copenhagen offers breakfasts (including a continental type with bread, cheese jam, two boiled eggs, juice and coffee or tea for 110 baht), open sandwiches, snacks, starters and main courses. The cheapest main course is Spaghetti Bolognese for 130 baht and the most expensive are our Wienerschnitzel and pork tenderloin steak and pork tenderloin casserole for 220 baht. The other 14 western-style entrees are 160 baht.

The Copenhagen also serves Thai food, which is priced competitively with other farang restaurants, but more expensive, of course, than Thai-language-only eating places. (One of the many advantages of reading and writing Thai.)

There is a big screen TV in the bar, where world-class soccer games are regularly shown. In the side room is a table for a game Freddy calls Danish billiards, which has six pockets, two white balls and a red one and five little skinny bowling-type pins set up in the middle. On our next trip to the Copenhagen, we will try to learn how to play that while having our plate of Danish meatballs.

All in all, we had a very good time and very good food at the Copenhagen. But if you are driving, especially a motorbike, eat all the food you can but go a little easy on the Aalborg Aakvavit. It tastes great, but it does have quite a punch.