Restaurant Koan – Copenhagen (**)

My experience at Koan was quite interesting. I haven't seen too much about it on this subreddit so I wanted to share some information for anyone interested in visiting.

Koan has a quaint space by the water with a beautifully designed wood interior (designed by the same person who crafted the mignardise boxes). I stopped by for a 6 PM reservation, and immediately ran into the first hiccup of the service. I arrived admittedly early for the reservation, at around 5:45 PM, but was not allowed to enter the restaurant / lobby despite catching the attention of a staff member inside.

Service:

Once allowed in closer to 6, we were briskly led to our seats. The service at Koan is run precise and tight — dishes placed down in synchronization, chairs pushed in as we sat, and constant replacements of napkins and refills of waters.

This made the few issues I had later in service all the more confusing. Two points of issue stood out to me. First, when I attempted to visit the restroom between two of the courses, the staff denied my request and instructed me to wait until after the next course. While I understand that certain courses might be best experienced at precise temperatures, this was definitely surprising to me (given the Mandoo course didn’t seem to require this) and left a negative impression. The second large issue was that after service was complete, we were not brought a check until we actively flagged down a staff member. We had waited close to thirty minutes post service before being able to leave as we had assumed there was another course (or something of the sort) if they were not bringing us a check.

Food:

1. Opening Bites – 7/10. Highlight of these was the langoustine at 6 o’ clock. The kimchi at 10 o’ clock was my least favorite and lacked taste.
2. Stewed Oyster – 9/10. A nice warm bite full of flavor. No complaints.
3. Chilled Lobster Noodles – 6/10. Wanted to love this one, but the broth seriously lacked much flavor.
4. White Kimchi – 8/10. Very sweet apple-based kimchi. Unlike anything I’ve had before.
5. Caviar with langoustine cream – 8/10. I felt the langoustine cream overpowered most of this dish, but no complaints.
6. Mandu – 6/10. Good dumplings, but I believe my enjoyment would’ve been similar if not greater from any soup dumpling. Was not impressed.
7. Bread w/ Butter – 9/10. Delicious pull-apart bread served with a sweet butter.
8. Taste of Sundae – 6/10. Not to my palate, I don’t like Sundae. Strong flavor and a heavy tartlet.
9. Langoustine with petals and Ribeye – 6.5/10. This was the dish I’ve seen the most of before visiting Koan. I had high hopes for it and was unfortunately let down. The dish ended up being quite chewy and while being beautifully presented didn’t give me much to clamor about.
10. Gamasot Rice & Fjord Shrimps – 8.5/10. Delicately peeled tiny fjord shrimps were a true testament to the effort behind the scenes at Koan. I love the salty flavor when bites had a good amount of roe, but the bites that didn’t fell a bit flat and were under seasoned.
11. Caramelized Rice – 6/10. Was expecting a dish focused on Nurungji from the name and description, but this ended up being a soup that lacked that flavor. A bit a of a disappointment.
12. Citrus Ice Cream – 8/10. I don’t remember the details of this dish, but it was a good start to the dessert course. Refreshing and citrusy in a tasty broth.
13. Souffle & Toasted Seaweed Ice cream with Hazelnut Oil and Caviar – 10/10. Absolutely amazing. One of the best desserts I’ve ever had. This dish made my impression of Koan go up by an entire point or more. The caviar worked so well with the hazelnut oil + ice cream and the Souffle was cooked to perfection.
14. Mignardise – 7/10. Nothing truly special here. Decent bites, but nothing I will remember.

The only dish that truly blew me away was (13), which they identified as being the signature dish from a previous year.