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Madsen Restaurant

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Cuisine: Other
33

20 Old Brompton Road, South Kensington, SW7 3DL


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Description: Spearheading the Nordic cuisine renaissance, Madsen has a specific purpose: to awake your taste buds to the largely unknown nuances of Nordic cuisine and change people's perception of Scandinavian food. Madsen finds innovation where others have seen limitations, showing how traditional ingredients such as herrings, pollack and bacon can be given a deliciously contemporary twist. With this revival in mind, owner Charlotte Kruse Madsen sets out to serve fresh, current and refined Nordic cuisine with respect to its heritage, styled after the 11 Michelin star restaurants found in her native Denmark. Blending the traditional with the modern, all dishes are prepared with seasonal ingredients and no unnecessary garnish. Alongside a European wine list, there is a lovely selection of akvavits and unusual Scandinavian beers. The setting highlights the contemporary Scandinavian brasserie feel, with wooden floors complementing an exposed brick wall and a curved bar with paintings on display.

Phone: +44 2072252772
Website: http://www.madsenrestaurant.com

Open: Lunch Mon ? Sat 12.00 ? 16.00 Sun 12.00 ? 16:30 Dinner Mon ? Thurs 18:00 22:00 Fri/Sat 18:00 ? 23:00

 

 

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Madsen finds new side to Danish

 

Fair deal: Charlotte Kruse Madsen’s restaurant serves Scandinavian dishes at very reasonable prices

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For foreign cuisines we almost always turn south, for good reason. Scandinavian restaurants have always been rare birds in London, enjoyable though they can be. Many years ago, I used to like the gravlax and Jansen’s Temptation at Anna’s Place, a friendly Swedish restaurant in Highbury. That’s long gone. Last year saw off both Upper Glas, in Islington, and Lundum’s, a popular Danish place in Old Brompton Road, leaving a gap in the market.

Charlotte Kruse Madsen, a 31-year-old Dane, trained at a catering school in Switzerland and at a restaurant in Copenhagen before opening her own catering company in London in 2006. Last November she opened Madsen with chef René Madsen (no relation), choosing its South Kensington site carefully to catch prosperous Scandinavian expats.

It’s a pleasant, light room, uncluttered, with a wooden floor and whitewashed brick walls, modern plywood chairs and tables, one bright red banquette, dominated by light from lots of the iconic PH5 lamps (designed by Poul Henningsen in 1955 to emulate the glow of the petroleum lamps of his childhood). Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows there’s a little terrace on the street, paved in slate, more for smoking than eating at this time of year.

The place has a big eco-ethic, sourcing locally, cooking seasonally, stocking only European wines, not using tablecloths, printing on recycled paper, certainly not using patio heaters. “If you’re feeling chilly, we’ll let you have a nice warm Scandinavian blanket,” they say, and drape them hopefully over the chairs outside. There’s a slight hint of austerity — or, as it might be, rationality — in the ambience here, too. When we ordered a bottle of wine, we were asked, slightly as if we must have made a mistake, “A glass?”

But the food itself couldn’t be more generous or fairly priced. House marinated onion herring (£5.95) came with lots of chicory and endive leaves, well dressed, and some toasted thin slices of rye bread, brittle, almost percussive — but then crisp is the Scandinavian way. The excellent homemade bread here verges on crispbread, too. The fish itself was wonderfully tender and rich tasting, showing just how good herring can be — in fact, it provided one of those great restaurant moments where you think: “So that’s what all the versions I’ve had before should have tasted like.”

Charlotte Kruse Madsen explained that in Denmark, herring is eaten only at lunch, except at Christmas, but since it was what people here expected to see on a Scandinavian menu even at dinner, she obliges.

A winter salad of sliced, baked Jerusalem artichokes with croutons, toasted walnuts and some flakes of Jarlsberg cheese (£4.95) was good too — earthily flavoursome, well-dressed, a sizeable portion much enjoyed.

When it comes to main courses, the menu gravely explains: “Winter is time for food full of flavour and nutritious benefits.” Thus, as well as the likes of Danish-style beefburger, baked plaice and pan-fried salmon, some appealing braises are listed. Pig cheeks, cooked with Danish lager and parsley (£12.95), were fantastic, the meat meltingly soft yet still moist and textured, in a lovely dark, shiny sauce, served atop roasted parsnips, again a huge portion.

A chicken ragout, quite classic, with little shallots and big chunks of bacon, in a rich and glossy red wine sauce (also £12.95), was just as good, and came with a big bowl of smooth, fluffy and buttery potato mash. These were both perfect winter warmers, seriously well-cooked, putting all the rusticity lacking in the decor right there on the plate, where it belongs.

A traditional dessert, æblekage (£4.95), was creamy and sweet — lovely stewed apple being layered with whipped cream and crumbled amaretti biscuits. Even sharing, one of these proved a bit much, though they seemed to be much enjoyed around the room, which was pretty busy for a Monday in January despite the proximity of a packed Carluccio’s.

At lunchtime there is a different menu of smørrebrød (open sandwiches, cold or hot) although the translation is misleading in that these are really meals such as fried, breaded fillet of plaice, accompanied by prawns and remoulade, or pork meatballs with potato mayonnaise and pickled cucumber which happen to be served with a slice of rye bread. It seems an eminently sensible meal, obviously popular with the tall blondes who were lunching.

The wine list is short and functional, opening at £15 but soon into the £20-plus range. Maybe a beer’s more the thing? Madsen is stylish, enjoyable, good value, especially for this part of town — and different from anything else on offer. Altogether from a cooler clime.

Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.

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