Era Ora

When my sister heard that I was going to be near Copenhagen for a holiday, she wanted to go and visit the city once again to dine in the one of its many Michelin-starred restaurants. We tried going to Tivoli’s Nimb but it was all booked out so we looked for reservations for our next most preferred, the Italian focused restaurant Era Ora.

Era Ora’s entrance is very discrete, located off a small side street near Christianshavn. We almost walked by it, if not for peering in at the lightly veiled windows to see the soft glowing lights of a restaurant. We dropped off our coat and sat down to the small tables – much less cramped together than many other restaurants. A giant napkin twirled and crossing the, just as equally, giant silver platters on which they sat. I quickly untwirled mine and cast it on my lap to avoid the awkwardness of waiters reaching across me. Fortunately our friendly waiter didn’t try to get there before I did.

Like many other diners that evening, we opted for the tasting menu – something that apparently that Era Ora was made famous for being the first to introduce a series of small dishes to delight the diner. Our first brought out a lovely seared scallop sitting with apple, fried leeks and froth.

When we sat down for our dinner at 7pm, only two other tables filled the dining room. It filled up by the time we left though. Here’s another view of the restaurant before it filled up.

A very wonderfully plated dish of lobster salad with filo pastry and beans

And then a pumpkin lasagne over fried Monte Veronese cheese.

And the plate of trio finished with plaice rolled on swiss chard, potato, sun-dried tomato and Jerusalem artichoke.

Another trio of dishes arrive as the second round of appetisers including Veal tartar in love with crunchy cracker and foam of soya.

A Castagnaccio with orange ricotta, banana chip and honey caramel

Below a stunning venison meatball in beans sauce with deep fried spring onion

All of course very beautifully presented.

Past the trio arrived a herbal risotto in scent of liquorice topped with roasted quails.

Followed by a pasta dish home made trofie pasta rolled in venison ragout and red onion. Italians would enjoy how perfectly aldente the pasta was and the strong reduced flavours in the ragout.

We then had a roasted lamb fillet with eggplant composition and fried tomato.

Our first round of dessert started with a refreshing prune sorbet served with a couple of cheeses (Monte Veronese and Ubriacone), light and palette cleansing.

And then Cream of white chocolate with lemon scents served with fennel and lemon coffee cream, cookie crumbs, dark chocolate caviar and milk sorbet