The story
The Samuel occupies a historical villa from 1891 just steps from Hellerup Station, a short train ride north of central Copenhagen. Chef and sommelier Jonathan K. Berntsen named the restaurant after his son, and the personal stakes are evident in every detail. Berntsen brings a long track record — from the exuberant Berntsens Ballade to the acclaimed Clou — but The Samuel represents something more distilled: a place, in his own words, where "every dish reflects a shared commitment to purity, simplicity, and absolute precision."
The White Guide awarded the restaurant its Masters level distinction, noting that Berntsen's style has grown "clædeligt enklere" — elegantly simpler — while the flavors have become more complete and nuanced. That recognition sits alongside a Michelin star and Wine Spectator's Best of Award of Excellence, making The Samuel one of the most decorated tables in the Copenhagen dining scene.
The kitchen draws on French and Mediterranean traditions not as rules but as a starting point. "We begin with South European classics... yet we never allow ourselves to be confined by them," Berntsen explains. The result is a cuisine where technique is refined until a dish could only exist here, in this kitchen, made by this team.
The Signature Menu opens with small bites designed to wake the palate — an oyster with passionfruit and ginger that has become something of a house signature, alongside salmon belly with Oscietra caviar and a croustade of chicken liver parfait. From there, the menu moves through dishes like raw marinated Gambero Rosso prawns with red piment sorbet, delicate langoustine soufflés with sauce mascarpone and caviar, Danish squid with Sasanishiki rice and Parmigiano Reggiano, and a pigeon à l'orange that pairs poached breast with a leg confit raviolo. A mid-menu pause for a 2017 Dom Pérignon is not incidental — wine is, by design, weighted equally with food.
The ground floor sets the tone: a circular marble bar, an open kitchen visible from every angle, and a wine cellar holding close to 3,000 bottles — including one of the world's deepest Dom Pérignon collections, spanning decades of vintages. The list is predominantly French, anchored in Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Champagne, with carefully selected bottles from other regions woven in.
Guests are led upstairs for dinner, where tables are set with ironed white linen and silverware amid iconic Danish design and art. Between courses, there is the option to step into the herb garden or settle into the terrace lounge. The cheese course involves a trip back downstairs to the cheese cabinet — a moment Berntsen clearly relishes, given his stated passion for selecting only the finest examples.
Berntsen's own sommelier credentials are formidable: he has twice won the Copa Jerez, the most prestigious international food and wine pairing competition, and now consults the Danish chapter. That depth of knowledge shapes every pairing on the seven-glass wine menu.
The Samuel operates on four evenings a week, Wednesday through Saturday, for dinner only. The kitchen runs with an intimate team — no unpaid interns, no stagiaires, every member on contract and working a maximum of four days a week. It is a deliberate philosophy: the kind of uncompromising standards Berntsen describes can only exist, he says, "when everyone in the room shares the same vision."
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
Jonathan Berntsen has many years of experience running excellent restaurants. From the youthfully wild Berntsen’s Ballade to the highly acclaimed Clou, Berntsen has steered his kitchen with a confident hand, serving exactly the food he personally considers the very best. Here, the ingredients are top-quality, and they can certainly be imported if that makes the most sense. Berntsen is attentive to design, but now the style is pleasantly simpler and the flavors far more refined and nuanced. His best dishes have been carried over from previous ventures, but The Samuel is a completely new dining establishment with grand ambitions, located in a villa near Hellerup Station. We are shown up to our table on the first floor, where everyone is seated and dining. Our fantastic sommelier and hostess throughout the evening, Pernille Malec, who previously worked at places like The Paul and AOC, creates anticipation, joy, and a warm sense of hospitality around us. There is a single menu featuring five snacks, nine courses, and a small sweet treat with coffee, along with the option to purchase a 10-glass wine pairing, water, and coffee for a total of 3,700 DKK. We’re clearly operating at a high level, and it delivers! Often, the menu is crafted around which wines Berntsen wants guests to taste, featuring beautiful, often quite old bottles with great character that are refreshingly different from most wines. Yet Berntsen also keeps his finger on the pulse of trends, serving La Garmén oysters (a small “mother” oyster with a firm texture from Normandy) paired respectively with apple and then his signature combination of ginger and passion fruit. There’s a reason it has become so popular, as it truly awakens the palate, even for the golden, nutty drops of Guy Michel Champagne, Millésime 1998. Pickled sea urchin, geléed beach crab bisque, and hand-picked scallops serve as the playground that opens the evening. Afterward, we move on to the actual nine courses, which are simultaneously simple and so creative that we wouldn’t have come up with the ideas ourselves. Except for the cod with an overly robust bisque and caviar that gets “drowned out,” every dish is perfection and great flavor. There are many favorites, but especially the more ethically produced foie gras, seared with nanosecond precision and placed on fresh raspberries with a light glaze, so neither sweetness nor umami dominates, is a dream that is crisp and daringly paired with a glass of 1996 Burgundy from Camille Giroud, Aloxe-Corton, Les Vercots, 1er Cru from Côte de Beaune. It’s also a delight to get up and go downstairs to the large cheese cabinet to choose cheeses. Berntsen has a great passion—also for cheese—and here there is only the best of the best. For dessert, we gladly experience his old love for design, which reaches its crescendo in the chocolate mousse frog with a gold coating. We are heading straight to the top, and once the little details are fine-tuned, it will surely be reached. Here, outstanding uniqueness is delivered at the highest master class level.
High quality cooking
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