Copenhagen's finest Italian restaurant, which has held its star for two decades by refusing to modernise in the directions that would make it less good.
Era Ora opened in 1983 — ancient by Copenhagen restaurant standards — and has held its Michelin star since 2001 by operating with a clarity of purpose that most restaurants abandon during a crisis of confidence. The restaurant serves Italian food at the highest level because its founders believed Italian food at the highest level was worth serving, and nothing in Copenhagen's dining scene since has convinced them otherwise.
The kitchen imports its primary ingredients from Italy: San Marzano tomatoes from Campania; buffalo mozzarella still warm from morning production; aged Parmigiano-Reggiano from producers who have supplied the restaurant for years; truffles from Périgord and Alba at their respective seasons. The tasting menu moves through the regions of Italy in sequence — antipasto from Sicily; pasta from Emilia-Romagna; a main course from Tuscany.
The Italian wine list is of uncommon depth, with producers from natural, biodynamic, and conventional viticulture. The location on the Christianshavn canal adds a setting that Italian food travels most naturally toward: somewhere near water, slightly removed from the city's core. See all Copenhagen restaurants.
Era Ora is the best first-date restaurant in Copenhagen for guests who prefer intimacy and certainty to avant-garde experimentation. The canal-side setting in Christianshavn, Michelin-starred Italian cooking, and a wine list that reads like a geography lesson in the Italian peninsula create an evening that cannot go wrong. Perfect occasions: First Date · Proposal · Birthday.
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