Krebsegaarden, Relae show why Denmark pulls the food tourists

Early in the next decade the Danish chamber of commerce expects the country to have enough hotel beds to accommodate up to 10 million tourists at any one time. To put that in perspective: The population of Denmark is about six million. No wonder it's gained the dubious honour of being in the top 5 countries suffering "over tourism" (calculated by the ratio of residents to tourists).

What do all these travellers see in this tiny Nordic country? For many, it's all about the food.

Denmark has 27 Michelin-starred restaurants. Two-starred Noma has been named top restaurant in the world four times and three-starred Geranium currently sits at No. 5. (Noma lost its third star and slipped in the rankings while it closed for a year for renovation. Many expect it to regain its dominance this year.) Some of my most remarkable dining experiences have been here, including at the dearly departed Restaurant Herman at Tivoli and at Aarhus' remarkable Domestic. Whether the explosion in interest in Nordic cuisine sparked the tourism boom or vice versa is a "chicken or the egg" conundrum, but whatever the answer there's no doubt this one of the top "foodie" destinations in the world.

Thus it was no surprise that the top priority of travelling friends we were meeting in Copenhagen was restaurant reservations. Our challenge: use my half-Danish husband's insider knowledge, our travel experience and the big network of Bencard cousins to come up with some exceptional meals. We delivered with a traditional lunch at Cafe Petersborg (described in an earlier article here) and two fine-dining wonders: Relae and Krebsegaarden. Relae holds one Michelin star and is anchored by a Canadian. At Krebsegaarden your hosts are two Norwegian chef/owners Mats (pictured above) and Carsten. The food scene is a magnet for international cooking talent as well as diners.

We had the chef's tasting menu at both restaurants with the matching wine flight. Both restaurants have an obsession for local produce and lean heavily towards seafood. Both offer creative twists on preparation and source wines from interesting small producers. Both have charming servers who talk you through the dishes in as much detail as you want. The cost of both experiences was roughly the same (£120 per person; but note this reflects a very weak British Pound at the moment).

Krebsegaarden's quirky differentiator is art. It's a combined gallery and restaurant where the kitchen takes its inspiration from the seasonal exhibitions on the walls. There's a small a la carte menu and an invitation to let the chef design a multi-course tasting menu for your table based on your preferences and hunger. It looked like most people take the latter option. Mats chatted with us a bit, then started the food and wine rolling.

We opened with some delightfully fat scallops, seared with a coat of brown sugar and smoked salt and served with a puree of green apple, onion and dill. Next a salad plate of small pickled radishes, goats yogurt, salad leaves, caramelised walnuts and rye crackers; one of those plates that shouts out "you don't need animal protein to create something special." But there's no way I'd want to go pure vegetarian in a country with such great fish. So on to red fish "escabeche", sitting atop a sweet and sour melange of finely diced green beans, olives, capers and bell peppers, accompanied by a sweet potato puree. How good is this kitchen? That list features at least two things my husband dislikes intensely, yet as prepared here he savoured every bite. The meat course brought a stuffed guinea fowl breast with a "meatloaf" prepared from the dark meat, sitting on a creamy wild rice sauce and accompanied by a mix of carrots, peas and corn that looked exactly like the frozen, mass market stuff.  But tasted very different. As it was supposed to. Mats said the inspiration for the dish was the frozen TV dinners of their youth. They've done homage to the memory while creating something gourmet.

The table was liberated to personal preferences for dessert, with me going for their take on cheesecake (really a misnomer; it was a tangy, cream cheese-like parfait with fresh and pickled strawberries and some crumble for crunch) while others went for creme caramel and the plate of

chocolate petit fours.

There's no Michelin-star daintiness or formality here, and while the plates are attractive nothing is a work of art. With the way Mats and Carsten work the room, discussing inspiration for their dishes, where their ingredients come from and why the wine matches, you feel more like you're dining in their house than discovering a fancy restaurant. If you like something a lot they might bring out extra portions. If your taste leans towards one wine they might pour a similar one to see how you compare them. It was as intimate an experience as we had "private dining" in Grenada earlier this year. We loved everything about Krebsegaarden. This is not, however, a place for a quiet, romantic dinner or just being left alone. Mats is a big personality, and the discussion of what you're eating and drinking here is almost as important as the dining.

Relae is a bit more traditional in that respect, though you'll still have chefs explaining what you're eating and the room's exposed brick walls, natural wooden tables and world music mix are a world away from white tablecloths and old-fashioned fine dining. The presentation, however, leaves you no doubt you're at the high end of the culinary spectrum. From the custom-made tables with individual drawers for each diner's range of cutlery to a staggering array of beautiful plates and bowls to the food's exquisites presentation, Relae is gorgeous.

The restaurant's heritage traces back to Noma; founding chef Christian Puglisi came from the famous kitchen to start a place that was more approachable (and affordable) while still holding on to Noma's values. Those include a veneration for organic produce and local sourcing; so much so that Relae has its own four hectare mini-farm half an hour away and tries to raise as many of their menu elements as possible. It's impossible to miss this. When you arrive, you'll step down into a welcoming space with the kitchen on view and a large central table heaped with the day's produce, as artfully arranged as the displays in Harrods' food halls.

Canadian Jonathan Tam, another Noma alumnus, took over the kitchen three years ago. His Chinese and Vietnamese family roots give both menu and presentation a distinctly Asian feel. The amuse bouche of griddled cucamelon and spears of swiss chard showed the unusual preparation of ordinary veg that would characterise the whole meal. We chased that with shot glasses of potent tomato water before going on to slivers of cured mackerel wrapped in spinach leaves. Very Japanese. Next came freshwater crayfish, a passion of the Danes, served with a creamy crayfish soup that was one of the highlights of the meal. You can, however, get a bit carried away with the vegetable worship. The stack of grilled squash slices covered with cream sauce and sprinkled with marjoram leaves was beautiful, but didn't taste special enough to deserve its solo placement.

The meat course featured delicately flavoured, rare salt marsh lamb and a beautiful swirl of salad leaves plated to look like a crown. Excellent, but the friend who went for the pescatarian option here was the winner with rich turbot in a cream sauce. Vegetable madness let them down again on the sweet front. While incorporating chunks of cooked squash into lemon verbena ice may prove the point for the possibility of using vegetables for every course, it's an underwhelming end to a meal if you're a dessert lover.

If I were hosting a vegetarian, Relae would win hands-down. It's a more thought-provoking experience in the way it uses its ingredients, and is probably more "Instagrammable." But I'd give the edge to Krebsegaarden on the overall experience and my satisfaction across all of their dishes.