The Samuel

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A Restaurant Named After a Son, Built Around a Vision

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.

South European Foundations, Personally Interpreted

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 Cellar Downstairs, the Dining Room Upstairs

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.

Craft Without Compromise

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."