Dinner for winners – providing you surrender to the menu first

Brilliant for beer and burgers, BrewPub also does refined dining

"On victory, you deserve beer. On defeat, you need it,” pronounced Napoleon roughly 200 years ago. Regardless of your present situation, BrewPub København is a smart choice if you seek an expansive selection of beers and accompanying meals.

My friend and I arrived at BrewPub on a Wednesday night for a long dinner. We were pleasantly surprised by the refined, clean atmosphere – the word ‘pub’ often evokes images of a dingier locale, but BrewPub is quite the opposite.

BrewPub offers two different menus: the pub menu and the restaurant menu. The pub menu is available all day and features items like burgers, fish and chips, fries, meatballs and steaks. The restaurant menu is served from 5 until 11pm. It invites guests to choose up to four courses of finer dining from an array of dishes. My friend and I sampled the restaurant menu on our visit.

Always begin with beer
Upon our server’s recommendation, we began our evening with the Mort Subite Original Kriek. This Belgian beer was clean and refreshing as it rested on notes of sweet cherries and hints of almond. For those who prefer lighter beers, this is a promising choice.

The appetisers arrived shortly afterwards. My friend opted for the Oven-Baked Salty Pickled Salmon while I tried the Potato Soup. The dishes were accompanied by the Brewster, BrewPub’s newest top-fermented pale ale. The beer was fresh, easy to drink and had a slightly sweet malt flavour. The Brewster was a nice transitional drink between the sweet Mort Subite and fuller beers.

For our main courses we ordered Beuf Tartar and the day’s vegetarian special. The beef tenderloin sat on a light salad and was accompanied by a bowl of hand-cut fries. The vegetarian special was a variation on the pumpkin risotto. The risotto was topped with carrots that had been cooked for an impressive ten hours and a healthy serving of edamame beans.

The third round of beers we tried was much more robust in flavour than the previous two. The Amarillo, one of BrewPub’s most popular beers, is a moderately bitter red ale that highlights the fullness of caramel malts. The William Wallace is BrewPub’s Scottish ale and has a slightly smoky aftertaste. The beer is round and characterised by a unique malt aroma.

Mouthwatering burgers
While we were at BrewPub we noticed burgers flying past us towards the pub section. Although I didn’t have the chance to sample a burger, they certainly looked mouthwatering. As an American, I feel I have the jurisdiction to pass judgment. Seeing the burgers made us wish we could choose from both menus even though we were sitting in the restaurant, but we couldn’t complain too much because our own meals were amply satisfying.

Finally, we finished the night by splitting the Crispy Apple Pie, which was served with apple cinnamon ice cream, and ordering the Dutschke Old Codger Tawny dessert wine. The otherwise savoury dinner ended on an extremely sugary note.

After three and a half hours, three courses, multiple beers and some wine, I have to refer to Napoleon and say we were feeling quite victorious.

BrewPub
Vestergade 29, Cph K; open Mon-Thu 12:00-24:00, Fri-Sat 12:00-02:00, restaurant open Mon-Thu  12:00-24:00, Fri-Sat 12:00-02:00; 3332 0060, info@brewpub.dk; brewpub.dk