Scan Magazine | Restaurant of the Month | Denmark
Restaurant of the Month, Denmark
Fresh fish and fast food Denmark’s food scene has become world-renowned in the last decade, but while many might associate Denmark, and Scandinavia as a whole, with fish, Danes eat a surprisingly small amount of it. Hooked has tried to change this by making fish accessible for all, initially through their food truck and now also at their restaurant in Copenhagen. By Josefine Older Steffensen | Photos: Hooked
“We actually started thanks to Matthew, our British co-founder, wanting to start a fish-and-chip shop in Copenhagen. That, as a dish, wasn’t really available, and those he could find weren’t up to scratch. Every time we’d meet up, we’d discuss this dream, and then one day we went out and bought a food truck,” explains Kasper Christensen, co-founder of Hooked. After some trial and error and a steep learning curve in their own kitchen, they had created a menu that included everything from fish and chips to a lobster 100 | Issue 112 | May 2018
roll. It was based around the idea of making the fish the star of the show, where speed and quality were also added bonuses. They travelled throughout Denmark and even some of Sweden, and people quickly got on board with the concept.
From then to now After the establishment of the food truck in 2016, Hooked added a restaurant in the trendy Nørrebro area of Copenhagen in 2017. Today, their food truck travels around Denmark to various festivals over the summer, while the restaurant is open every day – apart from five days
over Christmas and New Year – for lunch and dinner. The menu has remained pretty much the same, but has been perfected over the years. “We’re a fast-food place, but what’s important to us is making food that tastes really good,” says Christensen. “Due to high demand, we do occasionally have a little bit of a wait, but the restaurant has long tables and a little bar, so it’s nice to sit with others and share a drink while you wait.” As the weather gets warmer, Copenhagen also changes. As soon as the sunshine hits, the Danes move outside and soak up every last ray of it. Hooked then gets an outdoor seating area as well, from which you can not only enjoy the sunshine, but also see cyclists whizzing past on their bikes, all while relishing some delicious, fresh fish and really