Denmark - 14/04/09Manchester took legendary Danish goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel (still one of only a handful of players to have turned out for both United and City) to its heart. In much the same way it has embraced the KroBar chain of Danish hostelries.
At first glance you might think that
’KroBar’ is just a bad pun for the name of a bar (as with Baa Bar, Sand Bar, or Bar Code). However
kro in Danish means ‘inn’, so it is a double edged name. From its original location opposite the University of Manchester Student’s Union on Oxford Road it has expanded up to Kro2 by the BBC building, and Kro Piccadilly in the centre of town, and a catering arm. What I didn’t know until this visit was that it had opened up two new premises - a satellite branch out in Heaton Moor (110 Heaton Moor Road, Stockport), and the Old Abbey Inn in ‘Manchester Science Park’ (61 Pencroft Way, M15 6AY). Certainly the first three, all of which I pass on my way home from work, have outside seating, so it seemed appropriate to walk from one to the next on a sunny Easter evening.
Paul and I started off at
Kro Piccadilly (1 Piccadilly Gardens, M1 1RG). This is a glass fronted bar located by the Piccadilly Bus Station. It is often busy with an after-work office-drinks crowd, particularly on a Friday. On weekend evenings they often have a DJ as well spinning chilled out tracks. All the bars in the chain have an eclectic mix of drinks. Draught lagers and real ales are listed alongside bottled beers from around the world. There are wines and spirits. And on ‘Ruby Tuesdays’ they offer cocktails for £2.50. Though frankly I think that during the day just as many are lured in by their Coffee and Cake for £2.50 deal. For they stock gooey chocolate cakes alongside Danish pastries and the highly recommended carrot cake. Oddly enough, they only had one Danish beer on tap on this visit, Tuborg. We enjoyed a pint sat outside watching the crowds crossing Piccadilly Gardens before it was time to move on.
Kro2 on Oxford Road, sandwiched between the BBC buildings and the flyover of the Mancunian Way, won an award for Bar of the Year in its first year of operation (2002). Like the Piccadilly version, it is a glass-fronted building, but with piping and ductwork snaking up high above. There are tables out front and on a patio area to one side (with heaters later on in the year). This outdoor seating is very popular, despite the steady trundle of buses and traffic down one side. Examining the menu you will find a good selection of food. They also have a section devoted to Danish dishes, from ‘Danwiches’ (open sandwiches) to herrings and meatballs. Not sure what to pick to try the authentic taste of Denmark? Well, helpfully they have a couple of platters listed for £7.95 – the
Kro fish platter and the
Danish dinner platter. They also offer a full ‘Danish Experience’ set dinner, which requires up to 90 minutes to prepare. So we just opted for one of each platter to fashion our own
påskefrokost (Easter lunch).
Our dinners were served on segmented platters. The Danish meal comprised
frikadeller meatballs,
medister sausage, grilled pork, thin-sliced beef, potato salad, pickled red cabbage and breaded plaice. The plaice also appeared on the fish platter, along with Royal Greenland prawns, smoked salmon, gravadlax, cold rolled herrings, mayonnaise, and a red onion and caper accompaniment. We also got slices of bread from a soft white loaf, and some dense dark rye bread. Even the pats of butter were Danish Lurpak.
The food was uniformly good – even down to the strong chewy rye bread. The frikadeller meatballs were grilled pork-intensive balls of meat. The medister sausages were at first taste quite similar, but the use of bacon in their making gave them an added smoky/salty flavour. The beef came very thinly sliced as a sort of pastrami. It was topped with slices tomato and also of a stange slightly gelatinous pale yellow vegetable. They were about the same size as slices of apple, but with a softer texture, and they certainly kept us guessing as to what they actually were. Beneath the pickle there was a cucumber-y taste. And upon asking the waiter we found out that this was not a bad guess – it was
asier, pickled marrow. Denmark is famous for its pigs, and the thick slices of pork were grilled and edged with crackling. I didn’t much care for the potato salad, not being a fan of it at the best of times. Finally the breaded plaice came warm, topped with lemon and dill and a disturbingly yellow sauce which proved to be remoulade, a mustard-y tartare sauce type affair.
On the fish platter we had the Greenland prawns (though from their vivid tiger stripings they more resembled crayfish tails). Salmon came in two forms – plain smoked salmon, and
gravad laks (raw salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill). This latter came with a sweet sauce of mustard and dill. Finally, the herrings, served on rocket, were also surprisingly sweet. Apparently the chef has a variety of different ways of serving herrings, and today he had prepared ‘sweet-and-sour’ herrings marinated with juniper berries. While the individual portions were not massive (say one slice of sausage each, or one herring), they succeeded in giving a good overview of Danish cuisine in a tasty and well-presented manner.
We wandered down from there to the original
KroBar (325 Oxford Road, M13 3PG) for a final pint of Tuborg (though they also had Carlsberg on draught here). Contrary to the glassy décor of Piccadilly and 2, the original KroBar is in a tall Grade-2 listed building opposite the student’s union and situated near the Catholic Holy Name Church (the one made famous in The Smiths’ ‘Vicar In A Tutu’ fact fans). There are again seats outside, and a patio area located out back, but for me the comfiest area is upstairs where there are a number of large couches for casual chatting. They serve food here too – and I was interested to note that the platters that cost £7.95 in Kro2 and Kro Piccadilly only cost £7.50 here…
I have to say, I do like the various Kros (though I did not even know that they had a branch in Heaton Moor). I find that at busy times (Friday and Saturday evenings say) it can take a while to get served. Also, at those times the toilets in Kro2 and Piccadilly are pretty much always a state. However, for a casual drink, for the start of a night out, and most certainly for the food, I can certainly recommend these three great Danes.
From journal Around the World in 80 Meals! (part 2)