Tag Archives: american

Sønderborg’s new steakhouse: Barbie BBQ

There is a new restaurant in Sønderborg and if you haven’t been yet – it’s worth trying it out.

Sønderborg has seen some interesting new food and beverage places pop up the last year or two but in my book this one might be the most interesting so far.

The restaurant is named Barbie (as in barbecue not Ken’s girlfriend) and the theme is “new American barbecue” which means slow roasted meat like pulled pork, pork belly, beef brisket and steaks with sides of mash & gravy, coleslaw and mac & cheese.

The decor of the place is very simple and basic. There is concrete floors and bare ceilings with simple wood furniture like something out of the hip meat packing district in Copenhagen.

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But the building actually has a long history. It goes back to 1903 when it was built as the first Danish assembly hall in the then-German Sønderborg. In 1907 it became a restaurant/dancehall ‘Kaiserkrone’ that could seat 500 and host balls for 800 people. Once the German navy base closed down it became a cinema and more recently it has been the shop called Als Design Center (which still exists online). Now it is again a restaurant and this time it has room for 140 inside and 50 outside making it one of Sønderborg’s biggest restaurants.

The people behind the restaurant are no rookies in starting restaurants. Barbie is started by twin brothers Rasmus and Jakob Oubæk and Christian Brandt. Rasmus Oubæk has been nicknamed “The King of Bearnaise” and these guys run six popular restaurants in Copenhagen that get good reviews.

OK enough chatter – on to the food we had in Sønderborg…

We made a booking an hour before we arrived on Saturday evening and we could get a table without problems. Once we got there the place was busy but not completely full.

The menu is really short (4 snacks, 8 mains, 3 desserts) so it wasn’t too difficult to pick something. We ordered the ribeye steak and brisket sandwich, a pilsner and an elderflower drink.

We went there with our 7 month old son, so we were a bit worried that he would be noisy. But because of the bare walls and concrete floors the place was buzzing with noise from all the other tables so a squeal now and then from us did not get noticed.

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The food arrived in no time and we dug in. The steak was good, juicy and tender and came with a big pot of bearnaise sauce. I enjoyed the sauce; Ann found it a bit too sweet.

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The brisket sandwich came in two small homemade buns. The meat was really, really tender. This was served on a tray with baking paper and the coleslaw in a polystyrene cup. Thinking back this has a cheap, cafeteria feel to it but the food was good so we didn’t think about it at the time. The fries and coleslaw were good but nothing to rave about.

Our son got to try the two meats as well and he got a lot of enjoyment from the ribeye. The brisket was so tender that he could not manage to get much of it up to his mouth.

The beer I had was their pilsner on tap. However it did not taste like a pilsner at all – it was more like a wheat beer. I enjoyed it although I would think their bottled IPA goes better with this type of food. Ann loved the elderflower drink (and that’s her drink of choice…every.time. So that is praise indeed).

They also offered us a bottle of tap water and unlike any other restaurant in Sønderborg they do not charge for tap water.

Overall we really enjoyed it. We were in and out of there in hour which is good timing for us with the age of our kid. Without a kid we would have definitely stayed for longer. Due to the acoustics and the size of the place it is not a particularly romantic place, but I will definitely come back with a group of friends for a night of laughs, banter and good food.

Impressions of Sonderborg

Now and then people email us with questions about Sonderborg. We are happy to answer (to the best of our abilities). Sometimes we can turn our answers in to blog posts, so feel free to send us your questions.

Ed Yandek from Ohio, US was heading to Sonderborg for a conference and his wife came along. They spent a week in town and we had an email correspondence before their trip. After they got back to Ohio Ed sent us his impressions and thoughts.

Hi, Michael—
We have been back in Cleveland now for one week but are still having very fond memories of our visit to Sonderborg. We had a nice room at the Comwell overlooking the water and that was also the meeting site, so it was very convenient to walking all over town. We found the people very friendly, especially when I would ask questions, such as why all the young people had nautical looking caps– found out it was for graduation, and then we saw them running all over the city celebrating. Weather was really fine as we came prepared with jackets and umbrellas. We had mostly lovely weather that week, except for the very wet evening of the bonfires. The Castle museum was amazing and we learned a lot about the history of that region. We also went to the mill museum and the military museum across the bridge. It was a nice walk. It made some of the old history lessons I had many years ago seem more real, since Americans really are not very knowledgeable about the Danish-Prussian issues of that period. After a week there we can see why it is a popular town for visitors. I think it would make a nice staging point to explore the larger area with a car some time. I assume there is a local rental place in the city somewhere?

 

We had only been to Copenhagen before and liked it a lot, but find we are more and more liking smaller towns like Sonderborg when we visit in Europe.

 

One thing that surprised me was how prosperous everything and every one appeared yet I would say that from an American point of view the cost of living is pretty high. Mainly it seems due to the tax structure. But, I suppose this is part of the social history and wanting to elevate the standard of living for everyone. It does seem to be successful, at least for a country such as Denmark…

 

Anyhow, we enjoyed your country and town immensely and I want to thank you again for your tips, which were all very helpful.

 

Kind regards–
Ed

 

The email is published with Ed’s approval. If you have travelled to Sonderborg we would love to hear your story or see your pictures.