Brunch is that delightful excuse for not waking up too early on a weekend, while still gabbing something substantial before you die of hunger by lunch. It seemed to have become all the rage in Denmark a few years ago (just before mojitos, tapas, and in the same league as pulled pork this year*), where on one visit to Denmark everyone pretty much invited us over to brunch!

To my delight, Sonderborg was not left behind in this trend, which has now become a staple weekend offering. All the cafes on the town square (and probably a couple of others) offer their own version. Now that the sun is starting to rise later, not waking us up early when we don’t want to, brunch on the weekends is sounding like a very good proposition. So we made a start with the offerings in town.

Ib Rehne Cairo ‘Brunch for Two’

Ib Rehne Cairo was the first establishment that we selected. There was no special reason for this, except that we had been given a voucher for this from friends a while back that we had to make use of. There are a variety of brunch items on the menu here, with a buffet brunch offered on Sundays. We were there on a Saturday so opted for the ‘Brunch for Two’. There is also a ‘Classic Brunch’ with a few less items.

When the food arrived my first concern was ‘oh – is there enough there for two’ – I do tend to suffer from much bigger eyes than a stomach – followed by ‘hmm – I hope there is enough bread’ – I do come from a country where we eat bread with anything; sort of like Danish potatoes, just at all meals! However, the food looked good, and I was hungry, so I started tucking in.

The food was good decent food. I was quite surprised to see that there wasn’t ‘two of everything’, which probably explained my first concern on if there was enough for two. Some of the decisions on what was double and what wasn’t seemed a bit arbitrary, such as two yoghurt containers, but only one fruit salad. Others were understandable, such as one salmon with smoked cheese. in this case, the amount of salmon we had was much larger than I had anticipated on first glance, so I was a happy salmon lover!

My favourites from the selection were the salmon with smoked cheese and the fruit salad. I also liked the cheeses (which is always a big hit with me – I love cheese!). I didn’t taste the pancakes, as I sacrificed mine to Michael in exchange for being able to finish up all the fruit salad. My lowest points were probably the egg-related stuff: the aeggekage and the vegetable ‘tart’ (oh – why don’t ‘tart’s in Denmark come in pastry?! I miss my pastry!). They were perfectly edible, but were not my highlights. And for those that are suffering from a hangover, you also get two rostis and one fried Camembert. Nomnom! More cheese!

So we ate, and we enjoyed, and all my previous worries disappeared. We didn’t manage to finish the food, and there was even a slice of bread left. I wonder if we had eaten all the bread whether we could have asked for more? That’s always something I am interested in, but I apologise – dear readers – I didn’t ask!

Verdict: good variety of items, right amount of food (with a bit left over). Coffee or tea included in price. Won’t make me run out and get it again anytime soon before I have had the chance to try out the other offerings in town, but happy to return to it in the second round. The price for two people was 226 DKK.

Aside: We are on the lookout to identify the best brunch offerings in town. Mainly we are looking at buffet or offerings which come with a wider selection of items, rather than ‘porridge’ or ‘scrambled eggs on toast’. Which one should we try, and any we shouldn’t even touch with a barge pole. And if you want us to check our your own establishment’s offerings?? We won’t say no a an investigatory invitation to sample your menu 🙂

*or is it just me who sees these trends in Denmark, where all of a sudden all restaurants/meals at friends offer the same thing was in neither of their food offerings the year before?