Tag Archives: eating out

Pancake Hut at the Marina

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Up to now if we wanted a pancake we drove to Genner Hoel to the pancake house there. However, now we have one just down the road from our house, in a wooden hut at the Lystbadehavn marina (opposite the Sonderborg Yacht Club).

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The pancake hut was opened on Friday by Emil Thusing. It offers, as is to be expected, pancakes, with toppings including honey, chocolate/strawberry/caramel sauce, sugar and cinnamon. Coffee, tea and juice are also on offer. At a cost of 25 DKK per pancake and 10 DKK for the drinks the prices are very reasonable.

The hut has no set opening hours, but Emil expects to open daily during summer (Except Mondays) from 15:00-21:00. We checked it out today for dessert during our after dinner walk. It did take a while to get a pancake, potentially as the pancake iron was cold, but once it arrived it was pretty good. I am sure once Emil gets more practice he will get quicker as well.

So if during the hot days coming up your are looking for something sweet on your walk along the water don’t forget to check out the pancakes!

Check the Pankagehytten on Facebook for updates. You can pay in cash or with MobilePay.

Review: Castillo & Co. Buffet Restaurant in Borgen

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Update: We revisited Castillo & Co in June 2016. For an updated review check out this post.

As happens every spring, Sonderborg starts getting new restaurants and eating/drinking places. First this year was Kisling’s. Now it is Borgen’s turn with Castillo & Co., serving a buffet lunch and dinner. The name Castillo & Co. is a reference to Borgen itself, since both indicate castles in different languages. When asked for a newspaper article why the ‘& Co.’, the owner mentioned it was to make it a bit softer.

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As always we were curious so we went for lunch there today. On arrival we were quickly greeted with a smile and shown to a table where we could sit with a pram (barnevogn) next to us. We then ordered drinks and were directed to help ourselves at the buffet. A great start – we were hopeful.

The service continued to be good, with a friendly and present server (when needed) and dishes constantly replenished and plates cleared away. Only slight niggle might be that it took a while for drinks to make it to our table, a wait made worse as we were very thirsty. As the place was quite busy we can excuse this.

However, the place is really let down by the quality of the food. Unfortunately, the food is less than inspiring:  it all looks as though it came from frozen and just heated, with the focus being more on quantity than quality. A cold selection with cheeses and cold cut meats, eggs and some fruit. There is also yoghurt and muesli, but I could find no bowls so had to use a flat plate, and an apple cake. On the other side there is the hot selection with fries, eggs, bacon, sausages, breaded fish, chicken and pasta & noodles. There are also pancakes. It would be good, however, if everything was labelled, especially the sauces!

Would we go again? Most probably not. At full price I would more likely opt for a sandwich from Kvickly – cheaper and better quality – or go to another location. If you are still curious maybe try it out in May, when the buffets are half price: 35 DKK for lunch and 45 DKK for dinner. But remember: We tried it so you don’t have to!

Poshing up Take-Away: Det Franske Hus

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Having had a baby recently time is often at a premium and preparing food low on the agenda. Unless you have friends who bring food over (thanks!) or food stocked in the freezer this may quickly end up in a take-away bonanza. However, quickly you will probably get tired of eating pizza, sushi and/or Chinese.

One place where you can get something that bit different is Det Franske Hus. As the name implies, the place in Broager is run by a Frenchman, Thierry Manane and the aim is to provide good food for its customers. The regular menu on offer is not wide but it changes regularly: a weekly menu (Monday-Friday), a weekly fish menu (Tuesday-Saturday) and a monthly menu are offered. It is mainly for pick-up from Broager, but we were also told that for a charge of 150 DKK they will deliver to Sonderborg.

We opted for the weekly menu on take away last week: warm salmon mousse with fish cream and shrimps as starter, stuffed pork filet with baked leeks and rosti potatoes as main, and apple tart with apricots for dessert. You do not need to order all 3 courses and in fact we ordered 2 starters, 3 mains and 2 desserts between 3 people and got more than full.

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The food came packed in aluminium foil dishes in a polystyrene box. All dishes had clearly marked information on how to warm them up (temperature and duration). It seems that some thought does go into this as the same temperature was required for all dishes, making warming up easy. Warming up times was between 15 and 20 minutes, after which the food was warm through very nicely. This is how the weekly take away offer is served. The other items from Det Franske Hus is offered as catering and is delivered warm and ready to eat with the appropriate china to serve it from.

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We enjoyed all the food. I was particularly surprised by the starter, as it was not something I would have ever picked. The cabbage, in particular, was really nicely spiced probably with cumin, which is not something I would have thought of. The main was a decent piece of pork, though a bit salty, especially for my non-Danish mother who was visiting! The dessert was again really good.

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You can easily order the food by calling them before 10 am on the day and you can agree a time to pick up (or organise delivery). Payment can be in cash or by bank transfer after you collect the food (they have no card terminal).

We were really satisfied with what we got. Furthermore, it is not only for daily food that the place is set up. It is, even more so I would say, set up to deliver food for special occasions. And in fact, that was part of the reason we tried it out: as a trial run for a special meal we have coming up. The trial run went smoothly so we will definitely be ordering more food from there!