Koks Restaurant Review: Dining Experience of a Lifetime in the Faroe Islands
My first day in the Faroe Islands was packed:
Got to airport in Vagar at 11am
Checkin at Havgrim Hotel shortly after 12pm
New Norse-inspired tattoo at 4pm
And by 6pm, off to Koks for dinner at 6:30pm!
This was also the Summer Solstice in the Land of the Midnight Sun. I didn’t know what to expect from Koks. That I’d be there 4+ hours. And that it wouldn’t just be a (very decadent) meal – but truly the experience of a lifetime.
Koks is in an old turf house on an isolated bay in the Faroe Islands
Here’s my experience (the only word to describe it!) at Koks, complete with #foodporn pics of the 20+ courses served that night.
My Koks restaurant review
Link: Koks restaurant in the Faroe Islands
When I walked through the door of Koks on June 22nd, 2018, they were still surfing the high of a stellar write-up in The New Yorker a few days before. This is the only restaurant in the Faroes to have a Michelin star.
But let’s back up. Koks recommends you arrive by taxi. When they drop you off, it’s in front of a tiny hut the Faroese use as an outdoor fridge with an expansive bay in the background.
We stepped into the hut. A young lady explained the use and importance of the hut to the Faroese. Then served dried cod, whale, a craft beer from a local brewery, and homemade kombucha.
Dried cod with butter, and fermented whale bites
After the starter, I think we were all kinda wondering what would happen next. No sooner did the thought spark than we were told to get into a Jeep 4X4. We plowed down a narrow dirt road riddled with potholes and drove further into the mountain valley.
Finally, the car stopped in front a long black house with a turf roof. We were at Koks.
The door to Koks
The entire staff, including chef, cooks, and servers, were standing outside to greet us. We were the first seating of the evening.
The host showed us to our table in the corner.
Table and ambiance at Koks
They gave us a little booklet:
Words about the Faroes
Menu choices
The tasting menu was 1,400 Danish kronur (~$219) per person. And you could add wine pairings for 1,000 more (~$172). Or a juice pairing for 500 (~$78).
Both my friend and I got the tasting menu with wine pairings (~$391).
We figured we’d come all that way – why not go for the full experience?
And then the experience really began.
Starters
A server showed us the food they’d sourced for us. They only order as many items as there are diners in an evening. The seafood is caught that same day and delivered straight from the fisherman’s boat to the restaurant.
The lobster was still moving on the plate. To call this farm-to-table is almost insulting. The divide from “farm” (or sea) to table is narrow as you can possibly get.
Our seafood for the night
The first course was a beautiful and perfect scallop. Each course is served on its own custom dish.
Scallop
They also started the wine pairings. Most of the wines were Spanish and from 2016, with many exceptions (see menu above).
My mahogany claim was 265 years old
Next up was a piece of lumpfish, followed by mahogany clam. These clams can live for over 500 years (!). And they told me my clam was somewhere around 265 years old, which is incredible.
Langoustine
Then, we got grilled pine-grilled langoustine. You’re meant to crack it open, eat the meat, then suck out the brains through the head. The meat was delicate and perfectly grilled.
Amazing sake
It was paired with a Japanese sake from 1999. It’s probably the best sake I’ve tasted in my life. I savored it – this was my favorite pairing of the entire evening.
Traditional foods
We got traditional Faroese dishes of wind-dried and air-salted fermented lamb and a sausage made of fermented lamb fat.
Faroese traditional foods
The Faroese love their fermented meats. The lamb was strong and had an almost cheese-like quality, like a Roquefort or some other super strong flavor. It was salty and bitter.
Server presenting a fermented leg of lamb
We paired the lamb with dried and fried sea urchin and a tapenade
To enhance the taste, we wrapped the lamb around a piece of sea urchin with a dab of tapenade. It was crunchy and savory and balanced the strong taste of the fermented lamb.
Savory palete cleansers
After the strong-tasting Faroese foods, we got savory biscuits and aioli sprinkled with dried cod flakes to cleanse and reset.
Mains
This part of the evening was primarily for wild-caught fish from Faroese waters. We started with a small piece of halibut between two pieces of watercress, which we ate like a tiny sandwich (for lack of a better comparison).
Clean tasting watercress and halibut
Following this, shredded crab meat with leeks and potato foam – the server poured the foam on the plate after it was served.
Crab, leek, and potato foam
Blue mussel
It was also time for another white wine pairing.
The servers knew everything about each wine selection
With each dish, the server explained its origin, meaning to the Faroese people, and where the food came from. Same for the wines – they knew everything about the vineyards, grapes, year it was made…
Salad, cod, and cod skin bites
By this time, we were to the core of the meal. There were small sandwiches made from dried cod skin and light as air, cod cheeks and chin, and a salad with local herbs.
More cod
Monkfish
Celeriac leaves cut to look like maple leaves and fried
After the fish, they brought out some garden herbs as a palate refresher before desserts. First up was celeriac leaves, followed by… grass.
Grass and sorrel
At this point I texted, “They just served us pureed GRASS.”
Had to text about this
It was paired with sorrel, a tangy, almost bitter-tasting herb. They actually tasted fantastic together. The shot of bitterness set us up to plunge into the sweetness of desserts.
Desserts
And of course, more wine pairings.
