The joy of no kids' menus in Denmark

There's something about seeing my kids nibbling anything on the spectrum of green, of their own volition, that makes me feel that maybe I'm doing OK as a parent.

So it was with slight trepidation that we discovered that almost none of the restaurants we wanted to go to on our North Zealand travels had a classic kids' menu. Nuggets, chips and pasta were nowhere to be seen here. 

In Denmark, like a lot of European cultures it seems, kids are folded into the full dining experience, and are expected to eat, or at least try, dishes, flavours and ingredients that in our dining culture often get written off (on their behalf, I think it’s fair to say) as 'too grown up'. I loved the Danish ethos. When travelling and therefore eating out a lot of the time, it doesn't feel great to be giving them either goujons or pasta at every meal. So having them removed from the options was as much a relief as it was a challenge. Did it go smoothly every time? Definitely not. But of course they didn't starve, and when I did find them diving for verdant treasures in a bowl of freshly-picked veg from the farmlands around us, I have to admit feeling pretty smug.

The region is peppered with good farm-to-table restaurants and places that celebrate hyper-local ingredients. Torup Spisehus is stylish but casual enough that the kids could run around the garden outside before and between the dishes arriving. We ordered a lot of small plates like lentils with braised veg, mozzarella with salsa verde and the homemade terrine. The kids tried bits of most things and inhaled the cheese. At Tinggården, smaller portions of the adult set lunch menu are offered at half the price. This was the trickiest place for us, as the food was a little more sophisticated in presentation (provoking the oh-so-fun 'I don't like that!' 'Just try it!' tug of war). Charcuterie and cheese plates saved the day. There is also a more casual café on site that doesn't take reservations but has a simpler menu, including grilled sandwiches.

The wildcard that went memorably well was Rabarbergaarden. It's a farm-to-table restaurant in gorgeous surroundings. The lunchtime menu centres on open-faced sandwiches. We ordered one with egg and one with herring, along with the aforementioned huge bowl of greens, all of which arrived beautifully decorated with edible flowers. After eating, the kids tormented a shaggy-haired sheep with affection at the farm within sight of our table, while we took our time over a bottle of white wine and managed to have a conversation. Bliss. 

Our experience of eating out along Denmark’s Riviera has raised my expectations of what my kids will actually eat when nuggets and pasta aren’t default options. I hope I can make it a lasting change.

By Lucy, founder of Souvenir. Find her full 7-day Danish Riviera itinerary here.