Søllerød Kro – a 1677 inn that still holds its star

Søllerød Kro stands where a village pond meets a stand of beech on the northern edge of Holte, some twenty minutes by train from central Copenhagen. It was opened by the pastor of the local Søllerød Church after he had obtained a license from the king, in 1677, and the building has housed an inn ever since, though it has taken its present form as a restaurant only since 1987. It holds One MICHELIN Star, a distinction the kitchen has kept continuously since 2007, when Jakob de Neergaard, head chef from 2001, brought the restaurant its first star in the Michelin Guide. Today the stoves belong to Brian Mark Hansen, who in 2023 became the best chef in the world when he won the Bocuse d'Or. The cooking is classical at its root, Danish and French produce treated with technical precision, served across three small rooms and, in warmer months, a courtyard that turns the whole experience into an argument for leaving the city for an afternoon.

01The room and the setting

The building itself is the first course. It was listed for protection in 1964, and a 2007 restoration brought it back to something close to its original character: the exterior was returned to an immaculate white, punctuated by dark-rimmed windows and crowned with mossy green thatching. A white mast carrying the Danish flag stands by neatly trimmed hedging, and guests enter through a gate into an inner courtyard with a fountain, which doubles as the summer dining terrace.

Inside, a run of antechambers leads into a dining area made up of several interlocking rooms, with low ceilings but wide windows along the outer walls that keep the space feeling open. The decor runs to lush fabrics, carved wooden chairs, painted panelling and lamplight rather than spotlights — a room built for lingering rather than spectacle. Outside, the setting has barely changed in generations: the village pond sits in front, forest presses in close, and the local church stands just beside it.

02The chef

Søllerød Kro has rarely lacked for talent in the kitchen. Since the 1980s it has been run by some of Denmark's best-known chefs, among them Søren Gericke, Michel Michaud, Francis Cardenau, Jan Petersen and Paul Cunningham (the last of whom later took two stars of his own at Henne Kirkeby Kro). Jakob de Neergaard was succeeded by Christian Ebbe, before Brian Mark Hansen took over as head chef in 2013.

Insider tip

Closed Mondays and Tuesdays and throughout July; Sunday is lunch-only with a fixed menu.

Hansen's own path back to Søllerød Kro took a decade. He had worked at Ruths Hotel in Skagen and at Kong Hans Kælder before becoming a sous chef at Søllerød Kro from 2007 to 2011, then spent two years as head chef at Christiansholm in Klampenborg before returning to lead the kitchen here in 2013. A decade on, he was crowned the world's best chef in 2023 when he won the Bocuse d'Or. In the dining room, general manager and sommelier Jan Restorff has been a fixture since 1999, pairing Hansen's cooking with a cellar he has spent a quarter-century building.

03The cooking and what to order

Reading the current menu in October 2026, the kitchen's register is French at heart with precise, often Japanese-inflected detours. The eight-course Signature Menu opens with Oscietra caviar, scallop, horseradish and grand fir, moves through halibut with yuzu, white soy and kombu, lobster ravioli with bisque and preserved truffle, and lion's mane mushroom with vin jaune, before a pigeon course on crouton with stuffed morel and morel jus, and a dessert of apples in their own syrup with rosemary ice cream and the house's own Caviar Søllerød Selected. The full menu runs to DKK 2,200 per person; taken without the two opening caviar courses, it drops to DKK 1,550.

À la carte keeps the same vocabulary in smaller portions: langoustine with crispy pork, yuzu and kombu; lion's mane with vin jaune and forest mushrooms; beef with Caviar Søllerød Selected and smoked marrow; pigeon on crouton with stuffed morel. For those who want to go further, the kitchen offers its own Gastro Unika caviar tasting. At lunch, a simpler two- or three-course Kromenu is composed daily by Hansen, and Sundays switch to a fixed three- or four-course lunch with a matching glass of wine for each course — on that day there is no à la carte or tasting menu at all.

04Wine and drinks

The wine list is the restaurant's other claim to fame. It runs to roughly 1,600 wines from countries and regions across the world, with verticals of producers such as Raveneau, Comtes Lafon, Domaine Leflaive and Château Palmer that are worth the detour on their own; the restaurant's own current listing puts the cellar at closer to 2,000 bottles. The depth of the list earned it the Special Jury Prize at Star Wine List of the Year Denmark in 2025. Pairings are offered at two levels — Signature and the more rarefied Prestige — alongside a corkage option for guests who bring their own bottle, capped at two per table. For those who prefer not to drink, the kitchen pairs its tasting menu with a sequence of organic juices from the Danish producer Rebæl, built flavour by flavour to follow the same courses as the wine.

05When to go and the neighbourhood

Lunch runs Thursday to Sunday, dinner Wednesday to Saturday, and the restaurant is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays; it also takes its annual holiday in July. The village sits about half an hour's drive, or a 45-minute train ride, some 22 kilometres north of Copenhagen, and the closest station is Holte, reached directly by S-train from the city centre. Weekend lunch, with the courtyard open, is the version of Søllerød Kro that best matches its setting.

The inn's history runs deeper than its kitchen: it has served as a filming location for several Danish films, including Tag til Rønneby kro in 1941, Bruden fra Dragstrup in 1955, Soldaterkammerater på efterårsmanøvre in 1961 and Tænk på et tal in 1969. In 2018, the house went a step further into its own mythology: a 288-page hardback book of photographs by Claes Bech-Poulsen, with text by the food critic and writer Niels Lillelund, was published and is still sold in the restaurant.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.