A couple of weeks back, my mom came to visit us for a couple of days. Being the francophiles that we are, I decided to take her to dinner to a French bistro that I’ve recently found out about and wanted to try: “Mon Amour”, located centrally on Skindergade, close to Gammeltorv.

A family-driven bistro, Mon Amour is what the Danish would call a “hvedagsrestaurant” (an “every day restaurant”, which is by no means derogatory). It might not be decorated with Michelin stars, but from the second we walked in, we felt right at home. The place isn’t very big, and it was completely full on a Tuesday night – which to me really speaks volumes! Lots of people were ordering the Moules Frites, so I’m guessing that they are very good – unfortunately, I’ll never know because I’m not a fan of mussels at all.

We were seated at a small table by the window, relatively close to the tables to our left and right, but the atmosphere didn’t suffer from the crowdedness – on the contrary, it just felt that much more cozy and homey with the waiters buzzing between the small tables and all those people around us enjoying their food and company.

We decided to go with three courses, but ordered à la carte, as the menu only offered Steak Frites and aforementioned Moules Frites as the main course, which we were not really in the mood for. The steak is a French bavette cut, which is not very common outside of France. It’s known for being very flavorful and tender, but being more of a lady’s cut filet steak kind of gal, I decided not to risk it. I’ll be sure to take my boyfriend there to give it a try, though!

For starters, I got a champignon soup with homemade croutons and a hint of truffle oil drizzled on top, which I really enjoyed. It had a great mushroom taste without coming across as stuffy, and it wasn’t too heavy either. Some bread on the side would have been nice, because I ended up stealing about half of my mom’s bread! She had the starter consisting of two different pâtés, imported from France, which we both liked as well.

For the mains, my mom went with the pan-fried Sole Meunière, which was served with mashed potatoes and a salad. When she asked about the bones, the waitress said it’d be no problem to remove them before serving, but unfortunately they must have forgotten. It wasn’t a big deal, though, and she came back later and apologized (without us actually having complained), so I’ll give some points for good style here. I chose the Coquelet à la Provençale, a poussin with Provence spices, accompanied by fries with a delicious dipping sauce and a salad. I absolutely LOVED the chicken, with its crispy skin and tender meat, it reminded me of summer days in the South of France! Definitely recommended!

Finally, we got Profiteroles and Crème Brûlée. What can I say, I’m a dessert person! No matter how much I’ve eaten, you will never see me say “no thanks” to dessert. Not in a million years! I firmly believe that I have a small dessert stomach, whose capacity is unaffected by the contents of my other, “real” stomach. So after urging my mom to please order dessert, I ended up eating most of both of them, but who can blame me? They were both amazing. The Profiteroles were fluffy and filled with delicious ice cream, smothered in a chocolate sauce, and the Crème Brûlée came in a very flat dish, meaning the ratio between crème and caramelized sugar was just as I like it. It had just the right vanilla taste, and the crème wasn’t too sweet, which balanced out nicely with the sugar coating.

I decided to go with the wine menu, which consisted of a nice crisp and fruity Sauvignon Blanc for the starter, a red for the main (I don’t remember 100% what it was but it was totally fine and actually went quite well with the spices from the chicken) and a Crémant de Bourgogne for dessert. I like the option of having a wine menu, especially if you’re not dining with a big enough crowd to order bottles for each course.

All in all, it was a lovely evening and both my mom and I really enjoyed the food and the atmosphere at Mon Amour. I will most definitely be coming back here!