Ekte Nordic Kitchen Is Ninth Restaurant Named for the Bloomberg Arcade

Ekte Nordic Kitchen — by Danish restaurateur Soren Jessen — will launch in early April next year in the Bloomberg Arcade, the restaurant and retail area of Bloomberg’s new European headquarters, which was officially opened by Sadiq Khan, the London Mayor, in the City of London in October. Ekte has confirmed that it will open in mid-April.

Ekte, a Scandinavian-influenced restaurant, café and sandwich bar will join the already stellar line-up of new food outlets on the ground floor of the new and ambitious restaurant development. The nine now confirmed are: A new restaurant by A. Wong’s Andrew Wong, JKS’ Brigadiers, Koya Bar, Caravan City, Vinoteca, Homeslice, Bleecker and Ahi Poke.

Jessen, who was behind City restaurant 1 Lombard Street, which opened in 1998, said that he was enthusiastic about a project related to his “favoured native cuisine.”

“Our offering at Ekte will be very different from 1 Lombard Street,” he said. “We want to explore fresh and seasonal Nordic-inspired cooking, and also create a vital take away offering for busy City locals, including the hugely popular smørrebrød sandwiches and Scandinavian pastries.”

London-based Danish design studio JLKDS have devised the glass-fronted 60 seater space, with a bar, open kitchen and outdoor seating area for an extra 20 covers.

Official

“Ekte,” meaning genuine or real in Norwegian, will serve an all-day, pan-Nordic menu with typical dishes said to include: Snaps-cured dill salmon, pickled radishes, onion and beet; mustard-marinated herring with caramelised apple; new potato salad with smoked mayo, fried onion and toasted rye crumbs; seared pepper venison with preserved plums, apple pistachio and almonds; Danish apple cake with cinnamon ice cream; and Norwegian hazelnut cake with chocolate sauce.

Smørrebrød (open rye bread sandwiches) will feature smoked trout, curried herring, Greenland shrimp, goat’s cheese with burnt beetroot, and roast beef with burnt onion, light pickled cucumber and horseradish cream. For breakfast: Danish pastries, charcuterie, gravad lax and eggs.

Jessen added: “It is a privilege to be included in the magnificent new Norman Foster building. Ekte will complement the other food outlets, with our modern design plans and our repertoire of Nordic classic cuisine, plus some fun, casual menus for takeaway. City workers and Londoners in general are in for a culinary treat with the launch of Bloomberg Arcade.” They are.

Monday – Saturday from 7am – 11.30pm.