Greetings from Charlotte

Zagat and The Good Food Guide - Firstly, we are really proud to have been included in both the Zagat and The Good Food Guide 2010. It is inspiring to be in company with some of the great restaurants in London. In the Good Food Guide we have been recommended by a "reader" and that is really the best recommendation we can get.

Restaurant Festival Week - as you will see below, we are participating in the London Restaurant Festival. It kicks off this Thursday (Oct 8), and lasts for just 6 days. We hope to see you around to sample some of our wholesome food ,speciality beers or even the Sunday Roast. We will also be celebrating our first birthday on Saturday October 10 - 1 year around and we feel stronger than ever.

New Per Hillo paintings - we have had a new delivery of the popular paintings come over from Denmark. They are up on the walls in the restaurant and in the Private Dining Room. They look great and they suit the restaurant really well. You can find out more about Per Hillo and his work further down the newsletter.

Catering - it is all about business events at the moment. We have been glad to be able to support Nordea, Handelsbanken and The Royal Norwegian Embassy with smushi and canapes during late September.

Festival menu with great beers

Pairing food with beer & Sunday Roast October 11

London Restaurant Festival is a new event in town and it runs from October 8 to 13, 2009. This six-day jamboree is a city-wide celebration of eating out. Hundreds of restaurants all over London are participating and have special menus for the week. There will be different kinds of events like free dinners, competitions beween the leading Chefs of London, food talks and quizzes, a special food film festival and of course a massive Sunday Roast. You can find out more about the activities here.

Madsen Festival Menu -yes, we are part of the festivities. We have come up with a special menu designed around great 2-& 3-course offers. To add a Scandinavian twist we have paired each dish with one of our speciality beers. It is a great opportunity to try new quality beers with good, wholesome food. Please find the full menu (with beer suggestions) here.

In-house Big Roast - Needless to say, we have made a Scandinavian spin on this and gotten hold of the best pork around. Head Chef Rene will be preparing a crisp Roast pork with crackling & red cabbage, potatoes en papillote and gravy . At £13.95 it is certainly worth a visit.

Madsen's first birthday

Complimentary Champagne on Saturday October 10

On Saturday October 10 we turn 1 year old. It has been an exciting, fun but also hard year and we would like to celebrate our achievements with you. We therefore offer a glass of complimentary champagne for every main course orded during dinner next Saturday. It is for as long as our stock lasts, so please book in advance on 020 7225 2772 or online here.

We hope to see many of our loyal customers.

CHRISTMAS BUFFET

Book early to avoid disapointment

It is that time of the year again. To many it seems too early but we are already busy chasing Christmas brews and beautiful decorations, not to forget authentic Scandinavian Christmas music. And it is not just us planning ahead. We have recently taken several large group bookings for the more popular dates so to avoid disappointment, please call or write to us and book a table for your Christmas buffet before it's too late. You can contact us on reservations@madsenrestaurant.com and we shall do our best to accommodate your wishes. For groups who would like their own space we suggest our Private Dining Room that seats 10-12 people.

This year's buffet offers both marinated and fried herring, smoked salmon rolls, "laxröra", breaded plaice with remoulade, "Janssons Frestelse", roast pork with crackling, frikadeller, "sylte" and ris à l’amande with warm cherry sauce - just to mention some of the dishes. The buffet is served from Saturday November 21 to December 22 every Friday evening, Saturday for lunch and dinner and Sunday for lunch. If you are a group of 10 people or more, then we can serve it during the week too. The buffet costs £29.50. You can find the full menu here.

During the month of December we will introduce a Christmas a la carte menu and on Sunday evenings, Rene and his team will cook a three course set-menu.

Swedish Cirkus Cirkör at Sadler's Wells

October 14 to 31, 2009 - Holborn

Roll up, roll up… the Cirkus has arrived! From October 14 to October 31 2009 the Swedish contemporary circus group Cirkus Cirkör will be performing at the Peacock Theatre in Holborn, Sadler's Wells home in the West End. They mix breathtaking skill with gripping storytelling and surreal comedy in the UK premiere of Inside Out. Eight multi-skilled performers balance on knife edges and challenge gravity as they tell the story of two very different characters, whose worlds are quite literally turned upside down when they come into contact with a circus company of bizarre, magical oddballs.

Combined with fantastic sets and costumes plus a thrilling soundtrack performed live on stage by rock band Irya's Playground, Inside Out is an unforgettable eccentric theatre experience, with a whole lot of
heart! You can find out more and book tickets here.

October's recipe - Frikadeller

Frikadeller (Danish meatballs)

For 4 people

500g minced veal and pork
2 small eggs
60g flour
50g neatly grated onion
150ml milk
1 1/2 tablespoon salt
A few pinches of pepper
Fry in a mixture of butter and oil

Mix the meat with the salt and pepper. Add the onions and stir. Mix in the eggs one at a time. Add the flour and stir. Finally you add the milk little by little. The mixture should be very moist but not dripping. Let the mixture set for 15-30 mins, but not in the fridge. Whip up the mixture one more time to make it light. Add a bit more milk if it feels too stiff.
Melt the butter and oil in a large frying pan. Form the meatballs by scooping up about 2 tablespoons of meat mixture in your hand. Using the spoon and your hand, you will now form the mixture into a slightly flattened, oval meatball about the size of a small egg. Place the meatballs into the heated pan, and fry for about 5 mins. on each side until they are golden brown and well done.

Served with boiled potatoes, brown gravy and red cabbage. They are also very good on ryebread the day after or with a cold potatoe salad.

ENJOY!

Per Hillo

Danish painter exhibited in Madsen

Per Hillo is a Danish artist from Slagelse in Denmark. He works from an old goods depot that has been converted into a studio. The 700 square meters facility also serves as an exhibition hall. Per Hillo endeavors to question relations, humanity, presence, and contact through his work and he wants people to reflect on these subjects. He defines his style as abstract, but some might call him expressionistic or new romantic. The paintings are characterized by warm, light colours to accentuate the positive things in life. He often uses gold or silver to emphasize the contrast between the raw and the delicate.

Per Hillo's paintings are often followed by small poems in order to enhance the possibility to find the right meaning through combination of words and pictures. His mission is to produce paintings and compositions that puts the conditions of life in the spotlight.

Several of Per Hillo's paintings are exhibited in Madsen.

South Kensington regeneration

Exhibition Road Project

Our area is changing. As anyone who has recently spent time in South Kensington will have realised, extensive road works are currently taking place. This is all part of a plan to make Exhibition road and its surroundings more pedestrian friendly. This will help visitors to the many museums, Royal Albert Hall and Imperial College to have easier access and a more memorable journey. In our end of Old Brompton Road two squares are taking shape and the pavement has been upgraded to York stone. It looks great and the traffic on our doorstep is already visibly reduced. Phase 1 - the work around Old Brompton Road and the Tube - is due to finish in October, so we hope to see some of you around for an inspection.

You can find out more about the plans for the project here.

What's on in the area

Royal Albert Hall
There is someting for everybody at the Royal Albert Hall this month and not only music wise! Just to name a few events: the world famous Buena Vista Social Club from Cuba, Kaleidoscope as the world's most prestigious hairdressing event, Not the Messiah - celebrating 40 years of Monthy Python, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Morrissey, International Ballroom Dancing Championships, and Primary Proms (proms for and by kids). To view the full calender click here,

V & A Museum
Telling Tales 14 July - 18 October 2009. The exhibition features work by a new generation of internationally regarded designers. The exhibition focuses on work by designers who explore the narrative potential of objects, sharing common themes such as fantasy, parody and concern with mortality. Find out more here.

Future Fashion Now: New Design for the Royal College of Art - until 31st of January 2010. The display will be showcasing highlights from the Royal College of Art fashion MA graduates' final collections. Amongst the 50 outfits you'll find an oversize handbag and a leopard print suit. You'll also get to see the whole process of making a design, from the preliminary sketches to the final outfit.

To see what else is going on at the V & A click here.

Natural History Museum
After Darwin - Contemporary Expressions 26 June - 29 November 2009. Major artists and writers exhibit newly-commissioned and existing work, inspired by Charles Darwin's book, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, and explore Darwin's theory that expressing emotion is not unique to humans only.
The Grand Opening of Your Mind - The new Darwin Centre opened to the public the 15th of September 2009. Letting the general public have an up-close look at the ongoing, daily researches and the internationally important collections. Find out more here.

The Science Museum
Cosmos and Culture: how astronomy has shaped our world 23 July 2009 - 30 December 2010. Explore how astronomy has changed the way we see our universe - and ourselves - through this object-rich exhibition. Find out more here.

Christie's
This month the famous old auction house will be auctioning Middle Eastern art and textiles as well as some Picasso Editions at the South Kensington branch. For the full calender of this month click here.

OPENING HOURS

Tuesday - Thursday Midday - 11pm
Friday & Saturday Midday - Midnight
Sunday & Monday Midday - 10pm

020 7225 2772
reservations@madsenrestaurant.com