Riccos Sluseholmen: grandmother’s bun, gambler’s coffee

When I first strolled into Riccos yesterday to conduct my BMO review, I was greeted by an apologetic server who explained that the coffee machine was temporarily broken. She gestured to the sweaty engineer wrangling a spanner under the counter.

Uhh… a BMO review without the coffee? It hardly seems right. “No worries, I’ll come back again in an hour” I announced, and headed out again. Fortunately, I live about 100 metres from this particular Riccos cafe, so it wasn’t a big inconvenience.

Riccos is the closest coffee shop to our home and I have a fondness for it in the way one might feel about an eccentric aunt or a slightly unhinged friend. Every time I go (which is quite often, since having a child and being chronically sleep-deprived), I order a black coffee and the taste can genuinely range from amazing to awful. I marvel at this with my husband and we debate how this can be the case - is it the beans? The new staff? It’s quite remarkable and I’m not sure why, but there’s something deliciously unpredictable about it that keeps us going back. A heady mix of convenience and gambling.

That said, I truly believe that the cheese bun is worthy of a review, because I haven’t encountered many BMOs quite like the Riccos one

Onto the BMO

On returning to Riccos for the second time, I ordered the flaxseed bun, which was baked fresh that morning, with butter and cheese. They also have a muesli bun with nuts and raisins, but the texture and taste is quite different. In the flaxseed bun, unlike sourdough buns, there aren’t ‘air’ pockets for the butter to fill, so the butter layer is more restrained. Despite this, there is a saltiness in the bun and butter, which pairs well with the soft, creamy and rich Danbo (Mammen Guld 45+) cheese on top.

The flaxseed bun really tastes like a homemade bun, much like one your grandmother might bake on the weekend; it’s dense and chewy, with a hard, crumbly exterior. The flaxseeds are baked into the dough rather than just sprinkled on top, adding a little texture on each bite.

My black coffee was a little bitter, but my expectations on the coffee had been dutifully managed, as they were still calibrating the coffee machine after it was fixed. Having seen my brother-in-law fine-tune the settings on his Sage coffee machine, I have come to appreciate that this is an iterative art form in pursuit of the perfect brew.

Other drinks popular at Riccos, that you can consider pairing with your cheese bun (if you don’t share my enthusiasm for the coffee-roulette), include the pumpkin-spice latte, which draws folks from afar, and the hot chocolate, which is made by melting bits of chocolate and which a friend swears is one of the best around.

Where to sit

In all their cafes, Riccos create a warm, cosy, living-room vibe and the Sluseholmen branch is no exception. As you walk in, you’re greeted by a huge bookshelf on the far wall, eclectic art on the walls, mismatched chairs and a beautiful long wooden bar in the centre. There’s plenty of seating inside, although it fills up fast with people working on their laptops or chatting with friends.

When the weather is good, you can enjoy your BMO on the blue picnic benches a few meters away on the other side of the bridge, where there is sometimes some shade under the small trees. Another good spot, albeit with less shade later in the day, is Vandtrappen which is a 3 minute walk along the canal. Here you can sit on the wooden deck, enjoy a view of the water and take a swim in the harbour.

The verdict

If you’re looking for a change of scene from sourdough, then a BMO at Riccos is a decent alternative. The bun is hearty and dense, while the cheese is smooth yet slightly tangy. Visiting Riccos in Sluseholmen has good options both on colder/wetter days, where you can enjoy the sofa and cushions inside, as well as warmer days, where you can head out to enjoy sitting by the water. Riccos will remain a trusted local spot for me, with a BMO I can depend on when I want a more filling breakfast or need a palate cleanser from sourdough.