28 of the Best Copenhagen Restaurants, Bars and Markets

Copenhagen is a culinary wonderland for food travelers. If you’re wondering where to eat in Copenhagen, read on to discover our favorite Copenhagen restaurants, bars and markets. Then start planning your trip now!

For years, we’d been hearing how the former meat and potato town had morphed into one of the world’s greatest food cities. Then, after we moved to Lisbon, we started eating Copenhagen-style pastries and drinking coffee roasted in Denmark. Clearly, it was a sign.

But we didn’t travel to Copenhagen just to eat pastries and drink coffee. We did a copious amount of research about the city’s best restaurants and schooled ourselves about New Nordic Cuisine. We even scored a reservation at Noma, the most lauded Copenhagen restaurant.

After opening the legendary restaurant in 2003, Claus Meyer and René Redzepi showed the world how sustainable, locally sourced food can be eaten anywhere on earth including Copenhagen. Since then, foraging and fermenting have become global trends while ingredients like tree lichen and sea buckthorn appear on more and more restaurant plates.

There’s no debate that the Copenhagen restaurant scene has grown rapidly and exponentially over the past couple decades. A seemingly endless number of restaurants appears in every nook and cranny throughout Denmark’s compact capital and every block seems to have a world-class bakery. But there’s also a ridiculous amount of ‘food wealth’ in this city with a total metro population of two million people.

But Copenhagen is also a contender for tastiest city, an honor that we don’t bestow lightly. In that sense, to us, the Danish capital is a great value proposition – the veritable beluga caviar of food scenes.

Where to Eat in Copenhagen | Copenhagen Restaurants and Cheap Eats

Copenhagen challenges food travelers with its plethora of places to eat. Finding great restaurants is easier than narrowing down the contenders to a manageable number. We’re not kidding when we say that the challenge is real.

Copenhagen Restaurants

The best Copenhagen restaurants are famous around the world for their Michelin star ratings and daring menus. You could eat at all of them but you’d be missing out on some of the city’s culinary gems. You might also go broke.

Noma

Noma, by choice, seats fewer than 100 diners each day. Tens of thousands of people attempt to pry one of Noma’s precious few tables the moment that each dining ‘season’ opens for reservations. It’s that competitive.

It was all magnificent and overwhelming but what’s glued to our minds is the first of 18 plates – a reindeer skull served atop a napkin in a simple, rustic, dark brown wicker basket. At that moment, we knew that Noma’s Game and Forest menu was no joke.

There’s no disguising the food at Noma. Redzepi and his extensive team purposely transported us to the forest. Under his tutelage, we were hunters. We were humans eating food that was once living – not some dressed up facsimile packaged in plastic and sold to the masses.

There’s also no disguising that our dinner at Noma was the most expensive meal we’ve ever experienced. We have some regrets in our lives. This dinner isn’t one of them.

Restaurant Barr

If you’re dining at Noma during your Copenhagen visit, and even if you’re not, eating at Restaurant Barr is a must. Due to Noma’s importance in the food world, Barr’s location in the Noma’s former Strandgade 93 space makes the restaurant historic. Also, In a week filled with great food, Barr’s food was among our favorites.

We could feel the electricity from the building’s days as the epicenter of New Nordic Cuisine during our dinner. While Noma’s new location is grand, its original factory space with iconic arched windows exudes that kind of comforting yet refined sense of hygge that catapulted Noma to the top of every restaurant list.

Our dinner at Restaurant Barr was a series of hits starting with buttery, savory, heart-shaped waffles topped with gentle dollops of plump mussels and lightly popping caviar. Another standout dish was schnitzel – a crunchy, lightly breaded cut of pork leveled up by sides of chanterelle and fresh lingonberries.

Bar is one of the hottest tables in town. Judging by the full restaurant during our Sunday night visit, including a table occupied by Noma dignitaries, it’s a key player in the Copenhagen restaurant scene as well as a jewel in the Noma empire.

Sanchez

Much of the international cuisine options in Copenhagen are carefully orchestrated versions of dishes from other countries. This is not the case at Sanchez where Rosie Sanchez, a Chicago native who previously ran Noma’s pastry program, works the kitchen and the dining room with vigor. 

Sanchez’s food is the real deal – a yummy oasis in a Mexican food desert called Europe. But we’ll go further. Sanchez’s food would be equally great in an American city like Los Angeles or New York.

We don’t make the above statement lightly. When Daryl worked for a Nueva Latina restaurant organization for six years in Philadelphia, he tasted more than his fair share of pork carnitas. Plus, living in Portugal, we deeply crave authentic Mexican food more than we can properly express in words.

Sanchez’s deeply succulent, rich Tacos de Cochinita dish more than justifies the price of a meal at Sanchez. Her flagship restaurant has a limited a la carte menu of small dishes like the aforementioned tacos as well as oysters and wonderful tuna tostada (pictured above.) However, many diners opt for her more adventurous ‘favorite servings dinner’ featuring rotating dishes like Jackfruit Tinga Tostada and Cauliflower with Mole Almendrado (i.e. almond mole).

Kødbyens Fiskebar

The Noma connection continues at Kødbyens Fiskebar. In this case, the connection is through co-owner Anders Selmer who was a sommelier at Noma for four years before opening Kødbyens Fiskebar in the city’s meatpacking district in 2009.

To be honest, we walked into the white-tiled restaurant expecting to make a quick stop during our final Copenhagen six-stop food blitz. With its location in Copenhagen’s meat packing district, we were expecting something more akin to a Hamburg fish stand than the fine dining restaurant which it is.

Chef Jamie Lee, a British native and Jason Atherton alum, exudes energetic enthusiasm. His kitchen produces intricate, artfully plated dishes that showcase top notch seafood found throughout the region.

Admittedly, we only ordered a couple starters, but they were excellent – a tender crudo of brill with smokey mussels and melt in your mouth Diver scallops topped with big green nasturtium leaves. We also enjoyed the restaurant’s fermented tomato bread served with a verdant dollop of seaweed butter.

When we return, we plan to dive deeper into the menu. However, we may choose to sit at the bar and indulge in Fish n`Chips and beer instead. It could go either way.

Aamanns 1921

Common sense would indicate that Aamanns 1921 recently celebrated its 100 year anniversary. In actuality, the modern Smørrebrød-focused restaurant is a youngster with a history that only goes back to 2017.

Eating Smørrebrøds at Aamanns 1921 is a must. The restaurant builds each open-faced sandwich with homemade rye bread and local, seasonal ingredients. Keeping with the Copenhagen food ethic, the restaurant produces its flour with a stone mill and ferments its herring for months.

During our meal, we sampled three different Smørrebrøds including one with topped with herring that had been salted for six months and then marinated in an aromatic mixture of curry and lemongrass. Oddly, it reminded us of smoked eel sushi which we adore. The other two were equally impressive – one served on brioche topped with a savory four mushroom gravy and another topped with a layer of beef tartare.

Aamann’s lunch menu, which features 11 different Smørrebrød options, also offers a la carte items like the Fiskefrikadeller (i.e. fishcakes). Those not wanting to make tough food decisions can opt for a tasting menu.

We understand if you want to save your brain power when it comes to choosing food. You’ll need it for the task of selecting among a range of homemade organic Snaps in flavors like dill, lovage and rye. We opted for rye which suprised our server (since we’re American) and delighted our tastebuds.

Schønemann

Restaurant Schønnemann has served hungry Danes since 1877, but the vibe in the traditional restaurant’s forest green space feels remarkably fresh.

Maybe it’s the timeless furnishings paired with pretty chandeliers that hang over the window side tables. Or maybe it’s the welcoming servers who treated us like regulars instead of tourists. But surely it’s the food which, while traditional, features fresh ingredients served in elegant Danish style.

After the original eponymous owners guided Schønnemann’s operations, the restaurant transitioned through a number of different stewards. The historic restaurant most recently received a culinary update in 2007 but still retains its commitment to Danish cuisine.

We highly recommend this eatery for food travelers who want to sample authentic Danish food. We especially recommend ordering Stjerneskud (i.e. Meteor Shower) – a Smørrebrød topped with fried, breaded plaice and ‘showered’ with boiled shrimp, mayonnaise and a golf ball sized dollop of black danish caviar.

Barabba

During our late lunch, we enjoyed two unpretentious yet tasty pasta dishes – verdant, toothsome fettuccine lightly dusted with fennel pollen and spaghetti frutti di mare in a tomato sauce with plump mussels and prawns. These dishes were bookended by a ‘cow tartare’ starter topped with a shingle of fresh sliced mushrooms and a secondi of braised pork belly with crispy skin and mushroom salad.

There aren’t any bells and whistles at at this restaurant and, to us, that’s what great Italian cuisine is all about. The team at Barabba creates dishes that showcase the great food product available in the Copenhagen region. More important, their dishes are a joy to eat.

Bæst

Like most cities around the world, pizza is plentiful in Copenhagen. However, some Copenhagen pizzerias are just a little bit better. Bæst fits into the ‘better’ category. It’s also a pizzeria with a passion for sustainability, a special oven imported from Naples and an owner (Christian Puglisi) with an auspicious pedigree.

Born in Sicily, Puglisi worked at El Bulli and Noma before opening (and later closing) internationally acclaimed Relæ. He brings all of these experiences to Bæst where he cures his own meat and makes fresh cheese daily with milk produced at his Farm of Ideas.

Although Bæst offers a la carte dishes on its menu, the shareable seven-course menu is the way to go. Priced at 345 kr (approximately $52 US) per person at the time of our meal, it’s a splurge that we nicknamed a Bæst Fæst.

Sure you could order a sourdough pizza or two and call it a night. However, that approach would leave out many of the artisan products and fresh veggies served at this farm-to-table pizzeria.

If you love pizza, patience is required when you order the Bæst tasting menu. Expect dishes like sweet yellow gazpacho, grilled endive salad and a melange of cured meats and cheeses to arrive well before the pizza makes its appearance.

Our chosen pizza was topped with house made ‘nduja and smoked mozzarella as well as spring onions and oregano. It was worth the wait. Supple and spicy, it filled us up though we somehow found room to end our meal with a few bites of house made pistachio gelato.

Slurp Ramen Joint

But, while Slurp takes ramen seriously, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Case in point – Slurp’s mascot is a too-cool-for-school dog named Norman that wears sunglasses at night.

Slurp’s succinct menu featured five ramens – shio, shoyu, miso, veggie and a dry version called mazesoba – at the time of our meal. We ordered bowls of shio and miso ramen plus a Korean fried chicken starter for good measure.

While the classic shio broth was a stunner thanks to ingredients like chicken, smoked sardines and seafood, the miso ramen stole the show with toppings that included oyster mushrooms and chili oil. We greedily slurped both until our bowls were empty. It’s the only thing to do at a ramen joint called Slurp.

Warpigs Brewpub

The confluence of international chefs honing their skills at restaurants like Noma and The Alchemist have had a positive impact on Copenhagen’s international food scene. This is a city where it’s easy to find competent to excellent ramen, Italian food, and burgers. While restaurants like Sanchez (see above) offer a product that’s truly special, other restaurants offer food that’s textbook competent.

Such is the case with the barbecue fare at Warpigs Brewpub, a Copenhagen barbecue joint co-owned by two breweries – 3 Floyds and Mikkeller. Not surprisingly based on its ownership, this restaurant offers a comprehensive beer selection that includes the Mikkeller Visions lager which we shared.

Warpigs doesn’t have the soul of Memphis ‘cue or the homespun charm of smoke houses in Lockhart. However, this Meatpacking District barbecue joint checks all of the requisite boxes when it comes to American barbecue. 

During our meal, Warpigs’ tender brisket, made from meat imported from America, had the all-important red smoked ring with and was cooked to precision. The hushpuppies were brown and crispy though oddly reminiscent of samosas. The beans were smokey and the pimento cheese had an adequate bite.

However, we were more impressed by the BBQ joint’s sweet, anise-spiced pickles fermented with star anise, fennel seed and clove. In a town built on pickling, these spicy beauties provided a genuine flavor that tasted like Denmark.

Additional Copenhagen Restaurants

Copenhagen Cheap Eats

Not every meal needs to be an epic experience. Sometimes we’d much rather chow down on a hamburger than sit down for a multi-course meal. Let’s face it, chef-driven food is wonderful but it’s not appropriate for every meal.

Gasoline Grill

Gasoline Grill’s original location inside an urban gas station could easily be a gimmick. It’s not. Its award-winning burgers are some of the best we’ve eaten outside of the United States. Anywhere. Ever.

Klaus Wittrup channeled his passion for American burgers when he opened the original Gasoline Grill in 2016 in a gas station. Though it was far from the first burger joint in Copenhagen, it was probably the first to make burgers with freshly ground meat and serve them inside potato rolls. It was definitely the first to serve them with Gasoline Sauce, a flavorful condiment that reminded us of 1000 island dressing, at a gas station.

Our first trip to the original Gasoline Grill was a bust since the burgers literally sold out while we were in the queue. (We arrived a half hour before closing. Don’t do that.) Not deterred, we returned the next day and promptly ordered a combo meal that included a burger, fries and drink for 125 kr (approximately $19).

Though we were tempted to try a hot chicken sandwich and considered opting for a butterburger made with organic butter, we stayed the course and ordered a ‘benchmark’ cheeseburger topped with melted cheddar cheese, onion, pickles and Gasoline Sauce. It was a smart move and one that we’ll likely repeat.

Popl Burger

Noma and the phrase ‘cheap eats’ are rarely used in one sentence… unless that sentence also includes the words Popl and burger. Granted, we’re talking about Copenhagen, so cheap is a relative term.

Two burgers and an order of fries at the former pop-up quickly added up to 345 kr (approximately $53 US) at the time of our visit. And that’s before extras like potato salad, pickles and spicy cucumber salad. We ordered the spicy cukes anyway.

But, hey, eating at Popl Burger is a heck of a lot cheaper than eating at Noma. And, unless you’re a vegetarian, it’s hard to say “no” to dry-aged, free-range burgers served inside potato buns baked by Hart Bageri. Also, Popl glazes each burger with beef garum made in the Noma Fermentation lab which is pretty cool. Think fish sauce but made with beef.

That being said, you may want to try the vegetarian burger even if you’re not a vegetarian. It’s not every day you can eat a burger made with fermented quinoa at the aforementioned fermentation lab.

DØP

Hot dogs carts first appeared in Copenhagen during the early part of the 20th century. They’ve been a popular fixture ever since.

We’ve eaten tunnbrödsrulle in Sweden and pølse in Norway. It’s only logical that we would try hot dogs in Denmark. Our only decision was where to try them.

Discover more great hot dogs around the world.

Today’s Copenhagen has more than a few famous stands. We chose DØP after watching Phil Rosenthal down one of their dogs on the TV show Somebody Feed Phil. The idea that DØP serves an all-organic product with locally sourced ingredients also appealed to us. Plus, the 37 kr (approimatly $6) price tag didn’t seem too bad.

We can’t say that we were blown away by DØP. However, we can say that we enjoyed eating a Ristet Hot Dog which was neatly shingled with pickles and loaded with ketchup, mustard, remoulade and fried onions. Eating it under blue skies next to the Round Tower was an added bonus.

Amass Fried Chicken

Important Update – Amass has permanently closed.

Noma isn’t the only A-list Copenhagen restaurant with a more casual (i.e. less expensive) dining option. Amass, located on Refshaleøen, was the second before it closed.

Helmed by Matt Orlando, formerly a head chef at Noma, Amass Restaurant achieved global notoriety for its zero waste approach to upscale dining. With its own urban garden and greenhouse, the edgy restaurant grew many of its own ingredients and has a fried chicken side business.

Lille Bakery

Located in Refshaleøen, just one kilometer from Noma and literally around the corner from bucolic Amass, Lille Bakery is in good company. Despite its seemingly simple offerings, the little bakery holds its own on an industrial island that’s morphed into a culinary hub and hipster haven.

Starting with its cavernous, light-filled industrial space in a former shipyard apprentice school, not much is small at Lille besides its name which translates to little. This is a Copenhagen bakery where long lines and big flavors are the norm. It’s also a great spot for eating either breakfast or a light lunch.

A trio of owners first garnered attention in 2018 when they opened Lille Bakery with crowdfunding assistance via a Kickstarter campaign. The threesome learned the ropes at 108, Noma’s now-closed sister restaurant.

During our morning visit, we shared a sugary cardamom bun, a delicate sausage roll, satisfying egg toast and Daryl’s new favorite, a morning bun filled with butter and cheese. Baked with locally sourced organic ingredients, the mix of bakery and breakfast items was a winner that paired perfectly with piping hot cups of Prolog coffee.

Seks Bakery & Eatery

After eating their way around the world, Polish owners Jan and Monika Pawlak put their culinary passion into all aspects of their cafe’s menu including the cafe’s coffee program. Dishes like shakshuka and fatoush salad may be global but their sourdough buns are pure Denmark.

Grød

Porridge isn’t exactly the sexiest food in the world. The name alone evokes visions of instant oatmeal and gruel that Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist famously requested “more” of without success. Copenhagen’s Grød proves that porridge can be sexy after all.

Grød’s menu offers an array of toppings that range from healthy fruit to decadent chocolate drops. Overwhelmed, we took the safe route by sharing a combo topped with homemade caramel sauce, fresh apple and roasted almonds. It was a good breakfast choice that didn’t break the bank with its 60 kr price tag (approximately $10 US) at the time of our visit.

Later in the day, the Gród menu expands to include savory items like risotto, congee and daal. The local chain also sells cookbooks and jars of caramel sauce, both of which would make wonderful souvenirs or gifts.

La Banchina

During our visit, we skipped the dip. Don’t judge us – it was cold outside. Instead, we were content to sip cappuccinos crafted with beans from Copenhagen’s Nordic Roasting Company and nibble on olive-like salted young plums with an indoor view of the waterfront action.

La Banchina’s menu expands beyond cafe fare in the evening. Expect seasonal dishes featuring locally sourced vegetables and fish. Whether you take a dip or not is up to you.

Additional Copenhagen Cheap Eats

Where to Drink in Copenhagen | Copenhagen Bars and Pubs

While most Copenhagen eateries serve alcohol, sometimes it’s more fun to mix and mingle at bars. We recommend the following Copenhagen bars for those times when you want to let your hair down while drinking beer, cocktails and wine:

Mikkeller Bar

We could have happily imbibed Mikkeller beer at any or all of those spots. But we chose to check off this bucket list beer item at Mikkeller’s very first bar on Viktoriagade.

Clearly popular, the bar was already crowded when we arrived for pre-dinner drinks at 5:30 pm. Quickly nabbing two seats at the bar, we ordered two drinks – a boozy George! that had been barrel aged in bourbon casks for Mindi and a fruity apple cider for Daryl.

Balderdash

Located in an 18th century goldsmith house that later became an Italian restaurant, Balderdash is the opposite of its name. And, while it’s a serious bar, owner Geoffrey Canilao creates drinks with unusual components that many might consider to be a bit crazy.

Balderdash’s classic cocktails aren’t strictly traditional. The bar’s Espresso Martini recipe includes bacon salt which sounds intriguing. Since we didn’t need any additional caffeine after drinking flat whites all day, we instead ordered a Mushroom Alexander crafted with gin, mushrooms, chocolate, coconut cream and deer heart.

However, it was Balderdash’s seasonal Midnight Oil cocktail that burned its way into our hearts with ingredients like black truffle, banana, black garlic, hazelnut, vegan cream, coconut and chaga-black pepper dust. It was a tasty tipple and that’s not balderdash.

TaTa Cocktail Bar

Not your typical hotel bar, TaTa Cocktail Bar is a great spot for an intimate tête-à-tête involving crafted cocktails whether you’re staying overnight at the tony Hotel Sanders or not. Open since 2018, the bar has been recognized as the best in Denmark at the Bartenders’ Choice Awards in both 2018 and 2019. One of its bartenders, Henry Bell, has been similarly recognized as best bartender.

Named after the Royal Danish Theatre’s red velvet curtain, TaTa specializes in classic cocktails as evidenced by its menu filled with some of our favorites including the Clover Club, Mojito and Vieux Carré. The menu goes the extra step by describing each cocktail in three words and ranking its ‘boozyness’ level on a scale of one to four.

We started our visit with welcome drinks crafted with Copenhagen Distillery‘s Bay Leaf Gin and sherry. The refreshing combination tickled our tastebuds while we worked our way through the bar’s menu.

Wanting to try something new to us, we settled on the Cablegram crafted with Bulleitt rye whiskey, lime juice, simple syrup, ginger beer and a mint sprig. The menu described the cocktail as refreshing, citrus herbaceous and we agree. We also agree with its ‘boozyness’ ranking of level three.

Den Vandrette

Wine is popular in Denmark despite the country’s limited viniculture production. Accordingly, wine drinkers visiting Copenhagen have several wine bars worth visiting. During our visit, we chose to drink wine at the slightly subterranean natural wine bar called Den Vandrette.

Don’t discount Den Vandrette based on its location near Nyhavn, Copenhagen’s colorful, touristic waterfront. The wine bar is a cosy spot to sip natural wine and nibble on small plates topped with items like wild mushrooms, sea buckthorn and celeriac carpaccio.

Choosing which wines to drink is a fun challenge at Den Vandrette. After ordering glasses of Burgundian Chardonnay and Emilian orange wine produced with Albana grapes, we kept things simple with a side of fresh cheese and sourdough bread. And by simple, we mean delicious.

BRUS

Brus has a lot going on. It’s a craft brewery that’s also a craft brewpub and a restaurant as well as a bottle shop. It’s also extremely popular as evidenced by the throngs of locals crowding the bar during our visit.

Located in Nørrebro next to Bæst (see above), Brus is a destination for many. For us, it was where we stopped for a pre-dinner drink before eating pizza. Choosing from 30 or so options once we squeezed our way to the bar, we ordered wild fermented organic Frankofil cider crafted by Æblerov. Since the bar was crazy crowded, we drank the funky cider outside.

Additional Copenhagen Bars

Where to Shop in Copenhagen | Copenhagen Markets and Shops

Shopping for food in Copenhagen is fun due to the city’s stylish markets and the city’s commitment to sustainability. This commitment translates to local, seasonal products that typically cost less than food at Copenhagen restaurants.

Torvehallerne

Copenhagen staked a claim in the contest for best modern food hall when Torvehallerne opened in 2011. Centrally located near the Nørreport metro station, this food hall is a popular destination for locals and visiting foodies who want to taste the best of Copenhagen without breaking the bank.

7-Eleven

You might be surprised to find 7-Eleven in this guide but trust us when we say that you’ll be happy for the convenience store’s presence in Copenhagen. You may even say “oh thank heaven” a time or two.

More than just a spot for a quick coffee or slurpee, these convenience stores sell a variety of baked goods, savory sandwiches and hot dogs. While not the best in town, the food at 7-Eleven is relatively cheap and surprisingly decent.

Royal Copenhagen Flagship Store

The china at the Royal Copenhagen flagship store in Copenhagen is neither hip nor trendy. And why should it be? The company has a history that dates back to 1775 when it started operating as a purveyor to her majesty the queen of Denmark.

Still, there’s something fun about browsing through the multi-floor store filled with porcelain pieces that span the centuries. We particularly enjoyed the walls filled with limited edition Christmas plates – one for each year going back more than a century.

Tasja P. Ceramics

The ceramics at Tasja P. Ceramics couldn’t be more different from those sold by Royal Copenhagen. For starters, artisan Tasja Pulawska crafts each piece by hand in Copenhagen whereas the bigger company outsources much of its production to Thailand. Then there’s her style which is more earthy and less formal.

Born in Poland and formerly a graphic designer, Pulawska apprenticed with potter Eric Landon before opening her own Copenhagen studio in 2016. It’s a happy place filled with vases, cups, bowls, jars and teapots. We bought two pieces during our visit and were tempted to purchase more.

Studio Arhoj

Additional Markets and Shops

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Original Publication Date: February 5, 2022