30 Best Restaurants in Denmark

This combined cafeteria, bar, and venue in an old carrier hall is one of the best places to go for a cheap but delicious breakfast, a glass of wine with a friend, an organic cup of coffee, or a light lunch or bigger dinner. The service is casual and friendly, and the dishes are creative and inexpensive despite their outstanding quality. After dinner the place becomes a popular bar.

Hotel Hafnia has several restaurants and one café. The main restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch, and offers a generous buffet with a selection of local dishes—with a heavy focus on lamb and seafood—and international classics.

One of the most celebrated New Nordic restaurants in Scandinavia, KOKS is the only Michelin-restaurant on the archipelago. The restaurant is known for its playful tasting menu, the modern takes on local classics and experimenting with ræst, a local kind of fermentation. The restaurant started out in Hotel Føroyar, but is now located in a historic building in a rural setting.

This wine bar and restaurant is known for its tasty dinners and natural wines as well as for its sauna and bathing jetties, which are impossibly popular with Copenhageners on summer days. The restaurant looks a bit like a boat shed, and dinner is cooked in a small kitchen outdoors. From October to April the restaurant moves indoors and scales up the culinary ambitions with a tasting menu.

The chef-owner of Mortens Kro, Morten Nielsen, is a celebrity in these parts, and the food here—considered some of the best in Northern Denmark—is a delight both visually and gastronomically. The menu changes monthly, but a starter might be steamed white asparagus with leeks in a mousseline sauce, with herbs and freshly shelled shrimp. A main course could be marinated wild venison from North Jutland served with perfectly crisp pommes frites and a wine from the extensive list. Every inch of the restaurant is thoughtfully designed, right down to the washrooms. Jackets aren't required, but a "business casual" look is a good way to go.

Dark oak tables, wooden floors, and chairs with lamb-fur accents are a rustic interpretation of Nordic luxury that's appropriate to the setting—a former warehouse on the waterfront. This restaurant is at the vanguard of new Nordic cuisine and Denmark's most highly acclaimed. Chef Rene Redzepi and his innovative team pair the best local ingredients like berries, mushrooms, vegetables, and herbs with game, Jutland marsh lamb, Greenlandic musk ox, and Faroe Islands scallops. Dishes from the 20-course tasting menu can be served with wine pairings or a juice menu for an additional charge. Service is irreproachable. Given the hype, it's nearly impossible to book a table—reservations are taken a full three months in advance. So plan well ahead, and be prepared to settle for lunch instead of dinner. The chef plans to close noma after New Year's Eve 2016 and reopen it in 2017 as an urban farm-to-table restaurant in a new location.

The Sans has earned a name among gastronomes for serving up a delicious, market-driven version of the Scandinavian classics in a bright, contemporary setting. There's something for everyone on this menu. A fresh catch of the day might feature steamed hake with buerre blanc and squash terrine, or house-smoked salmon. Meat lovers can tuck into a hearty ribeye steak au poivre with bacon, roasted potatoes, and parsley sauce. There's even a special vegetarian menu. The exceptional—and great value—brunch (Friday and Saturday only) may be the biggest draw, with sweet and savory dishes, warm and cold vegetable sides, plenty of fresh-baked croissants, and American style pancakes. A favorite of locals and visitors alike.

Drawing from the tenets of the New Nordic philosophy, the chef at this "house by the brook" sources his ingredients locally and fills the tasting menu with simple, earthy meals like langoustine bisque, smoked salmon, poached cod, and his famous braised lamb. However, the most special occasion to visit is late March, when, for three days only, Áarstova serves a rare white Faroe Bank cod.

When international foodies visit Copenhagen, AOC is high on the list of restaurants to visit. The restaurant, which has two Michelin stars, offers one tasting menu with a strong focus on sensory pleasure, Nordic produce, and imaginative cooking.

This café-restaurant serves its own beer produced on the premises, with up to six varieties on tap and many more bottled. The café serves sandwiches and a popular fresh-vegetable-laden "brewery burger." A quality carvery buffet, with freshly sliced roasted meats and salads, and an a la carte menu are available in the restaurant. Try the classic pork shank marinated in brown ale at either the restaurant or the café.

At this charming café with a garden patio, the kitchen satisfies its many patrons with delicious Danish French dishes. Brunch is served daily, as are a good variety of sandwiches, tapas, vegetarian options, warm dishes like quiche Lorraine and soups, and children's plates.

Built within the courtyards of several 17th-century homes, this popular restaurant has walls of ancient stone topped by a sliding glass roof. Though the menu is mostly French, you can still order inexpensive smørrebrød for lunch.

This atmospheric restaurant housed in the picturesque wine cellar of a Renaissance-era house (it was built in 1624) is a favorite among those who treasure its old-world ambiance and well-priced traditional cuisine. Copious plates of Danish classics—smoked herring, caviar, hearty vegetable-laden venison stew, baked local salmon, and roasted potatoes with parsley dressing—are served à la carte or buffet style under vaulted ceilings. The jovial atmosphere and ever-flowing beer and wine may help guests overlook the indifferent service.

Five centuries ago this was a vineyard; now it's the site of one of Scandinavia's finest restaurants, and the oldest Michelin restaurant in Denmark. Chef Mark Lundgaard's French- and Danish-inspired dishes employ local ingredients and are served in a medieval subterranean space with whitewashed walls and vaulted ceilings.

René Redzepi, one of the world’s most influential chefs, announced he would finally close Noma, widely considered to be one of the world’s best restaurants and the place that started the New Nordic food revolution, for good at the end of 2024. Noma had only reopened in a new location in 2018 after another shut-down (albeit a temporary one, which also garnered headlines around the world) and has since been awarded three Michelin stars yet again. It's almost impossible to get a table, but worth the try. It serves three menus every year: seafood in the winter, vegetables in the summer, and game in the fall.

Among the dozens of restaurants and cafés lining Nyhavn, Nyhavns Færgekro is one of the most atmospheric, with moderately priced Danish treats served in a cozy dining room. Its windows date back to the building's early incarnation as a home to the shipping company White Star Line, which ominously sold tickets for the Titanic.

In this quaint harbor setting, you'll be able to savor fresh fish done right. The restaurant displays numerous replicas of figureheads that had washed ashore—the flotsam from the many shipwrecks that have happened around Skagen over the years. The originals are in a museum in Göteborg, but even the copies are worth admiring. You won't go wrong with the au gratin fish of the day, accompanied by Skagen ham and a red onions compote.

This lively eatery, which looks exactly like your favorite brasserie in Paris, is the place to go for French dishes. Its accomplished chef and owner, Mikkel Egelund, satisfies with classics like entrecote with béarnaise and crispy fries, moules marinière (mussels steamed in white wine and herbs), or salade niçoise. Also good is the plateau de fruits de mer (a platter of "fruit" of the sea), with lobster, oysters, and shrimp. Enjoy a predinner drink at the brass bar or have after-dinner coffee or a cognac on the patio. The restaurant has an a la carte menu for lunch and dinner, and a three-course dinner prix fixe for DKr 375.

The food at this centrally located restaurant is delicious and unpretentious, and the service is friendly. Decked out in dark wood and concrete, the dining room here is stylish in an understated way. Pluto is owned by the same people who run Retour and Gorilla—establishments that are also worth a visit. 

The basement of city hall, near the cathedral, houses this charming and popular café-restaurant with exposed brick walls, curved white ceilings, and low lights. The dinner menu features French Danish dishes and various cuts of beef and lamb grilled on a lava-rock barbecue. The decor is as old-fashioned and traditional as the menu.

This classic Danish lunch restaurant is in a creaky, half-timbered building dating from 1694 with off-kilter floors, low ceilings, and lots of charm. It's a good place to stop for a "shopping lunch," a hearty platter with homemade Danish specialties. The outdoor terrace is surrounded by a cozy garden.

This handsome restaurant in the center of the town has rustic stone floors and green-and-gold painted doors. It's named Beghuset (Pitch House) because this is where Dragør's fishermen used to boil the pitch that waterproofed their wooden ships. The Danish dishes on the menu include lemon sole with pearl barley risotto and chive sauce.

Just south of town lies Marselis Harbor, a bustling little sailboat cove surrounded by waterfront restaurants and cafés that draw big crowds on sunny summer weekends. Restaurant Seafood has an interior of light-blue walls, and its signature dish is a seafood bouillabaisse heaped with tiger prawns, squid, Norwegian lobster, and mussels and served with aioli on the side. Other dishes include oven-baked catfish with asparagus and warm ginger butter.

The snug corner restaurant, situated in the same cozy, cobblestone neighborhood as the Hans Christian Andersen's Birthplace, serves seasonal Italian- and French-inspired dishes using Danish ingredients, such as grilled redfish with boiled potatoes.

Noma’s former dessert chef has been drawing a crowd since she opened a street-food stall at Torvehallerne (still going strong), where she serves the best tacos in Copenhagen. Now she’s opened a full-service restaurant, too, on hip Istedgade, where the tacos are just as good.

At first this place seems very unassuming, but it faces one of the two marinas that dock private yachts, and in the summer the restaurant's terrace is the place to see and be seen by the denizens of these vessels. Whether you dine on the ground floor in the pub or upstairs in the blue-and-white restaurant that resembles a warehouse attic, you must try the fiskefrikadeller (fish cakes). Made from three Nordic fish and gently creamed with herbs and potatoes, they are one of the restaurant's most popular items. Wash them down with a frosty Danish beer or lemon soda.

In the shadow of Frederiksborg Castle, this family restaurant thrives in what used to be the castle stables. Inside, walls feature hanging prints and paintings of royalty and the castle; outside you'll find a large patio with great views of the castle. It's a popular stopover for castle visitors. The Danish menu includes quick, open-face sandwiches as well as savory stews, soups, and steaks. There's brunch on Saturday and Sunday.

Located on the Roskilde Harbor, this seafood restaurant has views of the Roskilde Cathedral. Menus here change monthly; its seven-course Torve Taste menu, with matching wines, represents the best of each season.

The 400-year-old canal-side tavern named after the seals often spotted on the nearby coast can seat up to 60 people, but it feels smaller, and its coziness draws both wayfarers and locals. The only seal mementos left are a few skins and pictures, but you can still order a "seal's special" of cold shrimp, sautéed potatoes, and scrambled eggs. In summer, you can sit outside by the river or in the courtyard.

Microbreweries normally aren't upscale, but this brew house, set on a picturesque city square not far from the cathedral, is a cut above the rest. The spotless interior, piping hot food—think barbecued ribs, fried or marinated fish, steaks, and fries—attractive atmosphere, huge outdoor terrace, and merry diners, not to mention the excellent beer brewed on the premises, make this pub special. Tastings and tours can also be arranged, and if you're in Aalborg for a couple of days you can buy a liter of your favorite homemade brew in a Danish-designed bottle and return for refills.