75 Best Restaurants in Denmark

This local institution has been serving generous portions of traditional Danish food for decades, and it has given a new lease on life with new younger owners. The food has become more modern while staying true to its roots, and the atmosphere is as lively as ever. 

This Italian restaurant pairs a love of traditional Italian cooking with a playful, contemporary approach. The result is one of the best Italian restaurants and wine bars in Copenhagen. Many have discovered that it's the kind of place where you stop by for a single glass of wine and end up staying the entire night. 

At this restaurant the meat comes from a nearby farmer, the vegetables, herbs, and flowers from a nearby field, and the eggs from an organic farm. The guests, however, come here from all over Denmark. They make the pilgrimage to Denmark's northernmost restaurant to follow the hype, which spread like wildfire when the restaurant first opened.

Skagen's grande dame of a hotel is home to one of the town's most storied and popular bistros. The kitchen focuses on Danish-French bistro fare, some of it more contemporary and some of it classic, such as the open-faced sandwiches, the fish soup, and the whole plaice. The garden is a tranquil place to have lunch, though the light-filled dining room equals its beauty.

Follow the delectable smell of home-baked waffle cones—or just follow the crowds—to Brostræde Is. It has been making summer days more tasty since 1922.

This café is a beloved institution, especially among street artists and hipsters. It’s as well known for its tasty, classic café food as for the colorful, vintage furniture it’s been decorated with.

One of Copenhagen’s most charming cafés isn’t just located by the water but directly on it. This combined café, restaurant, and bar is floating on Christianshavn Kanal, giving it one of the best locations in the city. Stop by for coffee, light lunch, or dinner, or just a glass of wine. It’s closed in the fall and spring but usually open in December, when the enterprising owner adds a roof, walls, and a wood-burning stove to the platform.

The brick walls, wooden floors, and high-beamed ceilings wow visitors at this gourmet restaurant, but only until the snacks start to arrive; then it’s all about the food. The menu—four or eight courses—changes depending on the season, but it’s always based on high-quality local ingredients and imaginative culinary thinking.

This modern northern European kitchen is giving acclaimed Noma a run for its money. Chefs Rasmus Kofoed and Søren Ledet put a modern touch on classic Scandinavian cooking by using molecular gastronomy and sourcing vegetarian products from biodynamic farmers; it made headlines when the restaurant removed all meat from the menu in 2021. Book months in advance, and set aside a minimum of three hours (and a sizeable portion of your net worth) for the adventurous, ambitious tasting menu.

One of Denmark's best Japanese restaurants is located in Odense, and the omakase menus alone are worth the trip from Copenhagen. Regulars stop by for a single serving of sushi or for the all-evening chef's menu---or just for a late-night drink and dessert.

It looks like an American diner, but the menu at this local favorite reads more like that of a French café. Stop by for coffee and croissants in the morning, a croque madame for lunch, or just to have a drink and people-watch.

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. Every Sunday the restaurant Katrina serves a traditional Faroese meal with lamb, potatoes, red cabbage, green peas, and gravy.

Located on the top of a hill, next to a lighthouse and looking directly down on the wild North Sea and an industrial harbor, this restaurant is as popular for its views as its food. The food includes well-executed comfort classics (think fish-and-chips, moules frites, and fish burgers) and more exotic starters such as a salad with Halloumi, burrata with cherry tomatoes, and vitello tonnato (sliced veal covered with a tuna-mayonnaise sauce.)

"Yes, please" is the translation of this restaurant's name, and that was the reaction diners had when the restaurant opened. Critics, dining guides, and locals all love the restaurant for its tucked-away location, the combination of Scandinavian produce and Cantonese flavors (the chef, Jonathan Tam, has Chinese roots), and the friendly atmosphere.

Every morning the smell of freshly baked cardamom swirls, sourdough buns, buttery croissants, and Danish pastries such as tebirkes attract hordes of hungry locals to this bakery, located on the pier opposite Dokk1. The coffee, prepared by experienced baristas in the industrial-chic café, is also some of the best in Aarhus.

Located in the sand dunes on the idyllic southern stretch of the island, this New Nordic disciple serves Michelin-starred dishes with a strong focus on local produce. It looks like a traditional Danish summer house, but the food is anything but traditional; the lofty ambitions and equally high culinary capabilities of the young chefs have made it one of Denmark’s most daring, darling restaurants. There's a restaurant of the same name and run by the same team in Copenhagen.

This French restaurant became a staple on Odense's dining scene as soon as it opened. The dishes, best sampled in one of the very fairly priced tasting menus, are inspired by brasseries in Lyon, based on local produce, and served by friendly, knowledgeable waiters. 

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.

Open since 2012, this bustling coffee shop is as popular for its coffee as it is for its baked goods. The almond croissant is legendary, and so is the bread.

The velvet curtains, comfy couches, and cherry pie at this café and bar, which is heavily inspired by Twin Peaks, provides the perfect living room setting. Sink into a couch, order a coffee (or something stronger), and stay for a while.

An Italophile Danish couple have created a small empire of Italian restaurants and bars in the neighborhood of Vesterbro, and Mangia is the best, drawing a stylish crowd with its festive atmosphere and classic Italian cooking. If the restaurant is fully booked—it often is—try to get a table at one of the team's other nearby restaurants: Tuscan-inspired Circolo or the festive Bar La Una.

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.

Samsø is known across Denmark for its vegetable produce---the potatoes and strawberries, especially, are popular---and many restaurants on Samsø benefit from that. This one, located in Nordby, is one of the best; at lunch the chefs prepare traditional, Danish classics, but at night the restaurant transforms into one of the best bistro cuisines in Denmark, giving the local produce some French flair. The three-course menu tastes like the essence of Danish summer.

You could spend an entire day at this all-day café and restaurant, which seamlessly transforms from a cozy breakfast spot in the morning to a busy café at lunch and a bustling neo-brasserie at night. 

When Noma opened a pop-up burger shack in its restaurant during the pandemic, people stood in line for hours, and guests and reviewers were quick to call it the world's best burger. Have a taste for yourself at this new, permanent burger restaurant, located on an iconic corner on a quay. 

The culinary ambitions are lofty, the portions are huge, the produce is excellent, and the wine list is extensive, which are just some of the reasons why locals keep coming back to this lovely French restaurant. The service and the setting equal that of a much fancier place, but the prices remain low, especially considering the quality of the food.

Only a few years old, this restaurant has a beautiful location. The creative menu of open-faced sandwiches and excellent service have already made it a classic on Copenhagen's lunch scene. The crew, which ran the popular lunch spot Palægade (until it was forced to close because of a fire), draw in hordes of loyal locals. By night, the restaurant transforms into a French brasserie. 

This small restaurant draws a full house almost every night with its New Nordic–inspired prix-fixe menu. You will start out with a selection of creative snacks; continue with starters like burned salmon with a sauce of fermented cucumber, avocado, and salt-pickled lemon; have duck prepared in several ways with new carrots as a main; and finish off with a dessert of pears with rosemary cream. The team behind the restaurant also runs a Parisian-inspired bakery and café, Canelé, and the classic French bistro Salig Simons Gård, both located nearby.

This excellent café, located on a busy street in the heart of the historic center, serves tasty sandwiches, strong coffee, green juices, and home-baked goods to an ever-growing crowd of Copenhageners. Everything's organic, and it's hard to find a better breakfast in Indre By.