Copenhagen appears to be a well established foodie capital which was completely unbeknownst to us! The city has a thriving street food scene and an array of Michelin-starred restaurants. During our weekend trip, we struggled to fit in all the eateries we wanted to try but, here are a selection of the most delicious and memorable food and drink we had the pleasure of trying in Copenhagen.
DISCLOSURE: This blog post contains affiliate links which just means that we may receive a commission if you choose to purchase anything from our suggested links. This will help fund more of the 23 Travels blog posts which you love so dearly!
1. Gaza Grill
Gaza Grill was a last minute addition to our food itinerary thanks to TikTok. A reviewer described how incredible the shawarma bowls were and we couldn’t miss trying them – they did NOT disappoint. We got the chicken and beef shawarma bowls served with bulgur, salad and different mezes including our favourite ‘Muhmmara’ which is a Middle Eastern walnut and roasted red pepper dip. This dish blew our minds! It was fresh and full of flavour and if you had to pick, go for the chicken as it tasted slightly better than the beef. They have two locations, one in Nørrebro and one in Vesterbro which is the one we visited. We took advantage of sitting outside and soaking up the atmosphere, an absolute must visit!
Gaza Grill – Flæsketorvet 39, 1711 København, Denmark
Opening Hours: Sun – Thur (11am-11pm), Fri-Sat (11am-12am)
2. Brunch at Union Kitchen
It is highly recommended that you make a reservation for Union Kitchen. We went to the one in the City and saw so many brunch hopefuls turned away due to every table being booked up. This was a sign we were in for a treat!
The menu was truly incredible, it was SO difficult to pick. I was having an internal battle between picking the brunch plate, croque madame, the potato röst AND the Mexican bandit burrito. Ultimately, we both decided on the brunch plate as it gave us a real selection of many brunch favourites. The brunch plate included “scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, smoked salmon, vesterhavs cheese, potato rösti, cherry tomatoes, avocado & feta on rye bread, greek yogurt & granola with rhubarb compote, buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup & fresh berries.”
The picture looks just as delicious as it actually was. Everything on that plate was 10/10, the ingredients were top quality and incredibly fresh but what brought the meal together was our Ginger Passion cocktail with “sake, lychee liqueur, passionfruit, ginger“, order this and thank us later!
Union Kitchen – Store Strandstræde 21, 1255 Indre By, Denmark
Opening Hours: Mon-Wed (7:30am-11pm), Thur-Fri (7:30am-12am), Sat (8am-12am), Sun (8am-11pm)
3. Fuego at Reffen Street Food Market
Where do I start with the incredible Fuego Street Grill?!
Juan Alvarez brings mouthwatering Argentine street food to Denmark’s capital. There was a long line of people ordering what appeared to be their signature dish, the Pepito Steak Sandwich. This was probably the best thing we ate all weekend, it’s THAT good! Juicy Black Angus beef is cooked over an open flame served in a crunchy baguette with salad and the best chimchurri sauce you would have ever tried.
We regret not getting our hands on their handmade empanadas and their choripan which is made from Juan’s grandmother’s secret recipe.
We went to a lot of street food markets in Copenhagen and Reffen was undeniably our favourite, especially when they present gems like Fuego. Check out the other amazing stalls at Reffen but only after you ordered a Pepito steak sandwich!!
Fuego at Reffen – Refshalevej 169k, 2300 København, Denmark
Reffen is only open seasonally so stay up to date on their website here
4. Ice Cream from Ismageriet
Ice cream from Ismageriet was an absolute delight! It was clearly a popular place as queues were going out the door so, we had to see what the fuss was about. There was SO much choice when it came to flavours. The portions are HUGE for an incredible price, two scoops may have been a bit much for me but, that didn’t stop me from finishing the whole thing! If you are curious, I got the one scoop of sesame salted caramel (which I had never tried before and is now my FAVOURITE flavour) and one scoop of pistachio flavour which was exceptionally good.
Ismageriet – Rued Langgaards Vej 6e, 2300 København, Denmark
Opening Hours: Mon-Fri (7:30am-10pm), Sat-Sun (9am-10pm)
5. Traditional Danish Hot Dog from Steff Houlberg
I’ll be completely honest with you, I didn’t expect much from this but I was conscious we hadn’t eaten anything Danish and we heard good things about this truck near Nyhavn.
The menu is in Danish but pointing should do the trick, ask for everything as a topping especially the crispy onions! Service is quick and it’s probably the least you’ll spend on something to eat in Copenhagen (IYKYK).
Steff Houlberg – København K, København, Denmark
Opening Hours: Mon-Sat (10:30am-5:30pm) Sun (10am-6pm)
6. Poulette
After featuring on ‘The Bear’, we were on a mission to try Poulette offering the city’s best fried chicken sandwiches. After noticing Poulette had closed for the day at Broens Street Food, we were gutted but soon realised that they have a shop in the Nørrebro district. We hopped on our bikes and rode straight over.
I genuinely cannot stop thinking about this chicken sandwich, it was filling, crispy and a little bit spicy which I loved! Due to it’s popularity, expect a queue at peak times but fortunately for us, we walked straight in to order and managed to grab a couple of the limited seats outside.
Two bits of advice:
- DON’T leave Copenhagen without trying this.
- DON’T go to KFC for your chicken sandwich fix, Poulette will change your life!
Poulette – Møllegade 1, 2200 København, Denmark
Opening Hours: Everyday from (11am-8pm)
7. Pastries from Bagerdygtigt
This bakery was a 5 minute walk from our AirBnB and each morning we would past, drool at all the baked goods through the shop window and stupidly walk past and start our day. On the second last day, we finally went in and kicked ourselves that we left it so late because all I can say is the Danes REALLY know how to bake.
Bagerdygtigt have a huge selection of pastries to satisfy any sweet craving you might have. You know we had to get a Danish Pastry (I mean, how could we not!?) and a cinnamon roll. Both were phenomenal, tasty and unbelievably more-ish! We returned the following morning to stock up for our short train journey to the airport.
Don’t make the mistake we did and leave it too late into your trip to try these heavenly pastries!
Bagerdygtigt – Istedgade 118, 1650 København, Denmark
Opening Times: Mon-Fri (6am-5:30pm) Sat-Sun (6:30am-5:30pm)
8. Taster Tray from Warpigs
Now, I wasn’t going to include this because Barbeque in general isn’t my favourite and this taster tray wasn’t amazing but it wasn’t awful either.
I wanted to include this for those who do love Barbeque as it’s clearly a hit with an average rating on Google 4.4 stars, and almost 11,000 reviews, Warpigs is clearly a hit.
The taster tray is in the name, the best way to get a taste of their offerings. It comes with Beef Brisket (just tasted burnt to me), pulled pork (surprisingly very good despite not being a fan), sausage (very tasty), pickles (can never go wrong!), mac and cheese (a huge let down) and the coleslaw (probably the best I’ve ever had).
The atmosphere was electric and the staff are very friendly. We went on a Saturday night and it was completely packed with not one available table in sight so, be aware of this if you plan on heading there on a weekend.
9. Protein Shakes from Joe & the Juice
You may think this is a random addition, especially as we don’t tend to promote chains but Joe & the Juice deserve all the praise. I’ve never bothered to check them out in London but for some reason, when we found out it was a Danish brand, we wanted to at least give it a try.
The Protein Shakes were out of this world! We spent an obscene amount on them during our trip but were worth every penny! We ordered the Chocolate Flex which is made up of “Raw Cacao, Banana, Date Puree, Collagen & Whey Protein and Sproud M*lk.” Unicorn Tears is made up of “Almond Butter, Blue Spirulina, Cinnamon, Banana, Date Puree, Collagen & Whey Protein and Sproud M*lk”.
Don’t let the Whey Protein put you off, I know many people who don’t like it. The drinks taste like bougie dessert milkshakes plus the protein will keep you full if you don’t feel like having a meal.
Joe & the Juice – Locations all over the city (walk 5 minutes in every direction and you’ll probably find one!!)
10. Gasoline Grill
All I can do is apologise in advance because a picture of the outside is not exactly going to convince you to eat here however, this place is SO good that we both forgot to take a picture!! Gasoline Grill is renowned for its incredible burgers, to give you an idea what the burgers look like, check out their Instagram here.
We decided against going to the popular Gasoline Grill branch in the city centre. The restaurant has a really cool concept as it looks and operates just like a fuel station, this attracts many tourists which inevitably means long queues. We had just landed and needed to eat sooner rather than later (especially before the hangry-ness started to set in) so, we went to the one in Tivoli Gardens. This worked out as we wanted to visit this incredible amusement park anyway but they are based all over the city.
Many have claimed this is their favourite burger in the world, this is 100% in my top 3 best burgers ever (I’ve tried a lot, trust me). I got the double cheeseburger which was incredible, each bite was succulent and the texture was 15/10! You might pass out when you see the bill after ordering a burger, fries and drink….! Totally worth it though!
Gasoline Grill – locations all over the city
That’s All 23 Travellers! Thank you for reading. We hope you enjoyed reading through ‘A Guide To The Best Food and Drink In Copenhagen’
23 Travels are Personal Travel Planners who have been creating bespoke travel itineraries for many years. If you would like us to plan your trip to Copenhagen, or any other worldwide destination for you, please visit 23 Travels Itinerary Services
Head to Pinterest and PIN this blog to your favourite board!
