Copenhagen Guide

Copenhagen does Italy on Vester Voldgade, a few steps from City Hall Square. The restored 19th-century building has candy-striped banquettes and checkerboard tiles in the courtyard, and parquet floors and big mirrors in the rooms. Downstairs, Donna serves Italian food to a room as full of locals as hotel guests.

Former ballet dancer Alexander Kølpin opened Sanders in 2017 on a cobbled street behind the Royal Danish Theatre, with interiors by London studio Lind + Almond. The single rooms are modelled on old train cabins. TATA, the cocktail bar, is named after the theatre's red curtain. There's a rooftop conservatory too.

A red-brick neo-baroque building in Nordhavn, built in 1918 as the headquarters of the Russian Trading Company. Norm Architects turned it into a hotel, restaurant, café, shop and head office for Danish design brand Audo Copenhagen. There are nine rooms, furnished from the brand's own collection, and much of it is for sale in the shop downstairs.

Cofoco, the group behind Les Trois Cochons and Høst, opened its first hotel on Vesterbrogade in 2019. Blue-and-white striped awnings outside, a courtyard and Café Coco within. Guests get 15% off at the group's restaurants, several of which are a block or two away. Some rooms are small, so check before you book.

Frederik Bille Brahe's café made its name with the avocado on rye: thin slices fanned across the bread, finished with chilli and lemon zest. Order the Morning Plate too. Recommended by Laura Jackson.

Anders Selmer's seafood restaurant sits in Kødbyen, the old meatpacking district, under a concrete bull sculpted by Einar Utzon-Frank in 1933. Space Copenhagen designed the white-tiled room. Oysters and drinks are served all day, and you can walk in for a seat at the bar. Recommended by Laura Jackson.

Pernille Rosenbæk and Henry Stevens opened Auren’s on Godthåbsvej in Frederiksberg in 2022. The menu changes daily: mostly vegetables, a few larger meat and fish plates, and something sweet. Lunch runs into aperitivo and then dinner, with low-intervention wine and cocktails from the team at Bird. Half the room can be booked, and the rest is kept for walk-ins. Its shop, the Cornerstore, is across the road at number 24.

Mikkel Toftgaard Gregersen's French-leaning bistro on Store Kongensgade opened in 2022. Chequered tablecloths, walls lined with bottles and a menu rewritten each day around what comes in from the farms and boats. Saturday lunch is the one to book.

FRAMA opened its café in October 2020, next to the studio store in the old St. Pauls pharmacy in Nyboder. Chef Chiara Barla writes a short menu that changes with the seasons and draws on her Italian childhood: house-made bakes in the morning, savoury plates at lunch, pour-over coffee from La Cabra. Daytime only, closing at 4pm.

Morten Kaltoft and Mikkel Egelund run this Italian on Ny Østergade. The menu moves with the seasons: anchovies with butter and crostini, a crudo, pasta with rabbit ragù. Grab a seat at the counter. It’s open from 11am to midnight, later at weekends, so it works for a long lunch as well as dinner.

Design store Studio X opened its all-day café on Dronningens Tværgade in 2021, a short walk from the King's Garden. It's breakfast and lunch only, seasonal and vegetable-led. Order the folded eggs, and a miso brownie for after. The room is small and fills up fast.

Riccardo Marcon opened Barabba on Store Kongensgade in 2017, and it made its name on late nights and loud music. FRAMA refurbished the room in early 2026, all natural wood now, but the spaghetti with butter, colatura and caviar is still the order. Tasting menu or à la carte, with a natural wine list leaning towards Italy.

Chiara Barla, the chef behind Apotek 57 and Lido, opened Riviera in 2024 in a 1960s bakery on Nansensgade. FRAMA designed the room, with a red marble counter and one long shared table. Coffee is from La Cabra. Order the spandauer.

Richard Hart, formerly head baker at Tartine in San Francisco, opened the first Hart Bageri on Gammel Kongevej in Frederiksberg in 2018. There are now ten across the city. Come for the sourdough and the double-baked almond croissant.

Swedish-born chef Emil Glaser opened Juno on Århusgade in Østerbro in 2017. The queue is for the cardamom bun, the one he couldn't find in Copenhagen after a childhood eating them in Sweden. Pistachio croissants and sourdough too. Recommended by Laura Jackson.

A Kickstarter campaign paid for the oven, and Lille opened on Refshaleøen, the old shipyard island, in 2018. Everything is organic, from small farms. The Berliner comes filled with vanilla custard. Take the yellow harbour bus from Nyhavn.

Barista Hans Kristian Andersen and pastry chef Milton Abel opened in an old bank on Nørrebrogade in 2018. The roaster sits ten metres from the coffee bar. In summer a croissant doubles as the cone for espresso soft serve. Also in Nordhavn and on Ny Østergade.

A corner wine bar in Kødbyen, the old meatpacking district. The by-the-glass list is written on the wall and changes with what’s open, and the bottle list is a fridge in the corner with the prices on the bottles. Small seasonal plates of fish, vegetables, meat and cheese, a few cocktails, and tables outside in summer.

Martin and Jesper worked in French wine for years before opening Pompette, French for tipsy, one step down from the pavement on Møllegade in Nørrebro in 2018. There's a red, white, rosé and orange by the glass at 50 kroner. Charcuterie, cheese and burrata to soak it up.

Barr sits in an old warehouse on the Christianshavn waterfront and reopened in June 2026 after a renovation by Spacon, with more room at the bar. The name means barley, so start with the beer list, some of it brewed for the house. Come for a drink by the harbour and stay for dinner from the North Sea and Baltic.

Mette and Rolf Hay opened their flagship in 2007 in an art nouveau building on Amagertorv, and it now fills four floors. Nathalie Du Pasquier's tiles and paintings line the walls. Furniture and lighting upstairs, and the small things too: dishcloths, Colour Crates, tape. Recommended by Laura Jackson.

Flea market season runs from April to October. Frederiksberg Loppetorv sets up every Saturday from 9am to 3pm beside Frederiksberg Town Hall, with more than 90 stalls of furniture, homeware and clothes. The Nørrebro market stretches 333 metres along the yellow wall of Assistens Kirkegård. Go early.

FRAMA keeps its Copenhagen store in St. Pauls Apotek, a pharmacy dating from 1878 in Nyboder. The original oak cabinets and painted ceilings stay, now filled with FRAMA furniture, lighting and its apothecary range, including the St. Pauls eau de parfum. Apotek 57, the café, is in the same building.

Helle Mardahl trained at Central Saint Martins and set up her glass studio in Copenhagen in 2017. Everything is mouth-blown in Denmark in sweet-shop colours, from Bon Bon jars to cocktail glasses and lamps. The flagship is in Frederiksstaden, in a building that once housed a royal jeweller.

Book distributor New Mags runs its store on Ny Østergade, designed by Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen of Norm Architects with old libraries in mind: oak shelving, golden sandstone and a long table for browsing. Coffee-table books, magazines and a few sculptures. Closed on Sundays.

Twin sisters Amalie and Cecilie Moosgaard started Lié Studio online in 2021, then opened their first store at Vognmagergade 9, in a building from 1914. Gold and gold-plated silver jewellery, and now leather, in a shop furnished like a flat.

Study is Studio Arhoj's second shop and studio, on Nørregade, a short walk from the Skindergade flagship. The shop winds through the workshop past the potters, glassblowers and printmaker, and tucked inside is a vintage analogue photo booth. Take home a Ghost, Anders Arhoj's small wide-eyed figure, fired three times.

Stoy started in Aarhus in 2007, and its Copenhagen store is in a former bank on Landemærket that had never been a shop before. White rooms, an orange counter, and men's and women's clothes from Lemaire, Comme des Garçons and Studio Nicholson alongside smaller labels. Sophie Bille Brahe for jewellery.

Le Petit Voyeur is a publisher first, with its own books and magazine, and its small shop on Sølvgade sits a few minutes from Rosenborg and the Botanical Garden. The shelves hold independent, limited and signed visual arts publications from around the world, from nude photography to abstract art. Open Monday to Saturday afternoons, or by appointment.

Louisiana sits in a park above the Øresund in Humlebæk, around 40 minutes north by train, then a 10 to 15 minute walk from the station. The sculpture park looks across the water towards Sweden. It's open until 10pm Tuesday to Friday, and under-18s go free. Recommended by Laura Jackson.

La Banchina means the quay, and that's what it is: a small café and wine bar on Refshaleøen with a jetty for jumping into the harbour. Swimming season runs from early spring to late autumn, and the wood-fired sauna takes over in winter. No reservations. Recommended by Laura Jackson.

Denmark's largest collection of living plants is a five-minute walk from Nørreport, and the garden is free to wander. The cast-iron and glass Palm House dates from 1874 and took its cue from the Crystal Palace. Climb the 16-metre spiral staircase to look down on the canopy. Palm House entry is 70 kroner.

Designmuseum Danmark has filled the former Royal Frederik's Hospital on Bredgade, a rococo building from the 1750s, since 1926. A two-year renovation finished in 2022 with new marble floors and a restored facade. Under-26s go free. Finish with coffee in the Grønnegården garden.

The classic tour takes an hour and passes Nyhavn, the Opera House, Amalienborg and the Little Mermaid. Stromma's boats leave from Nyhavn and Ved Stranden. Netto-Bådene's blue boats are the cheaper option. From October to March the boats are covered and heated.

The showroom is in Wilhelm Hansen House on Gothersgade, home to a music publisher since 1879, in the shop Finn Juhl himself redesigned in 1966. The company has put more than 40 of his designs back into production. It's a showroom rather than a shop, and it's open on weekdays only.

Christian IV began Rosenborg in 1606 as a summer house, and it became his favourite. The Crown Jewels and the royal regalia are kept in the basement treasury, and some pieces are still worn on state occasions. Outside, the King's Garden is Denmark's oldest royal garden, free to walk and good for a picnic.