Danish Cuisine

About Danish Cuisine

By the ULTIMATE Copenhagen Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

What to order in Copenhagen, from the lunch rooms of smørrebrød to the starred tables of New Nordic cooking: our guide to the Danish table.

The Danish table

Danish cooking is the food of a cold sea and a flat, fertile land: rye and butter, pork and fish, apples and berries, and a cook’s patience with smoke, salt and vinegar. In Copenhagen it lives two lives at once, in the old lunch rooms where smørrebrød has been made the same way for generations, and in the kitchens of New Nordic cooking that changed how the world thinks about the North.

Smørrebrød

Smørrebrød is always built on rye bread, with toppings that run from herring to raw beef, seafood and egg, as VisitCopenhagen describes it. It is eaten at lunch, with a knife and fork, usually starting with fish, then meat, then cheese. Schønnemann on Hauser Plads has served it since 1877; Selma, a Bib Gourmand in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide, and Sankt Annæ, Aamanns 1921, Restaurant Palægade and Restaurant Møntergade, all in the 2026 guide, carry the tradition on.

Dark rye, cold butter and a topping built with care: lunch in Copenhagen is still smørrebrød.

Herring and snaps

Pickled herring opens a proper Danish lunch, and with it comes a cold glass of snaps. Schønnemann pours more than 140 kinds, with 24 beers, in its own words; take it slowly.

Cakes and bakeries

Copenhagen takes its cakes seriously. Conditori La Glace has made them on Skoubogade since 8 October 1870 and calls itself Denmark’s oldest confectionery; its Sportskage is the classic. A newer bread and pastry revolution has followed: Richard Hart, once the baker at Noma, opened his own Hart Bakery, as VisitCopenhagen notes.

New Nordic

New Nordic cooking began in 2004, when the food entrepreneur Claus Meyer gathered twelve chefs from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Finland to sign the Nordic Kitchen manifesto, a ten-point pledge of purity, season, ethics, health and quality; René Redzepi of Noma and Erwin Lauterbach of Lumskebugten represented Denmark (VisitCopenhagen). Today Copenhagen has two Three-Star restaurants in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide, Geranium and Kadeau, and Noma has come home, reopening in August 2026 with a menu for each month.

The Christmas table

For many Danes, Christmas means roast duck, caramelised potatoes and risalamande, as VisitCopenhagen puts it, with gløgg, the spiced mulled wine of clove, orange, cinnamon and anise, at every market and bar from November. The Christmas beers arrive on the first Friday of November; more than 220 Danish breweries make around 350 of them, VisitCopenhagen says.

Where to taste it

For smørrebrød, book lunch at Schønnemann, Selma or one of the MICHELIN-listed lunch rooms in our guide; for cake, La Glace; for New Nordic cooking, the starred tables of our restaurants list.

Our advice: go to smørrebrød at lunch, as Copenhageners do, and leave room for a slice of La Glace’s cake in the afternoon.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Danish Cuisine before you go.