Food in Copenhagen

Herring

We love herring. If you like fish you should certainly eat it here. We don’t have any particular spots to recommend. Whichever Danish restaurant you choose to try will have herring on the menu. If there is a taster with different flavors, get this if you already know you like herring. The Danish will usually put the herring on whole-grain bread and add toppings, like capers, greens and onions (aka smørrebrød). We like it plain, too: curried herring with hard-boiled eggs, traditional herring, fried herring.

Smørrebrød

Many restaurants and delis make smørrebrød. Our favorite place was the Aamann’s deli in Osterbro. There are also several restaurants under the Aamann’s banner, several of which also serve smørrebrød. The takeaway was reasonably priced, well-presented and packaged beautifully.

Pastries

Home of the danish! If you like pastries you might need some extra willpower in the Netherlands: danish, cinnamon rolls, chocolate rolls, rum balls and many other such sweets abound. We took the advice of this site which recommended one visit to Lagkagehuset’s flagship store at Christianshavns Torv; this store has everything the chain sells and a bakery on site, plus it’s right outside a Metro stop. You will see Lagkagehuset outlets everywhere in Copenhagen–perhaps in equal amounts to Joe and the Juice and 7-11 which is saying something–but not all of these stores are as large as the Christianshavns location.

We tried one of each of their most popular sweet offerings. Our favorites were the rhubarb horn, rum ball (chocolate cake bound together with a healthy dose of rum), and chocolate snail (good quality chocolate). The pastries all ran doughy, which we like but might turn others off. Joe and the Juice: this chain is everywhere, which means you can find healthy juices, decent sandwiches and vegan choices throughout town.

7-11: Is it like 7-11 in the States? Only in that it sells what locals want to buy, which means no slushies in Denmark. There are, however, reliable prepackaged healthy salad bowls, bottled health juice combos (half the price of Joe and the Juice) and many other drinks, donuts, gum, and candy. This is a good place to pick up a pretty healthy meal for cheap by local standards.

Chocolate

Frederiksberg Chocolate (and ice cream) was a great find. Their website indicates they teach classes for individuals and small groups. For us, chocolates should have good quality chocolate, fillings with distinctive and strong flavors, and a price of $1 per piece or less (which makes them less expensive than those found State-side). This place did it. Some memorable choices:

Chili Lime: liquid center tastes mostly of lime, until the chili hits you a few seconds later.
Orange: ganache center tastes of candied orange peel, so slight bitter flavor with the sweet, which was good.
Cream bun: this is a local thing and we are glad we tried it here. It’s a very soft marshmallow on a crisp base. The center of the marshmallow is filled with a flavoring; the traditional is vanilla cream but we tried salted caramel. The whole thing is covered in chocolate. This is a confection you can learn to make in their courses.

Bowl Market

We are big fans of Bowl Market. The Osterbro location was right near our AirBnB and we had breakfast there three times. They also have a Vesterbro location which the owner described as much busier and very popular with tourists as it’s near several hotels. I am really picky about my oatmeal; they make a winner! First of all, the oatmeal base is good (organic gluten-free oats on their own or mixed with chia, or mixed with seeds and grains). The toppings are plentiful and tasty. You can pick any three for the base price and there are so many awesome choices: nuts, granola, fresh fruits, dried fruits, sweeteners, fruit compotes! I was overwhelmed because they all looked good so went for some preset combos each time. The “original” is like a caramel apple (caramel, apples, and almonds). It was a little too sweet for me so if I order this again I’ll ask for half the caramel on the side. We also tried the blueberry lemon and the raspberry coconut. Yum on both counts. The serving is VERY LARGE–like probably 2 cups of oatmeal in there. The toppings are plentiful so you get some in each bite. The place also has smoothie and acai bowls which, again, are in large portions with the right amount of toppings. We also tried the tuna melt which hit the spot, and took some lemon mint risotto to go for a picnic. Both were great.