Neighbourhoods

Nørrebro

I usually recommend newbies stay in/visit Nørrebro - it keeps winning titles like the ‘world’s coolest neighbourhood’ but I really think there’s something for everyone.

It’s just north from the indre by (inner city) where the main touristy things are, and it’s a short walk over The Lakes, a nice area to walk around. You walk to Nørrebro over a bridge called Dronning Louises Bro, where Danes hang out and drink in the summer, and it looks nice at night when it’s lit up.

There’s great food, drink, playgrounds, shopping. Things here:

• Poulette, for incredible fried chicken sandwiches (like you saw in The Bear)

• Mikkeller & Friends, my favourite Mikkeller beer bar. Super cosy and casual, and with a hidden Belgian bar tucked in the back (keep walking round past the toilets)

• Nørrebrogade (the main street) generally has a lot going on.

• Jægersborggade is a very cute shopping street with great things on it (I recommend Istid ice cream, Coffee Collective, Meyers bakery (there are a few of these in the city) - Lots of great places for veggies and vegans in Nørrebro too!

• Rondo, one of my favourite bakeries (please don’t tell anyone, I don’t want it to get as busy as Juno or Hart)

Christianshavn

Really nice area - might remind you of Amsterdam :) great for sitting with a Tuborg and watching the boats / paddleboarders go by.

You can rent little boats called Friendships from here (there are also Go Boats which I haven’t tried but I know people enjoy!) for a fun picnic on the water.

There’s a burger place here called POPL (I’ve only had the beef but the vegan is meant to be amazing too!) - started by the team behind Noma.

If you’ve never been, I’d say Christiania (the ‘freetown’) is worth a wander through, it’s fun to see and there are some beautiful lakes you can walk to, with self-built houses. The rules in Christiania are no running and no photos.

There’s also a street food market next to a bridge that connects Nyhavn to Christianshavn that’s worth checking out. It’s called Broens Gadekøkken.

There’s also a huge street food market called Reffen, which is at the end of Christianshavn at an area called Refshaleøen. You can get the 2A bus there. It’s by the water which is super nice. Some other lovely places to go in this area: Lille bakery and La Banchina restaurant, where you can also swim outside when the weather is nice.

And it’s near a big building called Copenhill - it’s a waste management plant that’s been turned into an artificial ski/snowboard slope. But you can walk up it and it has
good views.

Vesterbro

It’s near the central station and it has the meatpacking district (Kødbyen). There’s so much good stuff in here - my favourite is Warpigs (good beer, BBQ (lots of meat!) and music).

If you want something ‘fancy’ (but Copenhagen fancy, so still pretty cool), the Fiskebaren restaurant is really great.

If you like Mexican food, my favourite tacos are Hija di Sanchez (although La Neta has a few locations and is good too). Hija di Sanchez also has a lot of locations now too.
There’s also a great dim sum restaurant called Magasana.

Outside of Kødbyen, the street Sønder Boulevard has some nice places, like Dyrehaven (an old bar type place) and Rbabarrab Kihosk Bar. There’s also a ‘Mediterranean’ restaurant called Delphine.

The area around Enghave Plads (around Vesterbro, has a metro station) has great bakeries and bars. It’s near Carlsberg Byen, the old Carlsberg brewery, with massive elephant statues that kids might like (and they’re fun for photos). The Carlsberg Experience is open again now and supposed to be really good.

Frederiksberg

FRB is loooovely, and a nice way to get there is walking up from Vesterbro, up the street Værnedamsvej. The street is called ‘Little Paris’, it has really nice bars, cafes, restaurants and cute shops.

The artist David Shrigley has a shop (Shrig Shop) just off Værnedamsvej, on Tullinsgade. If you don’t follow him on IG, you might like it :)

In the neighbourhood itself there’s a real French/Paris/leafy vibe, and the zoo is also here. More nice bars, cafes and shopping. It’s a fancy end of town :)

Østerbro

This is the other fancy end of town, it’s at the other end of the lakes. Some nice places to walk around here, like the old orange houses of Nyboder.

The bakery Juno has Copenhagen’s best cardamom buns and you can expect queues at the weekend.

Islands Brygge

It’s at the top of Amager, the island south of Christianshavn (the best island because I live here and again, I’m biased!). It has a great bakery called Andersen that I really recommend.

It’s easy to walk here from Christianshavn and if the weather’s good you can swim in the harbour here (it gets busy).

Other places to eat

Burgers

Other than POPL, I love Gasoline Grill. They have a few locations.

Brunch

Mad og Kaffe - they also have about 5 locations and it’s CPH’s best brunch, hands down. You choose 3, 5, or 7 small dishes and they’re all awesome (legendary chicken nuggets but also good veggie options)

Beer

There are Mikkeller spots all over the place and generally they’re pretty good. Brus in Nørrebro is also good

Ramen

Ramen to Biiru has a few locations and has Mikkeller beer vending machines :) and great noodles. Some people also really love Slurp.

Food market

The Torvehallerne is right by Nørreport station, next to the Lakes. It has two halls of great food, with some street food options too. Everyone will find something here!

Hot dogs!

These are everywhere. If you want the fancy ones (they’re so good, I recommend them) - find the DØP (den økologiske pølsemand / the organic hotdog man) at the bottom of the rundetaarn.
My favourite ‘real Copenhagen’ one is Joan’s Pølse cart, on Kongens Nytorv near where you cross the road to go to Nytorv. Danes order a hot dog with ketchup, mustard, remoulade, chopped onions, fried onions and pickles on it. It’s called ‘ristet hotdog med det hele’ - hot dog with everything :)

Bakeries

Everyone has their favourites, and they’re mostly Juno, Hart (which has a lot of locations now, and is also in The Bear), Københavns Bageri, Andersen & Maillard. There is also Lagkagehuset, which is the equivalent of Ole & Steen in the UK. It’s kind of like the Starbucks of bakeries. You could go there, but you can do so much better.

A Nordic, seasonal meal

The 3 or 5 course menus at Høst are really great, I love this place for celebrating a birthday or something. It’s not as extreme as something you’d find at Noma or Alchemist, but a lot more affordable yet still quite fancy.

Arty / museum / culture things

The Louisiana museum of modern art is awesome - but it’s about 40 mins on the train north of Copenhagen to Humlebæk. It always has great exhibitions on, it’s worth doing if you have time.

I haven’t been but Statens Museum of Kunst (the national art museum) is supposed to be really good, it’s quite central.

The Glyptoteket is a big museum with things like Roman statues, ancient Egyption mummies etc if that’s your jam - but it has a nice palm tree conservatory too.

The Botanical Gardens is nice to wander through and the palm house there (and the butterfly house) are nice.

The Design Museum is great if you’re into things like Danish furniture design.

Smaller, indie galleries that I’ve not been to but are on my list:

Galleri Kant (I recommended this to a friend and he loved it), Etage Projects, V1 Gallery, Bricks Gallery

Danish design/home stuff

The department stores like Magasin du Nord and Illums Bolighus are great for the big names (and Georg Jensen and Royal Copenhagen have stores on Strøget too).

But my favourites are:
Notre Dame - a real mix, a popular place for home items and decoration - plates, candles, rugs, etc - that you won’t find in the department stores.

Studio Arhoj - super cool ceramics like mugs, vases etc - I have 3 mugs from here and everyone I recommend it to has bought something here. You’ve been warned :)

Getting around

Generally it’s really easy on the metro to get to most places.
There are bikes you can hire, there’s you can find them with the Donkey Republic app.
There are also those scooters everywhere (I think it’s the law to wear a helmet on them but not sure how enforced that is!)

Korean places

I haven’t been to a proper BBQ place where you grill on the table, but I really love SSam in Vesterbro.

There’s also a place called Propaganda that I love, near Vesterport station.
I’ve also walked past this place Bulko in between Enghave Plads / Carlsberg Byen that looks good

There are K pop shops too! All in Kpop, Copenhagen Kpop and The Korner are all pretty central

Vegetarian places!

I’m totally not the right person to answer this (sorry!) BUT VisitCopenhagen has you covered on this front. I’ve heard good things about 42Raw and California Kitchen, and I really like GRØD (their mushroom risotto is amazing)

TIP!

VisitCopenhagen is great, they keep it super well updated and I’m always finding new things from it. Their neighbourhood guides are here

Enjoy CPH! Let me know what you end up doing :)