Top of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, Geranium sits eight
floors up in a football stadium, overlooking the leafy Fælledparken
gardens. This is a serious restaurant – complete with toques-topped
chefs – with a meat-free menu that outlines co-founder Rasmus
Kofoed’s progressive kitchen intentions (the chef started the
restaurant with front-of-house maestro Søren Ledet). Consisting of
20 courses, the three-hour tasting menu is locally inspired and
seasonally led. Just note, if you can get a booking for a
blonde-wood table here, expect the bill to leave a serious dent in
your wallet.

Alchemist’s website says it like it is: this isn’t a restaurant
choice for a “nervous first date”. Situated in the industrial
outskirts of Copenhagen in a former shipyard, this is the city’s
most experimental dining experience. Each seating is divided into
five “acts”, and diners are moved across various locations
throughout courses, encountering as many art mediums as they do
dishes (a mind-boggling 50 plates, and at least one
planetarium-style digital dome). Expect complexity on the menu,
alongside a bit of blue-sky thinking. Thought-provoking dishes that
aim to make statements about current world issues, such as plastic
pollution or unethical farming, are part and parcel of the
offering.

Calling all fans of sensational seafood: this rustic
neighbourhood restaurant is known for its oyster offering and
unpretentious dining experience, complete with kaleidoscopic vinyl
tablecloths and mismatched plates. You’ll have cash to spare for
adding to your capsule Copenhagen wardrobe; prices at O&G are
reasonable and invite ambitious endeavours of appetite with
generous portions. Order a half-dozen shells or opt for the seafood
menu to share, to scoff piled-high plates of fried squid, shrimp,
razor clams, ceviche and scallops.

Make like the influencer crew with a trip to this breezy,
veggie-only spot in Hellerup. Bright and beautiful, the café serves
breakfast, lunch and coffee and cake throughout the day. Plates are
healthy, vegetarian and photogenic (hence the crowd), but taste as
good as they look. Take a seat in the window and order the cult
classic of avocado on toast, a caramelised grapefruit and a glass
of seasonal kombucha. If you visit Charlottenborg’s Kunsthal, you
can find similar fare at the gallery’s Apollo Bar – chef
Frederik Bille Brahe is behind both establishments.

Sister restaurant to Oysters & Grill, Copenhagen Food
Collective’s Delphine plates up Southern Mediterranean-influenced
fare: think tender koftas, crushed feta on toast, and luscious,
deep swirls of taramasalata and tzatziki drizzled with
sunshine-yellow olive oil. For drinks, skip the Mythos and flip
straight to the cocktail menu. We’re ordering the take it ouzo, a
muddle of raspberries, vodka, lemon and the eponymous Greek spirit,
or a watermelon dolphin, a sweet and salty concoction of gin,
watermelon and agave.

To do dinner properly in the Danish capital, take a table at the
charming (and traditional) Sankt Annæ in Christianshavn, tucked
into the shadow of the city’s royal palace. The white-clothed
tables, emerald banquettes and asparagus-green walls keep things a
little formal, but it’s that kind of place. The crockery, in
keeping, is all Royal Copenhagen porcelain. A seasonally led menu
keeps things retro, with pickles aplenty, and simple, clean sea
flavours. Order one of the smörrebröd open sandwiches to savour a
city classic – pick from curried herring with eggs, gravlax with
sweet mustard, and cod roe with homemade tartar sauce. Don’t forget
to ask for “snaps” – fiery shots of akvavit served in
trumpet-shaped glasses filled to the brim.

Don’t expect plain old pizza at this red-brick Guldbergsgade
joint; the team behind Bæst adorn their sourdough, stone-ground
flour pies with homemade mozzarella, ricotta and charcuterie made
in an on-site salumeria. Pick from inventive toppings like the
No.5’s radicchio and blue cheese layers, or, gracing the No.8, a
confit potato concoction. Make sure to leave room for the
restaurant’s luxurious tiramisu. It’s made with homemade
mascarpone.

Part of Noma’s lasting influence on the city is the coalition of
alumni chefs that have set up shop across Copenhagen. Former pastry
chef Rosio Sanchez is one such graduate. After leading the mighty
restaurant’s summer camp to Mexico, Sanchez left the clan to open
an eponymously named taco joint. A second branch followed, before
the taco talent announced the opening of her first sit-down space,
a Copenhagen take on a traditional cantina. At Sanchez, Nordic
produce graces Mexican recipes. Order a sunshine-filled Pacifico
beer and tuck into tuna tostadas, sea bass tacos and mussel atole.
At weekends, the kitchen serves a three-course brunch of savoury
plates that’s not to be missed.

For a quick eat on your feet, head to this fried chicken shop in
Nørrebro – a favourite of the city’s chefs when off-duty. Attached
to a natural wine bar (that’s also worth a visit), Poulette serves
only two sandwiches: one stuffed with spicy fried chicken, mayo and
pickles; the other packed with tongue-tingling fried mapo tofu.
Wrapped up in paper printed with the neon-pink Poulette logo, the
soft brioche buns come complete with American-style cheese,
lettuce, wrinkled gherkins and crispy fries.