The 2025 hot list: Copenhagen’s 13 best new restaurants, bars and cafés

What happens when a two-Michelin-star restaurant opens its own bakery? Kong Hans Bakery brings Kong Hans Kælder’s discipline to Østerbro, turning French technique and Nordic restraint into everyday bread and viennoiserie. The parent restaurant is led by chef Mark Lundgaard. Expect long-fermented sourdough, classic Danish rye, baguettes, brioche and croissants – and a queue out the door. Pastries include Paris-Brest, citrus tart, drømmekage and a traditional fastelavnsbolle filled with remonce, pastry cream and vanilla and tonka bean cream, then finished with 70% Nicaliso chocolate glaze, olive oil, roasted Piedmont hazelnuts, cacao nibs and fleur de sel. Sandwiches cover smoked Faroese salmon and jambon-beurre.

Dallas is taking its coffee, breakfast and lunch routine to Copenhagen neighbourhood Østerbro, landing on Victor Borges Plads with a room that looks like it was built for daylight and late mornings. The first spot picked up five stars from Politiken, and the new one keeps the same calm precision, just with more space to breathe. A full wall of high-gloss Tiles by Muller Van Severen does the heavy lifting, so the surface shifts as the light moves. Raw textures, neon hits and natural plywood keep it slightly rough at the edges, in a way that feels intentional.

In central Copenhagen, Uní runs Japanese technique through Danish seasons, with head chef Takashi Saito and sommelier Oliver Kudsk, who first worked together at Umami in 2017. The room is intimate and detail-led, built so food, design and atmosphere land as one. Dishes include hiramasa sashimi with yuzu ponzu and Danish seaweed, using fish from Hanstholm and seaweed foraged in Odsherred. Another house move is beef cuvette with grilled vegetables and a truffle-wasabi sauce linked to their Umami years. Drinks run from sake and Japanese beer to cocktails and a tightly edited wine list. The menu shifts with the catch and the market, with umami as the through-line.

Inside Copenhagen neighbourhood Indre By, Kinyōbi runs modern Japanese cooking with a bar that cares about sound as much as seasoning. The name means Friday in Japanese and the place acts like a switch from day to night. The menu moves from hosomaki with foie gras and trout roe to yakitori, including miso-grilled pike perch, plus add-ons like koshihikari rice and house pickles. Dessert goes playful with soft ice and caviar or cheesecake soft ice with kumquat and yuzu curd. Cocktails lean Japanese spirits and infusions, such as a Misotini built on miso shiitake and kombu. On Thursday to Saturday nights, local selectors run the lounge in the back room.

After years shaping Copenhagen’s food scene, Matt Orlando, the American chef behind Amass and a former Noma alumnus, opens Esse in Nordhavn – a former industrial harbour district north of the city centre. Esse is described by Orlando as a place for depth, process and restraint. The cooking centres on whole ingredients, from vegetables to animals, with fermentation, ageing and preservation forming the backbone of the kitchen. Sustainability is not framed as a concept but as a working method, guiding sourcing, techniques and menu structure. The space is pared back and calm, designed to keep attention on the plate. Esse is not an extension of Amass, nor a return to Noma. It is a focused expression of Orlando’s own cooking philosophy, refined and intentional.