32 new restaurant openings to watch in Copenhagen in 2026

More than a century of Copenhagen seafood tradition loosens its tie at Lille Krogs, the casual sibling to Krogs Fiskerestaurant on Gammel Strand. Opened in September 2026, the smaller room takes the institution’s maritime DNA and strips away much of the formality, centring oysters, seafood, small plates and wine in a setting designed for spontaneous visits. The connection to Krogs matters, but so does the distance from it: this is not a simplified copy of the historic restaurant, but a more flexible way into one of the city’s longest-running dining stories.

Copenhagen’s Casino takes the scale of an Italian trattoria to an unusual extreme, opening on Landemærket in September 2026 with space for 240 guests across indoor rooms and a covered courtyard. Restaurateurs Mikkel Egelund and Morten Kaltoft, also behind Resto Bar and Locale 21, divide the large address into smaller dining areas rather than one continuous hall. The menu draws on generous Italian cooking, while adjoining Mercato operates as a market for imported produce and speciality ingredients. Together, restaurant and food shop give the site a second life beyond the dinner table.

White tablecloths are back at Phoebe, but without the grand-hotel choreography. Chef Marvin Christensen opened his first restaurant after working at Marchal, the Michelin-starred dining room inside Copenhagen’s historic Hotel d’Angleterre, bringing classical French technique into a smaller, more personal setting on Pilestræde. Fish and shellfish take a leading role, alongside roast chicken and smaller plates for the bar. The wine cellar is deliberately idiosyncratic, built around tiny allocations with sometimes only two bottles of a label. A prominent central bar keeps the room social, making Phoebe as plausible for a glass and snacks as for a full dinner.

Beautiful, straightforward cooking is the idea at Daphne, chef and restaurateur Frederik Bille Brahe’s 80-seat restaurant in central Copenhagen. Known for Atelier September and Apollo Bar, Bille Brahe works within a classic French bistro frame, but keeps the food loose, seasonal and produce-led. The menu moves from Gillardeau oysters with cucumber, shallot and horseradish and burrata with preserved gooseberries and nasturtium to chargrilled haddock with cold ratatouille and a cast-iron roasted yellow chicken for two with morel rice, Vin Jaune sauce and mustard greens. Warm wood, generous tables and an unfussy rhythm make it equally suited to lunch or a long dinner.

The team behind some of Copenhagen’s best-known plant-based restaurants has taken an unexpected turn into pork, fish and sake. Kiko is Conscious Collective’s take on an izakaya – the Japanese format built around drinks and shared small plates – set inside Torvehallerne, Copenhagen’s covered food market beside Nørreport station. Founder Jason Renwick and executive chef Brett Lavender are behind the group, with Lavender drawing on a year spent cooking in Tokyo. Rømø oysters, hiramasa sashimi and a 16-hour pork katsu sando lead into Konro-grilled dishes after 4pm, while sommelier Thomas Hjort has built the compact sake list.

Krogs Fiskerestaurant sits exactly where a Copenhagen fish restaurant should: on Gammel Strand, where fishwives once sold the day’s catch by the canal. Christian Krog(h) opened the restaurant here in 1910, and the 2026 reopening gives the institution a sharper kitchen without sanding off its old city weight. Head chef Andreas Ring Kjeldsholm Hansen, formerly of Dragsholm Slot, Fasangaarden and Vollmers, builds the new Krogs around Danish fish, shellfish, classical technique and richer detail than nostalgia alone can carry. Choose the seafood tasting menu, or go à la carte for the clearest version of Krogs: fish, sauce, wine and Copenhagen history at the same table.

Sixteen seats, one counter and none of the usual distance between kitchen and guest – Magny is chef Jonas Mikkelsen’s close-up follow-up to his years at Michelin-starred Frederiksminde in Præstø. Tucked into Ny Adelgade in central Copenhagen, the restaurant runs on a seasonal set menu and a stripped-back format that puts the cooking right in front of you. The name comes from Mikkelsen’s grandmother, which says something about the place too: personal, not polished into anonymity. Rasmus Mørch, formerly of Frederiksminde, Meyers, Fasangården and Brasserie Post, handles the room and the bottles, which matters here just as much as the food.