The Copenhagen food issue
The Bear is obsessed with Copenhagen and its restaurant scene. It’s hard not to see why... this month I’m all in on food and rockstar chefs.
June 2026 / Rondo bakery Photo: Daniel Rasmussen - Copenhagen Media Center
If you can’t take the heat…
Welcome to this month’s Modern Scandinavian newsletter!
Chefs are the Copenhagen’s rockstars, and food is its rock’n’roll. I’m excited to share this special one-off issue all about Copenhagen’s food scene, celebrating the best of the city’s food.
It’s not fun to be a chef in this weather – at the time of writing, Denmark has just had its hottest day on record (36.6°C) and in this climate, where homes are built to keep you warm in below zero temperatures in winter, it’s no joke. I’m thinking of them, and the ceramics artists with their kilns, the glassblowers in their hot shops and anyone else working in a hot place in this summer weather.
If you’re planning a trip to the city in the next six months, bookmark this email and come back to it. All the spots mentioned are road tested, often many times over. These are seriously reliable recommendations - I hope you take me up on them.
Have a good month!
Laura
Stories of the month
The 17 best restaurants in Copenhagen
What you need to know about this Conde Nast Traveller piece: the first four are my absolute favourite restaurants in the city. I would save up for years – I did, for the first restaurant – to experience food like this. As for the others, I chose the best representatives of each type for visitors in this piece – and they are not all super pricey, I promise. I’ll call out Akme again for being a superb place to eat on your own, like I did a week before it got its first Michelin star. It’s so well deserved.
What to do in Copenhagen when you’re not eating
Written to accompany the Guardian Feast magazine’s pieces about Copenhagen’s food scene last weekend, this spot is all about what to do when you’re not sat in a stunning restaurant. Scroll past the top story and you’ll find it. Included: foraging tips, where to walk off your dinner and a supermarket that sells food made by top chefs.
The 13 best bars in Copenhagen
Copenhagen’s bar scene is a cool and quirky one. Alongside the classic bodega – which is like a very basic local pub – there are so many small independent cocktail and beer bars, and seeking them out is a joy. Big thanks to my friend Ri who gave me her insider insights for this piece for Conde Nast Traveller.
Time Out’s 20 best food cities in the world right now
I was delighted to contribute to Time Out’s outstanding review of the global food scene. Copenhagen is listed a little lower than I think it should be, but I’m biased…
10 unwritten rules for visitors to Copenhagen
If you’re visiting Copenhagen, what do you need to know? Should you take out cash at the airport? Do you need to hire a car? What about cycling? Oh my goodness. If any of these ideas are roaming your head, do take a look at this piece. And please take care on the bike lanes.
My search for the perfect Danish pastry
Back in wintery February I went out to test the best of the city’s pastries for The Guardian. Caveat: I did not get to Kong Hans Bakery on that research trip, and I would like to state for the record that having been there now, it is the primo pastry spot in the city! But these others are pretty damn good too…and it was a fun path to tread.
Inspiration
Some things keeping me fuelled this month:
I’m reading Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley right now (completely unrelated to food but I like the link). It’s spectacular. I am all set for a summer of folk horror. Andrew gave the stand out lecture at the Manchester Writing Festival last week at MMU.
The Bear. The final season of this chef show is brilliant and has had me so stressed out (but in a good way). It’s competency porn, in a way, and it’s also so joyful for me, as a solo-working freelancer, to see that working in a team can be fun. Fun fact: I spotted Eben Moss Bachrach (“Cousin”) in Jagger, a burger joint in Copenhagen, last summer.
My book is available here - and it’s 25% off right now!! If ever there was a time to read about cold water swimming and Scandinavia, it’s during a mad European heat wave.
Where next?
Norway for the summer – we’re back at The Arctic Hideaway and I’m off investigating hotels at the edge of the world for a future project too.
Venice, for the Homo Faber Islands of Light exhibition in August.
I’ve just signed up for the 'Opera House Swim’ in Oslo this September. Wish me luck!
Thanks for subscribing to Modern Scandinavian. I’m so happy that you’re here. Laura
Danish pastries and an opera house swim sound like a charmed life! The heat wave is scary though, what a difficult few weeks is has been in your hemisphere. I hope there’s been a plenty of swimming to keep you cool!