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Govindas
Govindas serves savoury Indian-style vegetarian food in a pleasant setting with mellow music. Hare Krishna devotees cook up a nine-dish thali meal of basmati rice, soup, salad and a few hot dishes such as eggplant casserole for bargain prices, meaning that the place is very popular with students and travellers.
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Granola
It is easy to miss this wonderfully atmospheric, retro ice-cream and coffee bar in a secluded square, down a short alleyway just off Værndemsvej, but it is worth coming all this way just for their shakes and juice drinks. And don't get us started on the ice cream...
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Grøften
The speciality here (since 1974) is a type of smørrebrød (open sandwich) with lip-smacking tiny fjord shrimps spiced with lime and fresh pepper; other smørrebrød are priced from around kr50 apiece. The archetypal Tivoli restaurant with a jolly atmosphere to match.
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Huset Med Det Grønne Træ
The 'Green Tree' of the name has now sadly been replaced by a public toilet (what were they thinking?), but there is still an excellent traditional smørrebrød (open sandwich) lunch to be had in this period building dating from 1796, with draught beer and a dozen brands of schnapps.
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Ida Davidsen
Ida's is widely considered the top smørrebrød (open sandwich) purveyor in not just Copenhagen, but all Denmark. The menu features an almost infinite variety of open sandwiches - the only limit is Ida's imagination and the actual dimensions of the piece of (homemade) rye bread that you're dealing with.
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Kaffesalonen
This lovely café-restaurant is right beside the city lakes - actually, make that on the city lakes as, during the summer, it moves out to a floating deck. Perfect for a sun-downer.
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Kransekagehus
The Danish diet is not an especially healthy one - get into it! One of the best city-centre bakeries, Kransekagehuset specialises in the traditional marzipan cake known as kransekage .
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La Glace
This is the classic konditori (bakery-cafe) in town, and it has been serving tea and fancy cakes to socialites for more than a century. A rite of passage if you have a sweet tooth, or are looking to develop one.
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Lagkagehuset
This much-loved bakery - invariably voted the best in the city - sells excellent sandwiches as well as the usual sticky, sweet pastries and heavyweight rye bread. There's another branch at the Wonderful Copenhagen Tourist Information Bureau.
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Lê Lê Nhà Hàng
This cavernous, New York-style Vietnamese restaurant on bustling Vesterbrogade is regularly voted the best cheap eat in the Danish press. It recently moved to these larger premises with open kitchen and spacious, high ceilinged dining room. Deep, welcoming bowls of soups, noodles and refined Vietnamese street food. If you venture further up Vesterbrogade (to No 56) you will come to its original premises, now the Lê Lê Cafe, serving excellent Vietnamese-French bistro fare.
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Les Trois Cochons
This small but rather glamorous modern French bistro on the so-called 'food street' heaves with a bubbling mix of diners every night of the week. Its fixed evening menu has to be one of the city's great dining bargains.
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Morgenstedet
A homely, hippy little place in the heart of the alternative commune of Christiania, Morgenstedet offers but one dish of the day, always vegetarian, always organic, usually a curry and always at a bargain price.
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Noma
This world renowned, Michelin-starred Modern Nordic restaurant is run by chef Rene Redzepi (formerly of Le Bulli and The French Laundry) who uses only Scandinavian-sourced produce such as musk ox, smoked eel and locally caught lobster and oysters. The wine list is classically orientated and European-centric.
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Nyhavns Færgekro
An atmospheric café right on the canal, this popular spot has an all-you-can-eat buffet with 10 different kinds of herring, including baked, marinated and rollmops, with condiments to sprinkle on top and boiled potatoes to round out the meal. If you're not a herring lover, then there's something very wrong with you. But there's also a variety of smørrebrød (open sandwiches). Dinner betrays French influences, like many Danish restaurants in this area.
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Peder Oxe
Fronting Gråbrødretorv, this stalwart of rustic dining offers wonderful Danish country grub. The smørrebrød (open sandwich; two for around kr140 plus help yourself to the salad buffet) is a popular option for those at lunch. We fell in love with the solid wood floors, Portuguese tiles and groovy little system whereby you let the waiters know you're ready to order by flicking on a light above your table.
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Peter Beier
The doyen of Copenhagen's booming artisanal chocolatier scene. The shop is small, but it's filled to the brim with delightful handmade chocolate treats.
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Peter Lieps Hus
A few minutes' walk north of Bakken, this quintessential Danish country restaurant occupies an historic thatch-roofed house and is good for a nice relaxing meal, with smørrebrød , venison specialities and other Danish food (including children's portions of frikadeller - meatballs - and chips). On sunny days it's a popular place to sit outside and watch the horse and buggy carts go by.
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Petit Delicé
This cellar café-restaurant on Strædet had just opened when we visited but it is one of the cosiest places in town, with a lovely open fire as you enter and an engaging menu including locally caught seafood, foraged ingredients (nettles, wild flowers, fresh beech shoots in spring) and a lavish champagne brunch.
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Post & Tele Museum Café
This modern space does its best to bring the not-overtly-fascinating story of Post Danmark to life. The chief draw, however, is the excellent rooftop café, which serves a reasonable Danish-style lunch and has an outdoor terrace with fantastic views across the city centre to Christiansborg.
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Prémisse
A sublime culinary experience is guaranteed in this vaulted cellar restaurant in a historic mansion. Chef Rasmus Grønbech takes the sourcing of the finest Danish ingredients for his restaurant very seriously, applying classic French techniques, learned during stints at Michelin restaurants in France, with dedication and wit. Meanwhile, sommelier Christian Aarø Mortensen is a champion wine steward with an exceptional list (it's particularly strong on Spanish wines).
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Rasmus Oubæk
Rasmus Oubæk is one of Denmark's top chefs but he quit the high-stress, low-profit world of Michelin-starred dining a while back to open this elegant little traditional French place in the city's royal quarter. We wouldn't ordinarily recommend that you try out-and-out French bistro cooking in Copenhagen, but Oubæk's food is just so good - he does dishes such as duck confit and steak tartar better than most French chefs could ever dream of.
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Restaurant D'angleterre
Copenhagen's hotel-restaurants are not usually terribly appealing, but the five-star d'Angleterre is a cut above the rest, serving alluring classical French cuisine built upon a solid foundation of the best Danish raw ingredients, and served in a glamorous, glistering dining room overlooking Copenhagen's grandest square.
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Restaurant Gråbrødre Torv 21
This traditional Danish restaurant has excellent service and a welcoming ambience - with bare wooden floors, clean white walls and rustic furniture. The menu features equally heartwarming attractions, such as roasted chicken with rhubarb, pickled cucumber and parsley plus wonderful herring and salmon dishes.
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Restaurant Kanalen
You can eat at this lovely, unpretentious gourmet restaurant beside the canal watching the yacht masts ticking like metronomes, and pretend you are in St Tropez…kind of. Well, at least you can enjoy great Danish staples such as smørrebrød (open sandwiches) for lunch, and more classically French inspired dishes such as Danish lamb with pommes anna (layered potatoes braised in butter) for dinner.
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RizRaz
RizRaz Just south of Strøget, this airy basement café will have you feasting on a Mediterranean-style vegetarian buffet that groans under the weight of felafel, pasta, hummus and salads, served daily to (to on weekends). You can also order from the menu, which includes lamb kebabs, grilled fish or fried calamari for the meat lovers among us. A frequent winner of 'best and cheapest' awards.
