Where to Eat in Denmark The Best Restaurants & Bakeries

Denmark’s food scene extends far beyond Copenhagen. Across the country, you’ll find Michelin-starred destination restaurants, ambitious bakeries, specialty coffee shops, historic inns, and local specialties worth planning a road trip around. From Sønderjylland and the west coast of Jutland to Fyn and Sjælland, some of Denmark’s most exciting food experiences are found in small towns, seaside communities, and unexpected places far from the capital.

In this guide to the best restaurants in Denmark, we’ve gathered our favorite discoveries from our latest road trip around the country into one curated food map. There are Michelin-starred restaurants like Henne Kirkeby Kro, Lyst, Syttende, Ti Trin Ned, and Søllerød Kro, alongside microbakeries, specialty coffee shops, traditional Danish brunsviger, ice cream, smørrebrød, and memorable places to stay. Use the interactive map to plan your own food road trip through Denmark or scroll through the full list below to discover all our recommendations.

If you’re looking specifically for the best restaurants in Copenhagen or Aarhus, be sure to check out our dedicated restaurant guides for each city.

Two-Michelin-starred Henne Kirkeby Kro is a true destination restaurant in Denmark. Chef Alan Bates serves tasting menus fueled by their kitchen garden, highlighting the best of the season alongside the finest local meat and seafood. Shorter lunch menus might center around a masterfully cooked whole turbot served with a Champagne and caviar sauce, whereas dinners are the full shebang – no pearl of caviar or truffle shaving is spared. On the table: foie gras, wagyu, langoustine, and impeccable sauce work that can be mopped up by chicken fat-brushed brioche. Spend the night in one of the twelve rooms and wake up to a glorious breakfast with fresh pastries and eggs Benedict on crumpets.

Møllers is a gem of a roadside bakery on the west coast of Denmark, with a small but high-quality selection of breads and pastries. Buns come out of the oven all day long – we loved the caramelized cinnamon roll with sticky sugar oozing from every layer, and the blackberry bun, a tangy sourdough knot swirled with fresh blackberries, brushed with vanilla syrup, and sprinkled with rose sugar. The BMO (“bolle med ost”) was also really nice – a fluffy, airy, sesame-seeded sourdough bun served with a good amount of butter and a nutty, Parmesan-like cheese from Denmark. Møllers also has filter coffee from Prolog and bags of beans, so you can get your caffeine fix on the west coast.

In 2020, passionate couple Honza and Veronika quit their jobs and moved from Aarhus to Hvide Sande to open a specialty coffee shop. Veronika worked as a manager at La Cabra in Aarhus, and they always missed a good coffee shop in the cozy beach town where they’d vacationed for years. Now they also have a beach bar that's open in the summer, serving coffee and ice cream, and another shop in Ringkøbing, a little farther north. Twenty Twenty serves coffee from La Cabra (both filter and espresso drinks) as well as delicious matcha lattes alongside house-made cakes like banana bread and lemon pistachio. This is definitely where you want to get coffee on the west coast of Denmark.

Hidden in a passageway in Vejle is a gem of a microbakery called Folmers. Passionate breadhead Andreas Folmer Jensen started his tiny bakery back in 2022, and over time it has grown into one of the city’s hottest spots. The operation is entirely self-service, allowing customers to buy what they need while the bakers continue work in an open kitchen. While sourdough bread is the focus, there is also a big selection of pastries: everything from cinnamon and cardamom buns to laminated pastries like croissants, monkey bread, pain au chocolat, and almond croissants oozing marzipan. Our favorites were the laminated cinnamon snail and the ham and cheese croissant with a hint of Dijon mustard.

Inside Folmers Mikrobageri, you’ll find a dedicated specialty coffee bar run by Nathan Joshua Borg, a New Zealand-born barista living in Vejle. Coffee by Stillfield serves rotating coffees from high-end roasters, such as POMA, April, Ideal, Coffee Collective, Prolog, and La Cabra. Both espresso drinks and pour-over coffee made with a Clever Dripper are available. We definitely recommend this as a coffee stop in Vejle – it’s the best coffee in the region!

One-Michelin-starred restaurant Lyst is located inside the spectacular Fjordenhus, an architectural wonder located on the harbor in Vejle, designed by artist Olafur Eliasson. Head chef Daniel McBurnie crafts a unique tasting menu that changes almost every day, depending on the season and the weather. The menu is made up largely of seafood, and sustainability is a huge focus. All ingredients are local and organic, sourced from a 100-mile radius of the restaurant. The one dish that remains constant, however, is the baked potato with butter and leeks, a foam of egg yolk, and local Danish caviar. A comforting, buttery potato with a creamy, cheesy sauce and a spoonful of caviar for a little extra saltiness. What else could you add to make it a more perfect dish? A glass of Krug? Oh yeah, they do that, too. Everything at Lyst is a work of art, from the food to the plates to the architecture. We think it’s only a matter of time before Lyst earns a second Michelin star.

As the name implies, Brød & Snaps is the place to go when you’re craving smørrebrød and snaps in Fredericia. The menu features over fifteen open-faced sandwiches named after local heroes, monuments, and the town’s history. We loved Lieutenant General N. C. Lundin’s pan-fried plaice filet, served with remoulade and lingonberries on rye bread, and Major General de Meza’s Potato Sandwich, with truffle mayonnaise, pearl onions, and root vegetable chips. Merchant Bertel Bruun’s Butter-Toasted Bread with shrimp, dill, and lemon mayonnaise on toasted white bread was another highlight. Wash it all down with homemade snaps, infused with flavors like rye bread, sea buckthorn, and tarragon.

Michelin-starred Ti Trin Ned is the flagship of the Fredericia dining scene, with a sleek, serene dining room that looks out over the water with views of the Little Belt Bridge. Chef Michael Nørtoft and his team serve a pescatarian tasting menu highlighting top-quality local seafood alongside the best of the season. His partner and restaurant co-owner Lærke Krudt expertly pairs wines and house-made juices with the food, presented on tableside trolleys. Highlights from our meal included a “potato salad” with Danish potatoes, truffles from Fyn, and roasted yeast, and a serving of yakitori-grilled Norwegian scallops with rhubarb purée and brown butter.

Alsik Hotel is a skyscraper in Sønderborg, stretching a dramatic 70 meters into the air, with fine dining restaurant Syttende located on the seventeenth floor. The guest rooms feature floor-to-ceiling windows with sweeping views of the city. If you want to see even more, head to Point of View, the observation deck located at the top of the building. On the ground level you’ll find the expansive spa, with saunas, steam rooms, foot baths, and heated pools with different temperatures. The spa area even extends outside, with infinity pools overlooking the water. Alsik’s fantastic breakfast buffet highlights local produce like dairy and cheese, freshly baked breads and cakes (including the Danish specialty brunsviger), as well as a hot section with cooked dishes.

Michelin-starred restaurant Syttende is the crown jewel of Sønderborg, located on the seventeenth floor of the Alsik Hotel. Chef Peter Rødsgaard serves a tasting menu that celebrates the region of Sønderjylland, featuring local farmers and producers, many of which you can see dotting the hillsides from the windows of the restaurant. Our favorite dish was bursting with fresh flavors and contrasting textures, combining carrots, langoustine, almonds, and løyrom, with a caramelized whey sauce and drops of sea buckthorn oil.

Former coffee roaster Michael Kisling took over a 17th-century house in the center of Sønderborg, transforming an old bakery into the city’s most charming café. In addition to coffee and baked goods, Kislings serves a full lunch menu with sandwiches and open-faced toasts. The chicken salad smørrebrød with bacon on rye was our favorite item, and we also liked the curry egg salad with slices of avocado fanned over the top. Enjoy your food and drinks in the secret garden courtyard, tucked away behind the café. Kislings is a quintessential Sønderborg gem that’s been around for over a decade.

In a charming pink house on the harbor promenade, you’ll find Sønderborg’s best ice cream shop. Iskondoriet makes all their flavors from scratch, with about 32 different options on offer at a time – half of which are sorbets and half of which are gelato. The most creative flavors are nods to beloved Danish treats, such as licorice and flødebolle (chocolate-coated marshmallows), and two inspired by Denmark’s iconic popsicles: Solbærstang (blackcurrant and chocolate) and Københavner Stang (pineapple and vanilla). Split scoops are available, so you can order two scoops and try four different flavors!

The beloved “brunsviger” is a god amongst Danish pastries – so revered and beloved by the people of Fyn that they’ve even developed a “Brunstitution,” a set of rules outlining exactly what can and cannot be classified as a “brunner.” It’s so much more than a cake – it’s a cultural icon, eaten most commonly on birthdays in Denmark but also sold by the slice at bakeries all around Fyn. Vesterports Bageri has previously won “Denmark’s Best Brunsviger,” so this is a great place to try a bite of buttery, sugary Danish pastry tradition. Make sure you get a piece with enough “snask”!

Irish baker Louise Bannon studied sustainable agriculture at Ballymaloe Cookery School before moving to Copenhagen to work at Noma. It was here that her passion for bread was fanned into a flame, eventually leading to the opening of her bakery, Tír, in Sjællands Odde. Here, along the Danish coast, she celebrates the land and local farmers, crafting long-fermented sourdough bread made with old grain varieties, always freshly milled, resulting in delicious and nutritious breads rich in vitamins, essential oils, and amino acids. On the shelves, you’ll also find organic pastries such as tebirkes, frøsnapper, croissants, pain au chocolat, and buns filled with seasonal fruits.

Just a short excursion from Copenhagen, one-Michelin-starred Søllerød Kro is a Danish institution. The inn’s history dates back to 1677 – it’s been open for 350 years and has served as a training ground for many of Denmark’s top chefs. Chef Jakob de Neergaard, who worked in Michelin restaurants in France, earned Søllerød Kro its first Michelin star back in 2007 – and in 2026 de Neergaard came home to the inn to run the kitchen once more. Today, the style is still fundamentally French with classic, old-school Danish hospitality and a truly impressive wine cellar. Of course, the signature “caviar en surprise” is still on the menu, with a generous layer of caviar hiding lobster and a Jerusalem artichoke panna cotta.