If it seems like everyone you know is going to Copenhagen these days, you may be right. The city draws visitors for its bustling, bike-friendly streets and quaint canals. Its dining scene is a Michelin-starred powerhouse, famous for world-class restaurants like Noma, Alchemist and Geranium. Modern design lives alongside Old World architecture — UNESCO named Copenhagen its World Capital of Architecture for 2023 — and hygge-heavy Denmark regularly ranks as one of the happiest countries in the world. So, there are lots of reasons to visit, and that’s before you even get to the bar scene.
Copenhagen’s vibrant nightlife is teeming with co*cktail bars, beer bars and natural wine bars, from high-end to hole-in-the-wall, with plenty of comfortable neighborhood joints in between. Here’s where to drink in the city right now, with a look at some of the best bars in Copenhagen.
Copenhagen’s Best co*cktail Bars
It’s no surprise that a city so serious about gastronomy doesn’t skimp on co*cktails. All over Copenhagen, you’ll find bars combining locally sourced ingredients and high-quality spirits into thoughtful drinks that value taste, balance and presentation.
Lidkoeb in the Vesterbro neighborhood gives you multiple options for imbibing. There’s a casual, sun-drenched bar and outdoor space downstairs, and a more buttoned-up whiskey bar upstairs. The former is where you’ll find drinks like Fury Road, which combines aquavit with pineapple rum, amontillado sherry, coconut, lime and bitters, or the Rød Grød Med Fløde, which channels the famous Danish dessert combining red berry pudding with cream. Upstairs, the bar stocks more than 200 whiskeys from around the world.
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Japan’s traditional jazz kissas have century-old roots, but these hi-fidelity listening lounges are back in vogue today, in Japan and increasingly across the U.S. and Europe. Copenhagen’s Bird honors the format, playing vinyl records through custom speakers. Their drinks are batched and bottled ahead of time, so service is quick, even when the space is crowded. The menu rotates regularly, but a recent standout includes the Bonfire Manhattan, made with mezcal, whiskey, amaro and coffee-infused vermouth.
More fun can be had at Duck and Cover, which feels like your cool Scandinavian friend’s house, but with better drinks. Balderdash is an intimate, two-level den with whimsical co*cktails that enlist ingredients like bee pollen butter and patchouli. And Pulp is a fun-loving bar with a creative, irreverent menu modeled after pulp magazines.
Ruby is another classic stop on the Copenhagen bar tour. Open since 2007, it’s the old-guard of the bunch and helped to kickoff the city’s modern co*cktail scene. The menu emphasizes Nordic ingredients, like in a Margarita that skips lime juice in favor of sea buckthorn, a bright-orange berry with a tart flavor. And whether or not you’re staying at Hotel Sanders, swing through its Tata bar to sip classic co*cktails in cozy nooks and high-backed chairs.
Copenhagen’s Best Beer Bars and Breweries
The biggest names in Copenhagen’s beer scene are Carlsberg, which dates back to 1847 and is ubiquitous around the world, and Mikkeller, one of the best — and now largest — names in craft beer. But there’s a lot more happening beyond these heavyweights, as Copenhagen has embraced global beer styles as much or more than most European capitals, giving thirsty visitors plenty of options when a pint’s in order.
You’d need a couple months to check off all the worthy breweries and beer bars in Copenhagen, and that’s a fine goal if you’ve got the time. If you’re hanging out in Nørrebro, stop into BRUS, a brewpub with 32 taps, a great food menu and an attached bottle shop, so you can take home your favorite beers. Ølbaren has been serving craft beers in a cozy space for more than two decades, and it’s still going strong, with one of the city’s more interesting tap lists. And don’t leave without a trip to Mikkeller & Friends. This is Mikkeller’s flagship bar in Copenhagen, with 40 taps split between housebrewed beers and select favorites from elsewhere in Denmark and around the world.
Over in Vesterbro, War Pigs is the unique bar serving a lineup of house-brewed beers alongside Texas-style barbecue, so you can sip porters and hazy IPAs with dry-rubbed brisket. In the city center, Skaal and Taphouse are popular picks. The first has 48 taps and dozens more in bottles and cans, while Taphouse has 61 taps and one of the best selections in the country.
Amager island is home to Amager Bryghus, a brewery known for its unique beers, limited releases and fun packaging. Take a tour to learn more about the operation, or just stop in for a tasting. And right on the water is Barr, located in the original Noma space. It’s one of the better casual restaurants in the city, with traditional open-faced sandwiches, savory waffles and schnitzels. But Barr also houses a wood-lined beer bar serving draft and bottled beers broken down by flavor profile, with categories like Crisp, Hop, Smoke, Spice & Fruit, and Tart & Funk.
Copenhagen’s Best Wine Bars
Denmark can’t touch countries like France, Italy and Spain when it comes to wine production, but it has embraced natural wine with a fervor. It imports more natural wine than almost any other country in the world, and you can find it all across Copenhagen in bottle shops, wine bars and restaurants. The interest in natural wine started largely in restaurants like Noma. If your ethos is all about showcasing ingredients, the logical next step is to pair your food with low-intervention wines free of pesticides and additives and containing minimal sulfites.
Nørrebro has the highest concentration of natural wine bars in the city, so it’s worth taking a tipsy stroll through the neighborhood. Stop into Terroiristen, Gaarden & Gaden, Rødder & Vin, and Pompette for unique selections of glasses and bottles. There’s also Friheden, which is the rare wine bar attached to a skate park.
You’ll find more great wine bars in Østerbro, Vesterbro and the historic city center, including Roots, Ancestrale and Den Vandrette, a harborfront bar from importer Rosforth & Rosforth, who was instrumental in bringing natural wines into Copenhagen starting in the 1990s.
It feels like every restaurant in Copenhagen is serving natural and low-intervention wines, though it’s especially evident in higher-end spots and those with tasting menus, in which wine pairings get the same thoughtful treatment as the food. On a recent trip, I found excellent wines inside Ark, the Green Michelin Star restaurant known for its vegan tasting menu, Caronte, a friendly Italian spot from the same team behind Roots, and Joanne’s, the Italian-leaning restaurant inside the comfortable Grande Joanne hotel. The best part: If you show an interest, staff members are usually willing (and able) to talk wine, readily sharing information on varietals and producers, so you have insights with each sip.
