Frederiksberg
Promenaden 1932
Our favorite café on Frederiksberg Allé: polished but easy, and just right before or after a walk through the gardens.
VISIT COPENHAGEN
The BON TON City Guide
Carnet d’adresses: Copenhagen
A personal Copenhagen: royal rooms, neighborhood cafés, gardens, canals, and the particular Danish pleasure of life beside the water.
Copenhagen is not a city we visit from the outside. It is part of Mikkel’s history, our shared life, and the landscape surrounding BON TON. This guide began as a list we sent to friends: places with warmth, atmosphere, beauty, and a reason to return.
Move slowly. Copenhagen rewards a long lunch, an unplanned garden, a boat seen from a bridge, and the decision to sit beside the water a little longer than intended.
A personal selection Not a definitive list—simply the Copenhagen we love and share with friends.
Breakfast, lunch, dinner—and cake
Food & Café Life
From old-school cake rooms to harbor swimming piers, these are places where Copenhagen’s appetite and atmosphere meet.
Granola
A much-loved neighborhood institution on Værnedamsvej for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or simply watching the street go by.
Ipsen & Co.
Tiny, warm, and quietly excellent. Come for breakfast and good coffee; tables are walk-in only.
A special dinner
Mielcke & Hurtigkarl
Imaginative fine dining in the Royal Danish Horticultural Society’s gardens beside Frederiksberg Have.
Seasonal
Reffen
Copenhagen’s sprawling waterfront street-food world: casual, lively, and especially good in warm weather.
La Banchina
A tiny waterside restaurant, wine bar, sauna, and swimming pier on Refshaleøen. One of the loveliest ways to feel the harbor.
Café Wilder
A true Christianshavn neighborhood bistro: intimate, unpretentious, and full of local character.
Seasonal
Christianshavns Bådudlejning & Café
A charming place to pause beside the canal—and, in season, to rent a boat and see the neighborhood from the water.
New address
Alouette
Beautiful, rigorous cooking now opposite the King’s Garden on Kronprinsessegade. The restaurant has moved from its former Islands Brygge address.
Høst
New Nordic food in one of the city’s most atmospheric rooms: rustic, layered, and consistently inviting.
Updated
Restaurant Tårnet
Classic Danish lunch or dinner high inside Christiansborg’s tower, with Copenhagen spread below. It is now operated by Norrlyst.
Grøften
Tivoli’s historic restaurant for traditional Danish cooking, best enjoyed as part of an evening in the gardens.
Best cake in town
Conditori La Glace
The grand old cake room. Find a table first, then take a number and order from the counter—part of the ritual.
After dark
Cocktails
Two addresses with real personality, skilled bartenders, and rooms made for settling in.
Collections, craft, and the crown
Art & Royal Copenhagen
Palaces and museums where architecture, decorative art, painting, design, and Danish history remain beautifully intertwined.
Do not miss
Rosenborg Castle & the King’s Garden
A jewel-box summer palace in the city’s green heart, with the Danish crown jewels kept below ground.
The David Collection
A wonderfully intimate museum with exceptional Islamic art, European decorative arts, and Danish Golden Age painting.
Glyptoteket
Ancient sculpture, French and Danish art, and the extraordinary winter garden at the center of it all.
Designmuseum Danmark
Danish and international design in the former Royal Frederik’s Hospital, beautifully renewed after its major renovation.
Amalienborg
The royal family’s Copenhagen residence: four palaces arranged around one of Europe’s most elegant squares.
Christiansborg Palace
Royal reception rooms, the Queen’s tapestries, ruins, stables, and Denmark’s parliament gathered in one remarkable complex.
The Royal Danish Playhouse
Contemporary Danish architecture poised on the harbor, with a waterfront promenade and room to linger.
The Royal Danish Opera
A monumental modern opera house on Holmen, best approached—or at least admired—from the water.
The city at its own pace
Walks & Water
Copenhagen reveals itself between destinations: across bridges, around lakes, through old gardens, and along the working harbor.
Frederiksberg Have
A romantic landscaped park of lawns, canals, mature trees, and long views; Copenhagen Zoo lies just behind it.
Christianshavn
Canals, old houses, boats, church spires, and the lived-in beauty of one of Copenhagen’s most distinctive neighborhoods.
Nyhavn
Walk the old canal for color, boats, ice cream, lunch, and a Danish beer—touristic, yes, but still unmistakably Copenhagen.
The Lakes — Søerne
A wonderful long walk through several neighborhoods, with Copenhagen life unfolding beside the water.
Den Franske Café
A classic café overlooking Sortedam Lake—the natural pause on a walk around Søerne.
The Royal Library Garden & Black Diamond
A secluded historic garden behind the library, paired with the sharp waterfront architecture of the Black Diamond.
Kastellet & the Little Mermaid
Walk the star-shaped citadel’s green ramparts, then continue along the water to Copenhagen’s most famous—and famously small—figure.
The Tower at Christiansborg
A free view from the city’s highest tower. Visit the lookout before lunch or dinner at Restaurant Tårnet.
Canal Tour
Still one of the best introductions to Copenhagen: bridges, spires, houseboats, the harbor, and the city’s changing architecture.
Check the season
Tivoli Gardens
Historic gardens, lights, music, architecture, and amusement in the middle of the city. Opening seasons vary.
Christiania & Refshaleøen
Cross behind the opera toward Copenhagen’s freetown and the old industrial harbor, now filled with independent cultural and food spaces.
Come hungry
Torvehallerne
Copenhagen’s central market halls are good at almost any hour: breakfast, lunch, flowers, cheese, seafood, chocolate, wine, or provisions for later. It is less a single destination than a useful and delicious part of the city’s daily rhythm.
Explore the marketAn easy journey north
Beyond the City
Two exceptional excursions connected by train: one for modern art and landscape, the other for Shakespeare, royal history, and the Øresund.
Essential excursion
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
A perfect union of modern art, landscape, architecture, and the Øresund. The train journey north is easy and absolutely worthwhile.
Kronborg Castle
Hamlet’s castle at Helsingør, commanding the narrowest point of the Øresund and filled with maritime and royal history.
Velkommen til København.
Opening hours, seasonal access, menus, and reservation policies change. Please confirm directly with each address before visiting.