Earlier this year Wanted food editor Steve Steinfeld found himself in the culinary capital of Copenhagen for Convergence and while there, he explored these three must-visit dining hot spots.
ESSE by Matt Orlando
Esse is the most compelling new opening in a city defined by exceptional restaurants. Matt Orlando - former head chef at Noma, chef-founder Amass - returned in October 2025 with this restaurant housed inside a restored 1895 warehouse in Nordhavn.
The space is decidedly punk: the warehouse’s wooden roof supported by steel I-beams, the graffitied walls, and then the practical — the main dining room framed by shelves of fermentation jars: vinegars of shiso, sweet Sicily and beet skin coffee; dried sea buckthorn leaves, dried celery; juniper branches for smoking; pickled plum olives, blueberries and walnuts.
It is both larder and dining room, Orlando’s sustainable philosophy visible before you’ve even sat down. He calls it responsible deliciousness. The food makes the case more eloquently than the slogan.
The menu opens with a bleak fish roe tart — very Nordic and, unlike the countless others I’ve eaten recently, actually delicious. You taste the roe, the crispy skin, the habanada pepper. It’s precise, entirely considered and exceptionally tasty.
What follows across 13 courses holds that same conviction: fermented potato bread with cultured butter that survived the move from Amass for obvious reasons; fish bone dumplings with blue mussel XO and Swedish Szechuan peppercorn that alone justify the booking; wild venison with beetroot and pickled elderflower; and desserts built around THIC, Orlando’s sustainable cacao alternative made from spent grains.
Esse sees an ardent dedication to sustainability complemented by equally serious cooking. It might just be one of the most understatedly radical restaurants in the world.
Kadeau Copenhagen
Kadeau requires no introduction — it was ranked number 41 on the World’s 50 Best in 2025 and holds two Michelin stars — and it remains one of the restaurants in Copenhagen most worth the effort of booking.
Chef-owner Nicolai Nørregaard grew up on Bornholm, and the island’s preservation culture — its instinct to salt, smoke, pickle and ferment against the long winter — remains the philosophical backbone of everything that lands on the plate.
The dining room is 20 seats, the kitchen open and active, presided over by Nørregaard and his long-time collaborator and partner Francesco “Pancho” Pini, who also runs the floor, not only ensuring that everything runs with clockwork precision but also that there is warmth and passion, and a genuine sense of hospitality with every gesture.
The current Preservation Season menu is as good an argument as any for why this restaurant belongs in the conversation for a third star.
Oscietra Royal caviar from Gastrounika — complex, nutty, buttery — sits amid a perfect ring of roasted and peeled pumpkin seeds, with lightly steamed west coast Danish brown crab hidden underneath, finished with cherry blossom oil. It is a dish of extraordinary composition, and the patience of placing those pumpkin seeds alone is commendable.
Whole Norwegian langoustine arrives deconstructed — the tail slowly cooked in butter and served in a seaweed crisp, one claw wrapped in pickled ramson and deep-fried, and the head filled with a salad of the remaining claw meat, langoustine brain, rhubarb root oil and dried rose. Every morsel of the crustacean is magnificently and delectably presented.
Then Mahogany clams, carpet clams and cockles come with raw, salted and pickled vegetables, Icelandic wasabi and a sauce of blue mussels and fermented peas. It’s confident, clever cooking through and through.
And so the menu progresses — each dish a quietly brilliant conversation between season, technique and memory, Bornholm and Copenhagen.
Regardless of lists, stars or accolades, it’s just one of those very rare restaurants that keeps you wanting to come back for more, and sits on the top of many a gourmand’s favourites list.
Maybe it’s the food, maybe it’s the dining room that is transformed with each season, the impeccable wine pairings, the superlative service or just that unexplainable feeling when they all come together as they do at Kadeau.
Barabba
Whenever I travel, the question I always like to ask is: where do the chefs eat? In Copenhagen, the answer is Barabba. Founded by three friends on Store Kongensgade, it serves modern Italian cooking — decidely more concerned with pleasure than tradition — in a room that feels like a party is about to start.
The food is exactly what you want after a long day in this city. From the smaller plates: giardiniera of pickled seasonal vegetables, grilled lamb skewers, a chicken liver pâté over brioche with red onion that is glorious in its silky richness.
Among the larger dishes is pappardelle with game ragù, cavolo nero and fermented plums; tortelli with borlotti beans, walnuts and radicchio tardivo; and beef cheek braised with potato purée, sprouts and saffron sauce.
And then there is the spaghetti, a signature. Butter, colatura d’alici and Rossini black caviar — three components creating a plate abundant in indulgence. Salty, rich and buttery, the pops of caviar punctuate each mouthful — perfect for when the temperature drops to freezing and you need a dish to go with that next bottle of natural wine.
For it is the wine list that sets Barabba apart, even in a city that has arguably done more for natural wine than any other on earth.
The list here is the work of a true obsessive. Offering a plethora of world-renowned wines, alongside emerging and lesser-known vinous talents.
There’s something for everyone and if you tell the team what you’re after, they’ll be sure to have just the bottle for you.
The kitchen runs until midnight. Walk-ins are welcome. It is perhaps some of the most fun you will have eating in a city that tends to take itself and its food scene — for good reason — incredibly seriously.
