Italian restaurants in Copenhagen — the 9 best

If you are looking for an Italian restaurant in Copenhagen, the short answer is Bæst in Guldbergsgade. The longer answer depends on whether you want pizza or pasta, whether it is a Tuesday or a Friday, and whether the evening should end at ten or at two. Nine places in the city cook Italian food at a level worth travelling for, and they answer that question differently.

One thing is worth saying plainly up front: Copenhagen does not have an Italian scene like Stockholm or Hamburg. The city has relatively few Italian restaurants, and the good ones are concentrated on five or six addresses. What the city does have is places that are unusually good at one thing each — one makes its own cheese, one rolls its own pasta, one keeps a wine list that is only about Piedmont, and one holds itself to three pizzas and refuses to make more.

Below are the nine ranked by our editorial score, with the address and the opening hours written out under each. Further down you will find what they cost, who is closed on Mondays, and what we have left out. To see the whole city on a map with open-now status, they are all here: every restaurant in Copenhagen.

Where the Italians are in Copenhagen

Five districts cover the whole picture, which makes this easier to plan than most other food categories in the city.

Store Kongensgade is the Italian street. Ambra sits at number 59 and Barabba at number 34 — a hundred and fifty metres apart, both built around pasta, both a few minutes' walk from Kongens Nytorv. If you were only going to walk down one street to find Italian food in Copenhagen, it would be this one.

Nørrebro has Bæst in Guldbergsgade and Siciliansk Is on Skjolds Plads. The two are not in the same end of the district, but both are reasons to go: one for pizza from a wood-fired oven, the other for gelato made the Sicilian way.

Kødbyen and the rail yard cover the cheaper end of the pizza. Mother stands in an old butcher's stall in Høkerboderne, and Perron fires up the pizza oven in BaneGaarden behind Dybbølsbro. Both are about sourdough and wood fire rather than white tablecloths.

The old town by the water has Nebbiolo in Store Strandstræde, around the corner from Nyhavn. It is a wine bar before it is a restaurant, but it is Italian the whole way through.

The old inner city is the newest part of the picture. Magstræde nr. 16 sits on a cobbled lane between Rådhuspladsen and Gammel Strand, and La Vecchia Signora on Grønnegade behind Kongens Nytorv. The two are each other's opposites — three pizzas against sixteen — and they are a twelve-minute walk apart.

1. Bæst, Guldbergsgade 29B

Bæst makes its own mozzarella from organic Danish milk and its own charcuterie from animals it knows. The pizza comes out of a wood-fired oven, and it is the combination of those three things that makes this the city's best Italian address, with a score of 9.1 — the highest in this guide.

It is not a pizzeria, even if it looks like one. The kitchen runs its own dairy and its own curing room in the building, and that is the part that separates the food from the rest of the street. Start with the charcuterie, take a pizza afterwards, and let the cheese decide which one.

Open every day of the week from five to ten in the evening, plus lunch on Saturday and Sunday from twelve to half past two.

The price sits above an ordinary pizza budget and below a proper restaurant bill. Tables get booked, but they always keep room for walk-ins. There are seats outside when the weather allows.

2. Ambra, Store Kongensgade 59

Ambra is the Italian restaurant from chef Andreas Bagh, who worked at several of the city's Michelin kitchens and later opened Esmée. The ambition is the New York Italian: a place that works for a Tuesday and for a party.

The pasta is made in house and the dishes are kept simple. The room has high ceilings, chandeliers and a bar that takes up as much space as the dining room. This is a restaurant where the evening is allowed to continue after dessert — and that is the main difference between Ambra and everything else in this guide.

Open evenings only, every day from five. Sunday to Thursday it closes at one, Friday and Saturday at two.

It suits a dinner for several where the volume is allowed to rise, and the late evening when you cannot be bothered to move on to a bar. Book ahead at weekends — the bar you can usually reach without one.

3. Magstræde nr. 16, Magstræde 16

Magstræde has been reborn as an Italian restaurant in Roman trattoria style, and it is the most interesting of the city's newer Italians — precisely because it does not behave like a pizzeria. The pizza is meant as a sharing dish you order into a menu alongside antipasti, and the selection is therefore three pizzas rather than fifteen.

The base is thin, crisp and organic with a 72-hour prove, and the mozzarella is Øllingegaard. The margherita with double mozzarella — Øllingegaard on the base, fresh buffalo mozzarella added after the oven — costs 160 kroner. Salsiccia & Cime di Rapa with chilli oil and hazelnuts is 165, and Veggie & Creamy with roasted courgette, peppers and stracciatella 160. A gluten-free base costs 25 kroner extra, and the house says plainly that it is baked in a gluten environment.

If you want the whole menu, three courses cost 350 kroner per person and five courses 495. The kitchen also makes pasta by hand: rigatoni alla carbonara 160 and pasta with swordfish 165.

Open Monday to Thursday from five to ten in the evening and Friday and Saturday from five to eleven. The kitchen closes an hour before the door on weekdays and an hour and a half before at the weekend. Sunday is closed.

4. Perron, Otto Busses Vej 45

Perron is a sourdough bakery in the morning and a pizzeria in the afternoon. It sits in BaneGaarden, the old goods buildings behind Dybbølsbro that have become a green courtyard with gardens and workshops, and the yard is car-free.

It is as much an outing as a meal. The produce is organic, and there is both vegetarian and vegan on the menu — the broadest coverage of the seven places in this guide.

Open Tuesday to Friday from half past eight to four, and Saturday and Sunday from nine to four. Lunch begins at eleven. It is closed on Mondays.

Watch the clock: Perron closes at four, so this is not a dinner. It is the place for a late lunch outdoors with children who do not have to be hushed. It is a fifteen-minute walk from Central Station.

5. Siciliansk Is, Skjolds Plads 2

Siciliansk Is makes gelato the way it is made in Sicily: fewer air bubbles, stronger flavour, less sweetness. Pistachio and almond are the two people come for, and there is a queue on Skjolds Plads as soon as it turns warm.

The ice cream is made on the premises and organic, and the shop has two addresses — this one in Nørrebro and one in Skydebanegade in Vesterbro. The range is smaller than in the big ice cream shops, and that is part of the idea.

Open in the summer half of the year from midday to nine in the evening. They close down for the winter and open again in spring, so it is not a place to count on in January.

It is the cheapest address in the guide and the only one that is not a meal. The square in front is a good place to sit.

6. Barabba, Store Kongensgade 34

Barabba cooks Italian food without fuss: pasta, antipasti and wine, in a room where the bar matters as much as the tables. The menu changes daily, and the pasta is what the house is built on.

It is a restaurant for an evening that is allowed to run long. The kitchen closes at ten, but the rest carries on. The wine list is Italian and short enough to read, and the staff will happily choose for you.

Open Wednesday and Thursday evenings only, from half past five to midnight. Friday, Saturday and Sunday there is also lunch from twelve to half past two. It is closed Monday and Tuesday, and that is where plans go wrong.

It suits two or four people who want proper pasta without white tablecloths. There is rarely a table on a Friday without a reservation.

7. Mother, Høkerboderne 9-15

Mother bakes sourdough pizza in a wood oven and serves it at long tables in an old butcher's stall in Kødbyen. The dough is sour and thin and the pizzas are plain — this is the Neapolitan school, not the American one.

It is neither expensive nor quiet, and it is one of the few places in the area where you can bring children to dinner. You sit close together, and tables are shared when it is busy.

Open Monday to Saturday from eleven in the morning to one at night, and Sunday from eleven to eleven. That is the widest opening in the whole guide — no other Italian address in the city works both at noon and at midnight.

There are seats outside on the square in summer, and there is a queue on Friday and Saturday from seven.

8. La Vecchia Signora, Grønnegade 14

Where Magstræde and Bæst do one thing narrowly, La Vecchia Signora does the opposite: sixteen pizzas, handmade pasta, fish and meat on the same menu. This is the broad Italian restaurant with white tablecloths, and it is a different kind of evening.

Marinara without mozzarella costs 149 kroner and is the cheapest pizza in this guide. Margherita is 155, Ai Funghi with mushrooms and garlic oil 165, and Del Golfo with seafood 185. Extra toppings are 15 kroner. For pasta, ravioli with ricotta in butter and sage is 165 and lasagne 165; if you want meat, a beef tenderloin in green pepper sauce is 325.

The house has appeared in the Gambero Rosso guide in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2023 and 2024. The wine list leans heavily on Sardinia — several Vermentinos from Cantina Su'entu and Santadi, which is unusual in a city where most Italian wine lists begin and end in Piedmont and Tuscany.

Open every day from twelve to four and again from five to eleven. Food is served until ten. The afternoon break is worth knowing about if you are planning a late lunch.

9. Nebbiolo Winebar, Store Strandstræde 18

Nebbiolo sits in Store Strandstræde, around the corner from Nyhavn, and keeps to Italian: wine from Piedmont and upwards, antipasti and small plates alongside. It is one of the few places in the quarter not built for tour buses.

The wine list is the reason to come, and it goes deepest within the Italian regions. The food is simple and made to follow the wine: cheese, charcuterie, a pasta or two. If you want a full dinner, Ambra or Barabba is the right choice — if you want to drink Italian, this is it.

Open every day from three in the afternoon to midnight. Being open on Sunday too makes it useful when the rest of the old town has closed.

There are seats outside in the lane when the weather allows. More Italian addresses with wine at the centre are in the guide to the city's wine bars.

Pizza or pasta: what the places do

The nine divide into a handful of camps, and choosing between them is really the only decision you have to make.

Wood-fired pizza is Bæst, Mother and Perron. Bæst is the most expensive and the best, because the cheese and the charcuterie are made in house. Mother is the cheapest of the three that also works late. Perron is the only one that works in daylight alone, and the only one with vegan options.

Roman pizza is Magstræde nr. 16 alone. The base is thin and crisp rather than puffed, and the pizza is meant as a sharing dish in a menu — a different dish from the Neapolitan one, even though the name is the same.

House-made pasta is Ambra and Barabba, both on Store Kongensgade. Ambra is the big evening with a bar and chandeliers; Barabba is the smaller one, where the menu changes daily and the bill is lower. They sit two hundred metres apart, so if one is full, try the other — but remember that Barabba is closed Monday and Tuesday.

The broad Italian menu is La Vecchia Signora. Sixteen pizzas, pasta, fish and meat on the same card — this is the place if the party cannot agree, or if someone at the table does not want pizza.

Wine and antipasti is Nebbiolo alone. You do not eat a full dinner there; you drink Italian and eat alongside it.

Gelato is Siciliansk Is, and only in the summer half of the year.

What they cost

The price levels fall so that there is a choice at either end:

• Cheapest: Siciliansk Is sits at the lowest level — it is a scoop of ice cream, not a dinner.
• Middle: Barabba, Mother, Perron and La Vecchia Signora sit in the middle. This is where an ordinary evening of pasta or pizza for two ends without becoming an occasion. La Vecchia Signora's marinara at 149 kroner is the cheapest pizza in the guide.
• Most expensive: Bæst, Ambra, Magstræde nr. 16 and Nebbiolo sit at the high end. Bæst because the produce is made in house; Ambra because it is an evening rather than a meal; Magstræde because the pizza is designed into a menu at 350 or 495 kroner; Nebbiolo because the wine list is what you are paying for.

If it has to be cheap, Mother is the only one of the three wood-fired places that is both mid-priced and open until one in the morning. More inexpensive addresses in the city are in the guide to eating cheaply in Copenhagen.

When they are open — and who is closed

This is the detail that ruins evenings most often, so it is gathered here:

• Sunday is now the thin day. Magstræde nr. 16 is closed on Sundays — the only one in the guide that is.
• Monday is still thin. Barabba is closed Monday and Tuesday, and Perron is closed Monday. That leaves Bæst, Ambra, Magstræde, Mother, La Vecchia Signora and Nebbiolo.
• From midday there are two: Mother (from eleven, every day) and La Vecchia Signora (from twelve, every day). The other dinner places open at five at the earliest — Nebbiolo at three.
• Mind the break. La Vecchia Signora closes between four and five in the afternoon. It is the only place in the guide with split hours.
• Late at night there are three: Ambra until one, and until two on Friday and Saturday; Mother until one, and until eleven on Sunday; Nebbiolo until midnight every day.
• Weekend lunch is served by Bæst (Saturday and Sunday, twelve to half past two) and Barabba (Friday to Sunday, same hours).
• In winter Siciliansk Is is closed. It is the only seasonal closure in the guide.

What we have left out

This guide is about places you can get a table at on a Tuesday, and that means two omissions worth knowing about:

Michelin-starred restaurants are not included. That is a principle across all of eatlocal and not a judgement on the food. If a restaurant holds a star, it is not here — not even if it is Italian.

Chains and takeaway pizza bars are not included. The nine places here were chosen because there is a reason to walk to that particular door: house-made mozzarella, house-made pasta, one specific wine region, one specific oven. A pizza to carry home from work is a different question, and this guide does not answer it.

Two pure pizzerias belong in another guide. Surt in Carlsberg Byen and Pizzeria Luca on Gammel Strand are both good, but they make pizza rather than Italian food in the broader sense. They are in the guide to the best pizza in Copenhagen along with the four from this list that also bake.

And Copenhagen still does not have many Italians. Nine places is what is worth recommending in a city with 104 eating places in our data set. Saying so is more honest than padding the list.

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Questions and answers

What is the best Italian restaurant in Copenhagen?

Bæst at Guldbergsgade 29B in Nørrebro, with an editorial score of 9.1. The place makes its own mozzarella from organic Danish milk and its own charcuterie, and the pizza comes from a wood-fired oven. It is open every day from five to ten in the evening, plus lunch on Saturday and Sunday from twelve to half past two.

Where do you find house-made pasta in Copenhagen?

At Ambra, Store Kongensgade 59, and at Barabba, Store Kongensgade 34. The two sit less than two hundred metres apart. Ambra is open every day from five in the evening; Barabba is closed Monday and Tuesday and otherwise opens at half past five, with lunch Friday to Sunday from twelve.

Which Italian restaurant in Copenhagen is open on Mondays?

Bæst, Ambra, Magstræde nr. 16, Mother, La Vecchia Signora and Nebbiolo Winebar. Barabba is closed Monday and Tuesday, and Perron is closed Monday. Magstræde nr. 16, on the other hand, is the only one in the guide that closes on Sundays.

Where can you eat Italian late in the evening?

Ambra on Store Kongensgade is open until one, and until two on Friday and Saturday. Mother in Kødbyen is open until one Monday to Saturday and until eleven on Sunday. Nebbiolo Winebar is open until midnight every day. The others close at ten or earlier.

Where is the best pizza in Copenhagen?

Bæst makes the best one, because the cheese and the charcuterie come from the building's own dairy and curing room. If it is the plain Neapolitan pizza you are after, Mother at Høkerboderne 9-15 bakes sourdough pizza in a wood oven from eleven in the morning. If you want Roman instead — thin and crisp — Magstræde nr. 16 is the only place in this guide that makes it. The full ranking of the city's pizzerias is in the best pizza in Copenhagen.

What does a margherita cost at an Italian restaurant in Copenhagen?

Between 149 and 195 kroner at the places in this guide. La Vecchia Signora on Grønnegade has the cheapest, with a marinara at 149 and a margherita at 155; Magstræde nr. 16 charges 160 for its, and Bæst is highest at 195. The difference is mostly how much of the cheese the house makes itself.

How many pizzas do Copenhagen's Italian restaurants have on the menu?

It ranges from three to sixteen, and that is the most useful distinction between them. Magstræde nr. 16 has exactly three and says plainly that the selection is narrow on purpose. La Vecchia Signora on Grønnegade has sixteen plus two calzones. If you want choice, it is the latter; if you want the house's own best answer, it is the former.

Can you bring children to an Italian restaurant in Copenhagen?

Mother and Perron are the two built for it. Mother has long tables, opens at eleven and is one of the few places in Kødbyen where children belong at dinner. Perron sits in a car-free courtyard with room to run around, but closes at four.

Where can you drink Italian wine in Copenhagen?

Nebbiolo Winebar at Store Strandstræde 18, around the corner from Nyhavn. The list leans on Piedmont, and it is open every day from three to midnight. Antipasti and small plates are served alongside, but it is not the place for a full dinner — that is Ambra or Barabba.

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About this guide. All nine places are in eatlocal's data set for Copenhagen, and the addresses, opening hours and price levels come from there. Magstræde nr. 16 and La Vecchia Signora were added on 27 September 2026; their prices and hours were read off the venues' own menus and websites that day. The scores are our own editorial ones on a scale from 1 to 10 and are not averages of guest reviews. Siciliansk Is is listed with no hours at all: the shop writes itself that it is closed for the season and opens again in spring 2027. The information was checked on 26 September 2026. Call before you travel far — holiday closures rarely appear anywhere except on the door.