A local’s guide to the best bakeries in Copenhagen is a ”must” when visiting our small capital. Because to be honest there are quite a few not so nice bakeries in the city and also the good ones are too good to miss. On our running tours the topic of Danish Pastries and best bakeries in Copenhagen is very often discussed, and really – when you have just run a 10 km City Running Tour then you deserve a trip to the bakery, right ? Numerous times we have found ourselves including a bakery stop on our private running tours and sometimes we have even bought our guests pastries as their credit card was at the hotel room. Below I have described a handful of my favourite bakeries – some are small independent and family owned bakeries while others are large chains. Common for all is that regardless of whether you choose a cake, bread or roll, the quality is very good and most often it is organic.
Best bakeries in Copenhagen – here goes:
Sankt Peders Bageri
This is one of the oldest and best bakeries in Copenhagen and there are a couple of reasons why this bakery has a special place in my heart.
1. It is an independent bakery and one of the oldest in Copenhagen.
2. It does the ”onsdagssnegl” which directly translated means ”Wednesday Snail” which is the largest cinnamon bun you will find in Copenhagen. This place is famous for their Wednesday Snail and every Wednesday local offices send taxis to this bakery to pick up their order of snails. The other day they told me they sell 3000 Onsdagssnegle every Wednesday.
This bakery is also located in the City Centre so easy to get to if strolling in the centre of Copenhagen.
Brød
This bakery is also independent but compared to Skt Peder stræde Bageren, this is more hip and also located in Vesterbro which I usually refer to as Hipsterville. Brød is a Nordic bakery and they have the popular Ølandshvede bread and buns. The also do a mean potato and Rosemary bun with cheese, that does well for lunch and is naturally veggie-friendly.
At Brød you can also buy breakfast accessories such as bread, milk, juice, cheese etc. And this is where Brød kicks arse because this is not your normal Port Salut but they sell the delicacies stuff, such as for example Arla Unika cheeses. Yummy and why it deserves a place on the best bakeries list.
Emmerys
OK, this is a chain of bakeries and while I prefer the small independent bakeries, then Emmerys deserves a spot on this list because they are an organic bakery. So no pesticides and you can eat your breakfast with a good conscience. They do a mean brownie at Emmerys and also their Græskarkerne boller (pumpkin seed buns) are very good. Their coffee is excellent, but be prepared to pay for it.
Meyers Bageri
Meyers Bakery is also a chain of bakeries in Copenhagen and it is founded by our famous food beacon Claus Meyer who was also the founder of NOMA and who has been instrumental in the New Nordic Food revolution here in Denmark.
There is in my opinion only one place to buy Ølandshvedebrød and Ølandshvedeboller and that is at Meyers. Enough reason to be on the list of best bakeries in Copenhagen. No one else makes them better and it was also this bakery (or Claus Meyer) who re-introduced this old flour type to the Danish kitchen.
Best recommendation: buy a Ølandshvede bolle (bun) and put on some quality butter, close your eyes and eat. Pure savoury Nirvana.
You are welcome. 🙂
Lagkagehuset
Should I put this on the list or not ? hmmmmmmmmm. It’s a chain of bakeries, they have a few organic products but it is not 100% organic (and really, we all know that pesticides are the enemy ;-)). Yes, it should be on this list of best bakeries in Copenhagen, for two reasons. Lagkagehuset originates from Lagkagehuset on Christianshavn and the fact that a single bakery can grow this large, deserves a mention. Well done. The other and much more important reason is that they do a mean chocolate bun (stor chokoladebolle). Without knowing the recipe my guess is that the main ingredients are the following: white flour, sugar, butter and chocolate. I am sure you get the picture – totally unhealthy but super delicious and perfect as a pre, post and mid-run snack.
Naturbageriet
I have always thought that being a gluten-allergic tourist in Copenhagen must be a nightmare with yummy bread and pastries everywhere. But not anymore because Naturbageriet is an all organic bakery that sells gluten free bread, buns and cakes. Their bakery is close to Torvehallerne by Nørreport station, so simply walk down Frederiksborggade and you are there. The service is always great and even for a person who can hack gluten and pretty much been brought up on bread, then the gluten-free products are nice products on their own and not just a gluten-free adaptation the traditional buns and bread.
……and the service is always lovely in Naturbageriet. While especially the service in some of the chain bakeries can sometimes seem impersonal, indifferent and unnecessarily busy, then especially Naturbageriet has a present and lovely service level. Good karma all around at this place and great bread, cakes and buns.
That’s it, thanks for reading this far, and I hope you realise after testing all these bakeries, that though we are famous for our pastries it is really our bread that is out of this world!!
Enjoy and feel free to join one of our running tours to burn off all these white bread calories.
Happy eating and happy running,
Lena
LUCIA RUN (LUCIALØB) FOR AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL