You’re never more than 100 feet away from a great meal in Copenhagen: a smørrebrød here, a sticky bun there; the best street veggie dogs I’ve had (vegan as well—don’t come for me, please); precision-cut Nordic cuisine, and locavore tasting menus.
For a few seasons now, though, I’ve maintained that some of the best dining experiences here can be found not in one of the many lauded temples to fine dining but inside an amusement park. Not just any amusement park—Tivoli Gardens, the world’s second-oldest and inarguably the most charming. Copenhagen’s top tourist attraction is known for many things: its romantic gardens, the Rutschebanen, its century-old wooden roller coaster, and, come dusk, its transformation into an illuminated wonderland. What’s less known is that it is also one of Copenhagen’s most compelling dining destinations.
Even as regular amusement-park fare goes, Tivoli churns it out with flair—licorice soft-serve, anyone?—but rubbing shoulders with its rides and food stalls are some of the most quietly respected restaurants in the city. There’s Fru Nimb with its vast smørrebrød menu (50 different kinds!); Cakenhagen, a café that doles out beautiful pastries; and the historic Grøften restaurant, which has retained its good vibes since 1874. “Great food has always been in the DNA of Tivoli Gardens, almost since its opening in 1843,” says Mikkel Ustrup, senior director at Tivoli High End. “As early as the 1920s, Tivoli was hosting culinary festivals.”
But it’s the Japanese Pagoda, a beautifully illuminated tower from 1900 nestled by the park’s lake, that is the pinnacle of the dining experience here. Each spring—and extending beyond summer—some of the most talked-about restaurants take up temporary residence as part of an annual pop-up program. In years past, heavyweights like Copenhagen’s AOC, Koks from the Faroe Islands, Reykjavík’s Dill, and Portugal’s Vistas Rui Silvestre have all danced through its doors.
What began as a seasonal experiment five years ago has matured into a fully fledged international dining destination. “Each visiting restaurant curates special menus using high-quality, seasonal Danish ingredients—it’s a culinary experience that simply cannot be replicated anywhere else in the world,” says Maria Oldenbjerg, hotel director of The Nimb, the Moorish-inspired palace-style hotel set within Tivoli Gardens.
