Where to Eat Lunch After 2pm in Copenhagen: 12 Places That Still Serve in 2026

Updated 22 October 2026

Your meeting runs long, and at 15:10 you walk down into the cellar of Slotskælderen hos Gitte Kik on Fortunstræde, hungry for smørrebrød. The door stays open until 17:00, so the room is still yours. The kitchen, though, stopped cooking at 15:00, and lunch is over.

Opening hours tell you when you can sit down. The kitchen time tells you when you can eat, and across the city the two sit anywhere from fifteen minutes to two hours apart. Plan a late lunch from the kitchen and the choice gets much simpler.

Where Can You Still Get Lunch After 2pm in Copenhagen in 2026?

Twelve places were still cooking lunch after 14:00 when their hours were checked on 20 October 2026, and each falls into one of three windows. The first closes between 14:45 and 15:30 and holds most of the classic lunch rooms. The second runs to 16:00 or 17:00, where two smørrebrød rooms and a French kitchen treat the afternoon as more lunch. The third has no afternoon stop at all: kitchens that cook into the evening, and two counters that sell until the food is gone.

The margin between kitchen and door changes from room to room, so every time below is the kitchen or last-order time. Told & Snaps closes its kitchen half an hour before its door, Kronborg an hour before and Slotskælderen two hours before. The sections run in clock order, so read down until you reach the time on your phone.

Which Kitchens Stop Taking Lunch Orders Between 14:45 and 15:30?

Most of the city's lunch rooms finish in this window, and two of its three smørrebrød cellars print a door time well after the kitchen stops. Arrive by 14:30 and all four places here will cook for you, except Tivolihallen on Sunday, when it is closed. Arrive at 15:00 and only two still will, and on Sunday only one.

Slotskælderen hos Gitte Kik: Kitchen Until 15:00

The cellar at Fortunstræde 4 sits in a building from 1797, a short walk from Christiansborg, and the Kik family took it over as a restaurant in 1910. The name goes back to the street's first publican, Karl Kik, who earned his surname because he always had to step out and see who had come in whenever the door opened.

The room stays open from 11:00 to 17:00 every day, but the kitchen cooks only until 15:00. Dishes start at 105 DKK. A late arrival should order quickly: the smoked eel with warm scrambled egg, or Dyrelægens natmad, whose name means the vet's midnight snack.

Tivolihallen: Kitchen Until 15:30, Monday to Saturday

Near City Hall, Tivolihallen fills a cellar at Vester Voldgade 91 in a building from the 1790s. It ran as an inn through most of the 1800s, became a restaurant called Fredensborg after 1900 and took its present name around 1912. The room still wears its interior from 1920.

The kitchen serves lunch from 11:30 to 15:30, Monday to Saturday, and the restaurant is closed on Sunday. The house specialty is boiled klipfisk, dried salt cod. Herring runs from 99 DKK for the marinated kind to 114 DKK for Christiansøpigens sild, and frikadeller with red cabbage and cucumber salad cost 114 DKK for anyone who wants lunch warm.

Told & Snaps: Kitchen Until 15:30, or 16:00 on Friday and Saturday

Told & Snaps has filled a high cellar on Toldbodgade, by Nyhavn, since 2000. Mette Borum opened it, and guests still take three steps down from the street into a room of white tablecloths where more than twenty homemade snaps change with the season.

From Sunday to Thursday the door closes at 16:00 and the kitchen at 15:30. On Friday and Saturday the door closes at 17:00 and the kitchen at 16:00. Order the matured marinated herring with red onion and a smiling egg at 109 DKK, or the pariserbøf at 209 DKK, a fried tartare of young beef with pickles, horseradish and egg yolk. There is no vegan smørrebrød.

Slurp: Last Lunch Order at 14:45, Doors at 15:00

The tightest margin in this window belongs to Slurp, the ramen shop Philipp Inreiter opened on Nansensgade in 2017, years after he trained in Tokyo, and followed with a second room on Borgergade in January 2025. "Ramen is Japanese comfort food; it's not considered particularly special, but I remember having my first bowl of ramen in Japan and it really stuck with me," he told Scandinavia Standard in 2018.

At both Slurp rooms, seven days a week, we take the last lunch order at 14:45 and close the door at 15:00. Walk in at 14:50 and lunch is over; dinner starts again at 16:00 on Nansensgade and 17:00 on Borgergade. Neither room takes reservations, so the only way to plan is to arrive with time to spare.

The bowl for a late, hungry arrival is the Nduja Miso at 195 DKK: a creamy chicken broth with spicy nduja butter and minced pork, finished with tamago, spring onions and burnt onion oil. Our menu pairs it with the 60 DKK amazu plate of pickled carrot, daikon and cucumber, and with sobacha, a roasted buckwheat tea with no caffeine, which suits an afternoon with work still in it. The unagi ramen on Nansensgade and the tonkotsu on Borgergade are dinner only.

Where Does Lunch Carry On Until 16:00 or 17:00?

Miss 15:30 and lunch is not over everywhere. Three rooms treat the afternoon as more lunch, and one of them makes the point by stopping for fourteen minutes and starting again.

Schønnemann: A Second Lunch From 14:14 to 17:00

Lunch at Schønnemann runs from 11:30 or 12:00 to 14:00, pauses, and starts again at 14:14 until 17:00, every day. Arrive at 14:05 and the wait is nine minutes, spent four steps below Hauser Plads in a restaurant that dates to 1877.

It began that year as Café Hauser Plads at number 11, where farmers from the suburbs left their horses on the square while they drank beer and snaps, and it moved to number 16 in 1901. The name came later, when Erna, the daughter of the house, married Peter Schønnemann after the First World War. The marinated herring with curry salad, onions, capers and a soft-boiled egg costs 135 DKK, and the classic beef tartare with raw egg yolk, capers and horseradish costs 180 DKK.

Kronborg: Kitchen Until 17:00, or 21:00 From Thursday to Saturday

At Restaurant Kronborg the kitchen closes an hour before the restaurant, by house policy. The doors are open from 11:00 to 18:00 from Sunday to Wednesday and to 22:00 from Thursday to Saturday, so lunch runs until 17:00 or 21:00.

The basement sits under Brolæggerstræde 12, a house finished in 1796 for Carl Dahlén, a first dancer at the Royal Danish Ballet, after the fire of 1795 destroyed the street. Down there, the warm fried herring in pickling brine costs 140 DKK, and pan-fried plaice fillets with remoulade start at 165 DKK.

Paté Paté, Kødbyen: Lunch Kitchen Until 16:00

In the Meatpacking District, Paté Paté runs its lunch kitchen from 12:00 to 16:00, Monday to Saturday, and its dinner kitchen from 17:30. The building was a pâté factory, which explains the name, and Kenn Husted opened the restaurant in it at the peak of the 2008 financial crisis.

The cooking is southern French with a Spanish lean and North African spices. Start with the pâté de campagne of pork, duck liver and pistachio at 155 DKK, then hanger steak with green beans and fried potatoes at 175 DKK. There is no Sunday lunch, because the doors open at 16:00 that day.

Which Kitchens Cook Right Through the Afternoon?

After 17:00 most of the smørrebrød rooms are done, so the question changes from which kitchen is still on lunch to which kitchen never stopped. Three places print no break between lunch and dinner.

Cap Horn, Nyhavn: Kitchen Open 11:00 to 21:00

The room at Nyhavn 21 is where Papa Bue's Viking Jazz Band formed in 1956. Its kitchen runs from 11:00 to 21:00 every day, which makes it the simplest answer for a 16:00 arrival on the canal: smørrebrød of chicken and pheasant salad at 125 DKK, beef tartare at 135 DKK, moules marinières at 185 DKK, or fish 'n' chips at 215 DKK.

Sticks'n'Sushi Borgergade: Kitchen Until 22:00

Sticks'n'Sushi began on 22 March 1994 in a rented basement at Nansensgade 59. Jens Rahbek Hansen had come home from six years in Japan, and his brother Kim argued that sushi alone was too bold for Danes, so grilled skewers went on the menu for anyone wary of raw fish.

The Borgergade restaurant fills four connected rooms in the old Workshop and Industrial House at number 13. Its kitchen runs from 11:00 to 22:00 Monday to Saturday and to 21:30 on Sunday, so sushi and sticks at 16:30 is an ordinary order here.

Reffen, Refshaleøen: Stalls Open Until 20:30

For a group that cannot agree on one cuisine, Reffen settles it with stalls. Copenhagen Street Food began on Papirøen in May 2014 with seven food trucks in an empty warehouse, and in May 2018 the same team opened Reffen on Refshaleøen. The stalls at Refshalevej 167A are open from 11:30 to 20:30 every day, but Reffen closes for winter from November to February, so this is an October answer. It is a trip out to the island and suits a long afternoon better than a quick bite.

Which Counters Serve Until the Food Runs Out?

Every place so far runs on a clock. Two run on supply instead, and that turns the rule around: with no kitchen time to read, the only safe plan is to come earlier.

Gasoline Grill: Burgers From 11:00 Until the Beef Is Gone

Gasoline Grill grinds the beef for its patties at each location every morning and plans each day's production so that little goes to waste, which means the burgers can stop when the beef does. Most counters list their hours as every day from 11:00 until sold out. No last order is published, so a burger at 14:30 is likely and never promised.

The founder, Klaus Wittrup, explained the arithmetic to the photographer Cory Smith during the 2020 lockdown. Back then only Landgreven, the original counter, truly sold out on capacity: "We make all the burgers we can and sell them." At the other counters the team planned enough burgers to stay open until 20:00. That was 2020, and every counter now posts "until sold out", so the practical rule holds everywhere: Landgreven is the counter most likely to run out, and the earlier you come, the safer the burger.

The burger to order is the Cheeseburger, which the menu calls The Benchmark: organic beef, organic cheddar, red onion, pickles and Gasoline Grill sauce, for 110 DKK at Landgreven on 20 October 2026. Choose the counter by where you want to sit. Landgreven has outdoor seats only, Værnedamsvej has indoor seats, and Carlsberg Byen has both, in an 1880 building that once served as a dining hall for the brewery's workers. None of the three takes reservations.

Warpigs, Flæsketorvet: Texas Barbecue From 11:30

Warpigs opened in 2015 in a former slaughterhouse at Flæsketorvet as a collaboration between Mikkeller and Three Floyds of Munster, Indiana, and its smoker can handle up to a ton of meat a day. The doors open at 11:30 and the kitchen closes at 22:00, but Warpigs sells out of meat most nights, so lunch is the safer slot. The Trooper Tray, a quarter pound each of brisket, pork neck and sausage with coleslaw and mac 'n' cheese, costs 285 DKK, and four house sauces sit on every table.

Which Late-Lunch Tips Are Out of Date in October 2026?

The last trap is an old list. Broens Street Food on Strandgade is closed after its summer season while it prepares its ice rink, which opens on 30 October. Barabba on Store Kongensgade, whose motto is "We (USED) to do it late", now serves its pasta lunch only from Friday to Sunday, from 12:00 to 14:30, so a 14:20 arrival has ten minutes. And Apollo, Frederik Bille Brahe's restaurant in the courtyard of Kunsthal Charlottenborg, has closed. Check any older list against the kitchen times before you walk over.

12 Places Compared by Last Lunch Order in 2026

Gasoline Grill and Slurp, both walk-in only, open the table, and the other ten follow in alphabetical order. Each time is the kitchen or last-order time, checked on 20 October 2026, and times change with the season.

Can You Have a Proper Lunch at Slurp in Under an Hour?

Yes, once you have a seat. A Slurp bowl is made to be eaten fast: a 2018 visit by Scandinavia Standard put the ideal at under 20 minutes, and Philipp Inreiter explained why: "The noodles start to get soggy after that and then the whole dish is ruined." With no reservation to keep, the bowl sets the pace, and a full lunch fits inside an hour.

The speed is prepared long before the doors open. Every morning Suzy, our custom-built noodle machine, cuts the day's noodles, and the broths are slow-simmered. The tare, the seasoning that goes into every bowl, is made in-house and adjusted daily to the season, the humidity and the rhythm of the kitchen, so at lunch the work left is cooking the noodles and building the bowl.

The wait for a seat is the part to allow for. A long queue outside Nansensgade 90 on an ordinary weekday evening is nothing unusual, but it usually moves fairly quickly.

For a short lunch, Shoyu is the bowl: 185 DKK for a chicken broth with pork neck chashu, tamago, spring onions, mushroom paste, chards and garden sorrel. Still hungry after the last noodle? Kaedama, a second helping of noodles, adds 25 DKK.

Which Late Lunch Fits Your Afternoon?

Start with the time on your phone, then find your window. Before 14:30 nearly every kitchen here is still cooking, and the choice is only about appetite: a bowl of Nduja Miso or Shoyu at Slurp, a Cheeseburger from a Gasoline Grill counter, two pieces of herring in a smørrebrød cellar, or small plates at Paté Paté.

Between 14:30 and 15:30 the margins get tight: the last lunch order at Slurp is 14:45, Slotskælderen cooks until 15:00, and Tivolihallen and Told & Snaps until 15:30. After that, lunch belongs to Paté Paté until 16:00 and to Schønnemann and Kronborg until 17:00, then to Cap Horn, Sticks'n'Sushi and Reffen into the evening. If you reach Slotskælderen at 15:10, walk on to Kronborg on Brolæggerstræde, where the herring is still being fried. Gasoline Grill and Warpigs can sell out before the clock runs down, which is the reason to reach them earlier rather than later.

Still out at nine? The late dinner guide picks up from there. For an earlier lunch, see the quick business lunch guide and the guide to Japanese lunch in Copenhagen.

Sources

• Slurp homepage, craft and opening hours
• Slurp menu and prices
• Slurp Nansensgade
• Slurp Borgergade
• Scandinavia Standard on Slurp, originally published 22 October 2018
• MigogKbh on Slurp Borgergade, 27 January 2025
• Gasoline Grill menu page
• Gasoline Grill locations and opening hours
• Gasoline Grill Landgreven
• Gasoline Grill Carlsberg Byen
• Gasoline Grill Værnedamsvej
• Gasoline Grill Landgreven order menu and prices
• Cory Smith, Closed // Open with Klaus Wittrup, 2020
• Slotskælderen hours and history
• Slotskælderen menu
• Slotskælderen, history by Torben Weirup
• Tivolihallen opening and kitchen hours
• Tivolihallen history
• Tivolihallen menu
• Told & Snaps opening hours
• Told & Snaps smørrebrød menu and history
• Scan Magazine on Told & Snaps
• Schønnemann opening hours
• Schønnemann history
• Schønnemann herring menu
• Schønnemann tartare menu
• Restaurant Kronborg opening hours
• Restaurant Kronborg smørrebrød menu
• Brolæggerstræde 12, building history
• Paté Paté hours
• Paté Paté lunch menu
• The Copenhagen Post on Paté Paté, 19 June 2015
• Cap Horn hours, menu and jazz history
• Sticks'n'Sushi, the story of the first restaurant
• Sticks'n'Sushi Borgergade hours and rooms
• Reffen hours and winter closure
• Scan Magazine on Copenhagen Street Food and Reffen, August 2018
• Warpigs homepage, barbecue and sell-outs
• Warpigs menu, hours and address
• Mikkeller on Warpigs
• Thirst Magazine on the Warpigs brewhouse, 8 September 2017
• Broens Street Food practical information and seasonal closure
• Barabba opening hours
• Apollo closure notice