Vegan and Vegetarian Casual Dining in Copenhagen: 14 Places Worth Choosing in 2026

Updated 22 October 2026

Where Can You Eat Vegan or Vegetarian in Copenhagen Without a Fine-Dining Booking?

Six of you want dinner on a Tuesday, and one of you is vegan. Absalon's long tables look like the easy answer: at 18:00 on one Tuesday in October 2026, the 1934 church on Sønder Boulevard that became a community house in 2015 served its diners a 75 DKK Thai green curry with aubergine, portobello mushrooms and sugar snaps, and five of that week's seven dinners contained no meat. Ask the kitchen to promise your friend a vegan dinner, though, and it will not.

The kitchen is small and also houses a bakery, and much of that week's meat-free cooking leaned on dairy: ricotta cream on Wednesday's roasted beetroot, crème fraîche with Thursday's bread, feta in Sunday's rice.

That gap between meat-free and vegan runs through menus all over the city. Finding a meal without meat in Copenhagen is easy. Knowing what else is in it takes a look at the menu and, often, one question at the counter. So start with how strict you are.

A strict vegan has four plant-only kitchens. Anyone who eats vegetarian, or eats vegan and is happy to ask, has the rest of the city, where some of the best plant cooking is the meat-free dish in a kitchen that also serves meat. Prices and hours were read on 17 and 20 October 2026.

Which 14 Places Make Vegan and Vegetarian Eating Easy in Copenhagen in 2026?

Read the fourth column first, because it says how strict each kitchen is.

Where Can a Strict Vegan Eat Without Checking Every Dish?

Four Copenhagen kitchens cook only plants, so a strict vegan can order with barely a question. Between them they cover a whole day.

The day starts on Birkegade in Nørrebro, where Café Kaf makes everything in house and all of it plant-based. Its sourdough pastries and cutting cakes rotate with the season, the coffee comes from a local specialty roastery, and the seats sit under oak trees from 09:00 to 17:30 every day.

Lunch is a burrito. Vital Foods on Kompagnistræde cooks only plant-based food, and its 88 DKK burritos come filled with black beans and sweet potato under chipotle dressing, mushroom mince with walnuts, or pulled jackfruit. Wraps and sandwiches are 74 DKK, and the counter opens 09:00 to 19:00 on weekdays and 10:00 to 17:00 on Saturdays.

The evening offers two very different rooms. Madenitaly began in 2014 as a pizzeria on Papirøen, opened a restaurant off Nyhavn in April 2018 and has cooked inside H15 in Kødbyen since March 2025, and it calls itself Denmark's first Italian vegan restaurant. Its pizza al taglio comes by the slice, 75 DKK for one and 210 DKK for three with toppings such as spicy jackfruit n'duja. It opens Wednesday to Saturday from 17:00, the kitchen closes at 21:30, and tables are booked online.

Beyla, at Købkes Plads in Carlsberg Byen, is a plant-based eatery that MigogKbh describes as having a 100% vegan menu. It began as Souls, a street-food stall in Torvehallerne, and opened its own room in October 2022 before taking the Beyla name. Its founder, Jason Renwick, forages ingredients himself and owns the mushroom company Funga Farm, and it shows: the evening list runs from Beyla Fried Mushrooms with gochujang at 145 DKK to lion's mane mushroom at 249 DKK, and a 399 DKK tasting menu serves the whole table.

Plant-only is not the same as allergy-safe, and that is the one question these four leave open. Beyla cannot accommodate a severe nut allergy that needs an EpiPen, its evening menu lists smoked ricotta and labneh without a vegan mark, so ask how those are made, and Vital Foods offers bread without gluten for 20 DKK extra, so a coeliac diner should ask any of the four how the kitchen handles gluten. Book Beyla for Friday and Saturday evenings.

Keeping to these four would still miss much of the city's best plant cooking, because most of it happens in kitchens that also cook meat.

Which Mixed Counters Mark the Vegan Dish at Lunch?

At lunch, the mixed counters mark the dish rather than the room, each with its own code, and the code is worth learning before you order.

42RAW on Pilestræde opened in 2009 as the city's first raw food bar, and in its early years it had no oven or stove: nothing passed 42 degrees in the dehydrators, which gave the café its name. It cooks chicken and salmon now, so the menu marks vegan dishes VG. The Green Poké at 139 DKK carries VG, and so does the 129 DKK Acai Bowl, served from 08:00 on weekdays and 09:00 at weekends.

Gaza Grill goes further and asks its guests to eat a little less meat and try the falafel. The Nørrebro room at Fælledvej 22 C cooks organic Middle Eastern food from Palestinian family recipes. The falafel pita is 95 DKK and marked VE, the 75 DKK mezze plates include hummus and baba ganoush that are VE too, and the falafel and fries are fried separately in fresh rapeseed oil. Check its hours before you go.

GRØD shows how far a single idea can carry a meat-free menu. Lasse Skjønning Andersen opened it on 24 September 2011, aged 21, after leaving his music studies in London and putting his savings into a 46 square metre former bike shop basement on Jægersborggade. GRØD calls it the world's first porridge bar, and it began with his discovery that porridge can be savoury: risotto, daal, congee. The menu still follows him. Svampebygotto, a mushroom and barley risotto, is 109 DKK and Rød daal, a red lentil porridge with skyr, is 99 DKK. P marks plant-based dishes and PO those with a plant-based option, because chicken shares the list, and lunch dishes are served from 11:00.

The most surprising meat-free dish at a lunch counter may be at a burger bar. Gasoline Grill grinds organic beef in house every day and lists Organic among its four values, with Simplicity, Boldness and Quality. Its vegetarian patty comes from a Copenhagen start-up: MATR Foods began in 2021 and ferments five organic crops from Nordic farms (oats, split peas, lupins, beetroot and potatoes) with natural fungi spores. By 2023 Gasoline Grill offered the patty on any burger on its menu, so the beef eater and the vegetarian order from the same short list.

The Matr Burger is what Gasoline Grill calls its vegetarian option, from 100 DKK for the burger on its own, with the patty in whichever burger you choose. The seasonal Green Burger of whole portobello is also 100 DKK but carries no vegetarian label, so ask. No burger is marked vegan, so a vegan should eat at one of the counters above. Landgreven 10 opens daily at 11:00 and serves until the burgers sell out, with no reservations and outdoor seats only, so on a wet day the Carlsberg Byen branch, which has seats inside, is the better stop.

Morgenstedet works the other way: there is no long menu to decode, only what the chef on shift cooks that day. The organic vegetarian eatery at Fabriksområdet 134 in Christiania has run for more than 20 years on volunteer labour, and there are usually two hot dishes and several salads for under 100 DKK. Opening days are not published, so confirm them first.

Lunch is about reading a code. Dinner adds the people you eat with, and a new question: can a vegan, a vegetarian and a meat-eater share one table and all eat well?

Where Does a Mixed Table Eat Well in the Evening?

Four evening kitchens answer yes, each in its own way, and two of them, Kate's Joint and Flavour Bastards, take bookings for a group.

Govinda, near the lakes and Forum metro station at Åboulevard 7, settles the question by leaving meat out. It serves 100% vegan food four days a week and 100% vegetarian food on the other three, and its vegetables come from organic growers within 90 kilometres, while the spices are bought whole from cooperatives in Kerala and Rajasthan and roasted and ground in the kitchen each week. On the menu, the Classic Thali of two vegetable dishes of the day with rice and chapati is 140 DKK and marked vegan, and the Taste of South India brings idli, masala vada, masala dosa and uthapam on one tray for 210 DKK. Dinner runs from 17:00 to 21:30, and Govinda is closed on Mondays.

Kate's Joint on Blågårdsgade cooks for a table that does not agree. Kate Kamil has been known on Nørrebro for more than 30 years for generous food and a classic dhal, and her Indian and Malay-style home cooking specialises in vegetarian and vegan dishes next to fish and meat, and the restaurant says most of the menu is naturally free of gluten. It opens at 17:00 every day, until 22:00, or 23:00 on Friday and Saturday, the kitchen closes 30 to 40 minutes before that, and tables for up to 8 are booked online.

Flavour Bastards at Ravnsborggade 12D serves shared plates family style: five courses for 235 DKK a person or seven for 335 DKK, and both can be served vegan. The whole table takes the same menu, with a minimum of two, which suits a group happy to eat vegan for one night. The courses run from house-baked focaccia to sumac-roasted cauliflower on tahini, and the kitchen runs 17:00 to 21:30 from Monday to Saturday.

If you bring a mixed table to Slurp, the meat-eater orders a chicken or pork bowl, the vegan orders the Veggie ramen without its egg, and both reach for the same snacks. We have made ramen on Nansensgade since 2017, rolling the noodles each morning and simmering broths for hours to entire days, and the kitchen has cooked with wild greens from the start: for Noma's Vild Mad foraging festival that first year, Slurp made a green soba with nettle.

That habit shows in the vegan snacks, which change through the year. Earlier Slurp menus ran from an asparagus salad and a summer salad of peas and fava beans, both with a ramson vinaigrette, to miso-glazed aubergine, a crunchy Brussels sprout salad, Teriyaki Beetroot and the Tofu Padrón Peppers that Borgergade filled with creamy tofu and finished with a mushroom dashi reduction.

On the menu now, the vegan side to choose is the Amazu Plate of pickled carrots, daikon and cucumber, 60 DKK at both Slurp rooms, and the menu recommends it beside the creamy chicken broth of the Nduja Miso, so one plate serves both sides of the table. Slurp Nansensgade adds Danish Onigiri for vegetarians, cracked wheat rice balls with egg salad, Japanese mayonnaise and chilli oil, at 90 DKK. Slurp Nansensgade, with 22 seats and no toilets, opens 11:30 to 15:00 and 16:00 to 21:00, and Slurp Borgergade, with 36 seats, opens 11:30 to 15:00 and 17:00 to 22:00. Dinner orders stop at 20:45 at Nansensgade and 21:45 at Borgergade.

An evening like this costs from about 140 DKK a head upward. A meat-free meal in Copenhagen can cost much less.

Where Can You Eat Meat-Free for 100 DKK or Less in 2026?

Six places list a meat-free main at 100 DKK or less, from a slice of vegan pizza to a seat at Absalon's shared dinner. The burger leads the table, and the other five run from the lowest price to the highest.

A cheap day still needs a plan, because opening days vary. Take a vegan visitor with one Tuesday in the city and the slice at Madenitaly in mind for dinner. That plan fails, because Madenitaly opens only from Wednesday to Saturday.

The day still works. Breakfast is the 42RAW Acai Bowl at 129 DKK, lunch a Vital Foods burrito at 88 DKK, and dinner the Classic Thali at Govinda, marked vegan, at 140 DKK, on a day when Govinda's weekly specials are all vegan. One main per meal and no drinks comes to 129 + 88 + 140 = 357 DKK.

How Do You Check a Menu Is Really Vegan or Vegetarian?

Denmark's official dietary advice tells people to eat plant-rich, varied and not too much. Copenhagen's menus have followed, but each writes its labels differently, so the same four checks carry every visit.

1. Read the venue's own code. 42RAW uses VG, Gaza Grill uses VE, Govinda uses V and Veg, and GRØD uses P and PO.
2. Ask about egg, dairy and fish. Slurp's Veggie ramen is vegan only without its egg, and Absalon cannot promise vegan food.
3. Ask about gluten and allergens separately. Slurp cannot accommodate a gluten exclusion, Beyla cannot take a severe nut allergy, and Vital Foods charges 20 DKK for bread without gluten.
4. Check the day before you go. Café OHA is closed temporarily from 9 October 2026, with a return expected in two to three weeks, Madenitaly opens Wednesday to Saturday, and Govinda is closed on Mondays.

Can You Order Vegan Ramen at Slurp Without a Booking?

Yes. Both Slurp rooms take walk-ins and neither takes reservations, and each serves the Veggie ramen at 175 DKK: a mushroom and celeriac broth with oyster mushroom, tamago, kale, pickled fennel, red onion and lemon thyme. It is vegetarian as served and vegan without the egg. Slurp cannot accommodate a gluten exclusion.

Mushroom and celeriac have a long history in the Slurp kitchen. In November 2017 the shop's nearest thing to an icon was a cold ramen served with a dipping sauce built on kombu, celeriac, fresh porcini and chanterelles, topped with grilled radicchio, mizuna, pickled enoki and a tamago, using organic seasonal vegetables from Kisselgården. Today's hot Veggie bowl is built on the same two ingredients.

To order it vegan, ask for the Veggie without the egg and mention any allergy when you order. The menu pairs the bowl with chilli crunch at 20 DKK and with Bancha, a late-spring roasted tea from Yamazoe in Nara with low caffeine, at 55 DKK. Slurp Nansensgade, our first room, is tiny and loud and best for solo diners or small groups, and Slurp Borgergade has more space. The broth, tare and noodle questions to ask at any ramen counter sit in our five checks for vegan and vegetarian ramen.

Which Place Fits Which Meal?

Let the food settle it. A strict vegan starts from the four plant-only kitchens: Café Kaf for pastry, Vital Foods for a burrito at lunch, Madenitaly for a slice of thick, airy Roman dough and Beyla for an evening of mushrooms. A quick lunch with a marked vegan dish means 42RAW's bowls, Gaza Grill's falafel or GRØD's porridge, and a vegetarian who wants a burger orders the Matr at Gasoline Grill.

A mixed table in the evening goes to Govinda for spice, Kate's Joint for dhal beside a meat curry, Flavour Bastards for one vegan menu shared by everyone, or Slurp for a mushroom broth beside a chicken one. The tightest budget eats at Absalon's long tables or Morgenstedet's volunteer kitchen. Wherever you sit, read the code, then ask the one question the code leaves open.

Sources

• Folkehuset Absalon, food and dinner menu
• Danish Architecture Center, Absalon from church to community hub
• Café Kaf
• Vital Foods menu
• Vital Foods opening hours
• Visit Denmark, H15 and Madenitaly
• Madenitaly
• Madenitaly menu
• Anders Husa, Beyla (formerly Souls Eatery)
• MigogKbh, guide to vegetarian and vegan restaurants
• Beyla, who we are and opening hours
• Beyla evening menu
• Beyla FAQ
• Visit Copenhagen, 42Raw
• Copenhagen Post, where cooked raw is how we like it
• 42RAW menu
• Gaza Grill Nørrebro
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• GRØD Jægersborggade
• GRØD menu
• Gasoline Grill, Landgreven
• Gasoline Grill, Carlsberg Byen
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• Gasoline Grill, Matr Burger
• Gasoline Grill online menu, Landgreven
• Visit Copenhagen, Morgenstedet
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• Café OHA