Nordhavn, Copenhagen: The Harbour District Where Matt Orlando and Aamanns Now Cook

Breakfast on Refshaleøen

Start at lille, a bakery and kitchen in a converted workshop on Refshalevej. The dark sourdough and the week's pastries come out at 08:00 and sell until they're gone. Breakfast runs to 15:00, lunch starts at 12:00, and the menu changes weekly. Bread with butter, cheese and jam is 70 kr, egg on toast 95 kr, a seasonal dish with bread from 120 kr and filter coffee 35 kr. There are no bookings, so you take a table when one frees up. It's open Wednesday to Sunday, 08:00 to 17:00. The bakery shuts on 21 December and opens again on 20 January, which matters if you're coming at Christmas.

Art in the welding hall

Copenhagen Contemporary sits a little further along Refshalevej, in a hall the shipyard once used for welding. The rooms are big enough to take installations most museums couldn't fit, which is the reason to cross the water out of season. Showing now are Camille Henrot's Paper Planes until 31 December, Kengo Kuma's Earth | Tree until 21 February 2027, and James Turrell's Aftershock, which stays. Tickets are 140 kr for adults and 25 kr for ages three to 17, sold at the desk when you arrive. It's open 11:00 to 18:00, until 21:00 on Thursday, and closed Monday. The entrance is hard to spot among the industrial buildings, so look for the tall sign with two orange Cs. Come by bike from Kongens Nytorv along the waterfront, about ten minutes, or take bus 2A or the harbour bus and walk the last 250 metres.

Sauna on the jetty

La Banchina is a timber shack and a jetty on the Refshaleøen waterfront, with a sauna hut beside it and a steel ladder down into the harbour. A private session lasts an hour and 45 minutes and costs 800 kr from Monday to Thursday, 950 kr from Friday to Sunday. That is the price for the whole booking, whether there are two of you or eight. Slots open four weeks ahead and the popular ones go to a waiting list, so don't count on walking up on a winter weekend. If you haven't booked, come on a Sunday. There's an hour in the shared sauna plus soup for 120 kr, sold at the bar on the day until it's full, and it runs to the end of March. The kitchen is organic and pescatarian, and takes no reservations during the day. It's open from 08:00 daily, until 21:00 Wednesday to Saturday and 16:00 the rest of the week.

Up the spire in Christianshavn

Back across the water is Vor Frelsers Kirke on Sankt Annæ Gade. It has the black and gold helix spire you've been looking at all morning, and you can climb it. There are 400 steps. The last 150 run up the outside of the tower, 86 metres up, on an open staircase that corkscrews round the spire. Tickets are 70 kr for adults and 20 kr for children, and the Copenhagen Card covers entry. The tower is open 09:00 to 20:00 every day, with last entry half an hour before closing. Book a slot before you go, as only so many people fit on the stairs at once. The tower closes for the whole of January, and it shuts at short notice in rain, snow or strong wind until the copper steps dry out.

Skating by the harbour bridge

Broens Street Food on Strandgade is the summer market at the foot of the Inderhavnsbroen bridge, and that side of it is shut until spring. Through the winter the ground between the little black food pavilions is an ice rink instead, with Nyhavn's gabled houses straight across the water. It opens at 11:00 on weekdays and 10:00 at weekends, closing at 21:00, or 22:00 on Friday and Saturday. Part of the ice is taken on weekday mornings until the early afternoon, so go later if you want room to skate. Walk over the bridge from Nyhavn, or take the metro to Christianshavn and go along Strandgade.

Dinner in Kødbyen

Kødbyens Fiskebar is in a white-tiled meat-cutting hall on Flæsketorvet, with a curved marble bar and trays of oysters on crushed ice. The oysters come from France and from the Limfjorden in Denmark. The rest of the menu changes day to day, with squid, langoustine and scallops among it. The kitchen serves 11:30 to 14:30 and again 17:30 to 23:00, and the afternoon in between is drinks only. Parties of up to eight book online. From nine people upwards you order from a set menu, agreed at least a week before you arrive.

A few doors along, WarPigs Brewpub does Texas-style barbecue, dry-rubbed and smoked slowly, then weighed out on butcher paper at a steel counter. The beer is brewed in the building and you can take some away in a crowler. The meat often sells out later in the evening and the kitchen stops at 22:00, so eat early and drink afterwards. It opens at 11:30 daily and closes at midnight early in the week, into the small hours from Thursday to Saturday, and at 23:00 on Sunday.

Eating with strangers

Folkehuset Absalon is a deconsecrated church on Sønder Boulevard in Vesterbro, painted inside in loud clashing colours, with long trestle tables down the nave. Dinner is at 18:00 every night of the week, one set menu, and you don't pick your dish. It costs 60 kr from Sunday to Wednesday and 100 kr from Thursday to Saturday. A host seats you at the shared tables, next to people you don't know. Tickets sell online until 16:00 on the day, and anything left over goes at the door from 17:00. It sells out regularly, so buy ahead.

Live music at VEGA

VEGA on Enghavevej opened in 1956 as the labour movement's assembly house for Vesterbro and became a music venue in 1996. The wood panelling, brass banisters and period lamps survived, and the wide staircase up to the main hall is half the reason to go. There are three rooms of different sizes, so something is on most nights. It's standing room and there are no tables to book. The good dates sell out and go to a waiting list, so book before you travel.

A morning in Nørrebro

If you have a second day, give the morning to Nørrebro. The Coffee Collective on Jægersborggade is the original shop of the roaster that made the street worth walking. It moved up the road to number 57, where the seating opens onto the street. It opens at 07:00 on weekdays and 08:00 at weekends, closing at 20:00, or 19:00 at weekends. The tables fill fast. There's a coffee course for 649 kr and a roasting course for 749 kr if you want more than a cup.

From there walk into Assistens Kirkegård, the walled cemetery at Kapelvej that locals treat as a park, with gravel avenues under big lime trees. Hans Christian Andersen and Søren Kierkegaard are both buried here and the graves are marked on the cemetery map. It's free and open 07:00 to 19:00 from October to March, and to 22:00 from April to September. Carry on and you reach Superkilen, a wedge of Nørrebro paved in fluorescent pink and red, with street furniture and signs brought in from countries around the world. It's free and has no gates. There are no toilets, so plan a café stop around it.

Closed days and bookings

Mondays are thin on the harbour: the gallery is closed, and the bakery is shut Monday and Tuesday both. Book the spire and the private sauna well ahead, buy your VEGA ticket before you travel, and avoid January if the climb is the thing you came for.

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