POPL Burger

Is POPL Burger worth visiting in Copenhagen?

Yes, it earns a place on your Copenhagen itinerary even if you are already planning a meal at one of the city's tasting-menu restaurants. Ranked #26 in the Opinionated About Dining Cheap Eats in Europe list in 2023, climbing to #39 in 2024 and holding strong at #48 in 2025, POPL Burger has built a consistent track record that most casual restaurants in Scandinavia cannot match. The short answer: book it, go more than once, treat it as a deliberate destination rather than a convenient stop.

What POPL Burger is now

POPL began as a pandemic-era pop-up from the team behind Noma and has since become a permanent fixture at Strandgade 108 in Christianshavn. That origin story matters less than what it has become: a focused, four-option burger restaurant that applies fine-dining sourcing and fermentation technique to a format that typically gets neither. The beef comes from organic, free-range cattle raised on Denmark's west coast. The vegetarian and vegan options are built around quinoa fermented in Noma's lab, giving them a depth that plant-based burgers at comparable price points rarely achieve. The menu is compact by design, that restraint is a signal of confidence, not limitation.

The room itself takes cues from the same philosophy: grounded in natural materials, with a strong sense of neighbourhood rather than destination-restaurant theatre. You are eating a burger, but the visual grammar of the space tells you it was thought through carefully. That alignment between what you see and what arrives on the plate is part of what makes POPL worth returning to.

How to spread it across two or three visits

POPL's opening hours shape a natural multi-visit strategy. Monday through Friday, the kitchen runs dinner only, from 5 pm to 10:30 pm. On weekends, a lunch service opens from 12 pm to 3 pm, then dinner resumes at 5 pm. If you are in Copenhagen for several days, the weekend lunch slot is the better first visit: the room is quieter, the pace is easier, it functions as a low-pressure way to work through the menu before committing to a longer evening. The menu's deliberate brevity means a first visit covers the cheeseburger or classic, a second visit is the right moment to test the fermented quinoa-based options properly rather than as an afterthought.

For food-focused travellers building a Copenhagen itinerary around eating well at every price point, POPL pairs logically with a dinner at Geranium (New Nordic, Creative) or a longer evening at one of the city's other tasting-menu rooms. It is not competing with those experiences; it is complementing them. Within the burger category specifically, it sits above Gasoline Grill on sourcing rigour and above Jagger on technical ambition, though both are worth knowing if POPL is fully booked or you want a faster, more casual alternative. Fatty's and Tommi's Burger Joint round out the city's burger options for days when you want something with less ceremony.

Booking and logistics

Booking difficulty is rated easy, which is relatively rare for a restaurant with three consecutive OAD Cheap Eats top-50 placements. That said, weekend lunch slots fill faster than weekday dinners, so if a Saturday or Sunday afternoon is your preferred entry point, plan ahead by at least a week. Walk-in availability is plausible on a weekday evening but not guaranteed. The address, Strandgade 108, puts it in Christianshavn, accessible from the city centre and within walking distance of the waterfront.

For broader context on eating and staying in Copenhagen, see our full Copenhagen restaurants guide, our full Copenhagen hotels guide, our full Copenhagen bars guide, our full Copenhagen wineries guide, and our full Copenhagen experiences guide. If you are touring Denmark more broadly, notable dining options include Jordnær in Gentofte, Frederikshøj in Aarhus, Henne Kirkeby Kro in Henne, Alimentum in Aalborg, ARO in Odense, and Domæne in Herning. For burger comparisons further afield, 5 Napkin Burger and 7th Street Burger in New York City represent a different price-tier approach to the same format.

The verdict

POPL Burger is a confident yes. It is one of the few casual restaurants in Copenhagen where the sourcing, technique, setting all point in the same direction. Three consecutive OAD Cheap Eats top-50 rankings confirm it is not a one-season story. Come for lunch on a Saturday if you can, return for dinner to try the full menu, do not skip the plant-based option on visit two.

• Address: Strandgade 108, 1401 Copenhagen
• Hours: Mon-Fri 5–10:30 pm; Sat-Sun 12–3 pm and 5–10:30 pm
• Booking difficulty: Easy (weekend lunch books faster)
• Awards: OAD Cheap Eats Europe #48 (2025), #39 (2024), #26 (2023)