Restaurant in Copenhagen, Denmark
Noma technique, burger prices. Book it.
Born from a Noma pandemic pop-up and now a permanent Christianshavn fixture, POPL Burger applies fine-dining sourcing and fermentation technique to a four-item menu. Three consecutive Opinionated About Dining Cheap Eats Europe top-50 rankings (including #26 in 2023) confirm the consistency. Booking is easy; weekend lunch is the best entry point.
Yes, and 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, and treat it as a deliberate destination rather than a convenient stop.
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, and 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.
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, and 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, and 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 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. Google rating: 4.0 across 2,308 reviews, which is a meaningful volume for a restaurant of this size and price tier.
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.
POPL Burger is a confident yes. It is one of the few casual restaurants in Copenhagen where the sourcing, technique, and 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, and do not skip the plant-based option on visit two.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| POPL Burger | Hamburgers | Easy | |
| Geranium | New Nordic, Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Noma | Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Alchemist | Progressive, Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Koan | New Nordic, Kaiseki, Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| a|o|c | New Nordic, Mediterranean Small Plates, Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
Comparing your options in Copenhagen for this tier.
Lunch is the easier visit. Weekend lunch (Saturday and Sunday, 12–3 pm) is the only midday service POPL offers, so if your schedule is flexible, that slot tends to attract shorter waits than Friday and Saturday evenings. Dinner runs Monday through Sunday from 5–10:30 pm and is where most of the demand concentrates. If you want a relaxed pace, weekend lunch is the call; if a weeknight dinner fits better, Tuesday or Wednesday evenings are your lowest-friction option.
POPL started as a Noma pandemic pop-up and is now a permanent restaurant at Strandgade 108 in Christianshavn. The menu is deliberately short: a cheeseburger, a classic hamburger, a vegetarian option, and a vegan burger. The beef is organic and free-range from Denmark's west coast; the vegan patty uses quinoa fermented in Noma's lab. Ranked #26, #39, and #48 on OAD Cheap Eats Europe across three consecutive years, it punches well above its casual format — go in expecting focused, technique-driven cooking, not a standard burger joint.
Come as you are. POPL is a neighbourhood burger restaurant in Christianshavn, not a tasting-menu room, and the casual format makes dress expectations low. The connection to Noma is in the sourcing and technique, not the formality. Jeans and a jacket are entirely appropriate; there is no indication that anything more is expected.
Yes, with more intention than most burger spots. The menu explicitly includes a vegetarian option and a vegan burger, the latter made with quinoa fermented in Noma's lab. That signals actual culinary investment in the non-meat options, not an afterthought. For allergies or specific intolerances beyond the menu's scope, check the venue's official channels — phone and website details are not currently listed in Pearl's database, so check Google or their reservation platform for up-to-date contact information.
Yes. A compact burger menu, a neighbourhood setting, and a booking difficulty rated easy make POPL a natural solo stop. You are not committing to a long tasting-menu format or a table minimum, and the Christianshavn location on Strandgade 108 makes it easy to pair with an evening walk along the canal. Three consecutive OAD Cheap Eats Europe top-50 placements confirm it delivers on quality regardless of group size.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
