Ok, I just have to introduce you to one more of my favourite cafés in Copenhagen: Café Bang & Jensen, which is situated in an old pharmacy in the nice end of Istedgade on Vesterbro. If you look closely at the picture below you can just make out the beautiful old Art Nouveau frieze/mural on the back wall.
This place is very special to me.
When I first moved to Copenhagen many years ago I shared a flat on a Vesterbrogade with a good friend. We were both single, so all weekends were spent partying, and on lazy late Saturdays and Sundays mornings we would drag our hung-over bodies down to Bang & Jensen to recuperate over brunch. You order brunch by filling out a slip, indicating how you want your egg, if you want plain or chocolate croissants etc.
And a few years later Sam and I went here on our first date. We had been to the cinema to watch The Sixth Sense and ended up having quite a few pints here, as you do when you’re a bit nervous on a first date.
So this is a place I’ll always return to and I often arrange to meet up with my friends here when I’m in Denmark. And I quite like the haphazard decor with red café tables in the front room and a sofa and armchair lounge in the back. In the summer you can sit outside.
The menu is just as unassuming with cheap and easy-to-prepare café fare (they don’t have a proper kitchen) such as baba ghanoush (see pics), chili con carne, burritos and sandwiches.
In the evening Bang & Jensen turns into a proper bar and is open until 2 in the morning.
Café Bang og Jensen
Istedgade 130
1650 København V
Website
Map
Mette Bassett 
Yeah, I like this place as well. It’s always seemed a bit more cool than other spots, and it’s relatively inexpensive.
Just clicked on Sam’s link. I’m pretty sure he must work with my buddy Keith’s brother-in-law in London. Can’t remember his name, but he’s married to a barrister named Ruth. Does that ring a bell?
Oops, son in law.
hmmmm Ruth the barrister doesn’t ring a bell and MPC is pretty huge. Is this guy a compositor as well? Let me know if you remember his name – that will narrow it down a bit 🙂