EBG Rating: 8.4/10

Choice/Quality of Drinks:
❤️❤️❤️
Basic lagers with some IPA and Porter options. Limited back bar with the brown liquor options like Gammel Dansk.

Style/Décor:
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Compact and set in the basement of a tall townhouse by the harbour, all looks sleek and tidy on the promenade as you approach and the frontage. As you descend into the basement suddenly you are transported back decades.

A scene of aged wood, walls with a patina of smoke, and a colourful collection of nik-naks and ephemera donated or obtained over the decades festooned on the walls and ceilings. There’s a pool table in the main room while the bar room is to the right. A third small lounge is to the left, and that’s your lot.

Atmosphere/Character:
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Open until 5am daily, the bar is the most classical example of how the Bodega evolves over the course of the day from its older early crowd smoking in a sleepy, clandestine feeling hangout chatting during the afternoon to the more excitable and noisy young late night crowd in the early hours. Smokey and raw.

Amenities/Events:
❤️❤️❤️❤️
Snacks, TV, pool table, jukebox

Value For Money:
❤️❤️❤️
Typical pricing for this part of the city.

Description:
Established in 1870, Café Malmö claims to be one of Copenhagen’s oldest brown pubs. In between that date and today, Denmark as with the rest of Scandinavia endured a powerful temperance movement lobby which heavily restricted where and how alcohol could be sold. Denmark’s story is slightly different, with beer receiving harsher restriction than wine. Venues adapted and became ‘Bodegas’, a term still in use today in Denmark to describe a pub.

Compact and set in the basement of a tall townhouse by the harbour, all looks sleek and tidy on the promenade as you approach and the frontage. As you descend into the basement suddenly you are transported back decades.

A scene of aged wood, walls with a patina of smoke, and a colourful collection of nik-naks and ephemera donated or obtained over the decades festooned on the walls and ceilings. There’s a pool table in the main room while the bar room is to the right. A third small lounge is to the left, and that’s your lot.

Open until 5am daily, the bar is the most classical example of how the Bodega evolves over the course of the day from its older early crowd smoking and chatting during the afternoon to the young late night crowd in the early hours.

As with the majority of Copenhagen’s brown pubs expect smoking, expect basic lager (not exclusively though – IPA and Porter can be found) and an antidote to the sterilised and commodified version of Hygge sold to the rest of the world.

Among very strong competition in the city, Cafe Malmö is a true stand out.

Destined to be a love or hate type venue, but such things never prevented us from taking sides, and we’re on Cafe Malmö’s side.

(Added April 2026)