Vegan in Copenhagen: Naturbageriet bakery review

At the end of last month, I had the good fortune to end up in Copenhagen for a long weekend. Prepare yourself for a few Danish themed posts...

Apparently, in Denmark, there's no such thing as a Danish pastry: what we call a Danish pastry the Danes actually call 'Viennese bread'. 

At least, that's what I read in my handy Time Out guide to Copenhagen when I was on holiday in the Danish capital recently.

That's not to say the Danish don't make pastries. Oh no. Not only do they make pastries, they make pastries of all sorts of exciting types and hues -- and there's one bakery in town that even makes a load of them vegan.

Naturbageriet has two branches in Copenhagen - one near the Nørreport metro stop, and one near Copenhagen's central station (the latter is down a bit of seedy street where an abundance of sex shops and the charmingly named Spunk Bar reside. The former's in a nice bit of town, not far from the city's botanic gardens and assorted other green spaces.) 

In the interests of bringing you a fair review, I tried both. Yes, dear readers, I really do suffer on your behalf.

Oh yes, it was tough, but I tried pastries at both branches, and extensively too. We ate their rolls, biscuits, cakes, and things that looked just like Danish pastries, but were probably called something else. Apart from a bit of an over-reliance on cinnamon in the sweet stuff, they were all uniformly lovely.

Being Danish, and therefore better at speaking English than the English are, in both shops the man behind the counter was able to point out what was vegan and what wasn't. In both cases, about 80 percent of the shop's products were vegan, and a lot of it was gluten free too (although it's probably worth pointing out that in one instance, honey was considered vegan. The pastries have their ingredients listed on in the shop windows, so you can always double check if you've got a dictionary or dictionary app handy.)

The pastries had a bit of a wholemeal-y taste to them - that's not a criticism, just a taste difference that surprised me a bit. I normally like cakes that are bad for you, and taste like they are too!

Mind you, if you're feeling particularly absemious through either choice or necessity, there's even sugar free as well as gluten free options for all your cakey needs. I tried a sugar-free applecake, and was happy to discover it was still gorgeous and hearty for all that, with a stodgy cake base topped off with juicy baked apple slices.

My favourite of the several baked goodies I tried was the rum ball - so dark and soft and rich with rum I wanted to build a tent in it and stayed in there for days. 


The marcipanguf (what an awesome name! pictured below) came a close second - it was two sugary, biscuity layers with a slice of marzipan baked in the middle. I tried to eat it slowly. I couldn't. I scarfed it down like I thought someone had made it illegal.


Copenhagen isn't the vegan-friendliest capital city, but stop into a Naturbageriet, and you'll feel well loved.

Naturbageriet
29 Frederiksborggade and 98 Istegarde
Copenhagen
Denmark
33 14 62 26

Comments

  1. Apricot and apple Danish pastries used to be my favourite sweet things to buy from bakeries but I've totally forgotten about them since going vegan. Yay for vegan bakeries, perhaps I'll stumble upon a vegan danish one day...

    The rum ball looks impressive, I make them often as my man is obsessed with them.

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    1. Wow - definitely send the recipe my way, I'd love to make them at home!

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  2. Wow, I appreciate all the hard work you do, eating all that delicious food, just so you can do a great job of informing us readers of what's out there! I love that in Denmark, there are no Danish pastries. Just like in China, there's no "Chinese restaurants," just restaurants, ha ha. Anyhow, how did you discover these bakeries? Were you planning on checking out all the bakeries until you found some that had vegan goodies, or did you know about these two ahead of time? Besides breakfast, baked goods are the most challenging to find when traveling. I love that there were so many vegan options for you.

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    1. I'm nothing but an altruist when it comes to bakeries!

      With a place that's not very vegan friendly, like Copenhagen, I do a load of research before I left. I wandered around with my little sheaf of paper with restaurant listings on!

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  3. How much do I love it that the ingredients were listed on the window? Man, I wish that more places would do that! It would make ordering so much easier!

    Thank you so much for suffering on my behalf! Know that if roles were reversed, and I was faced with an abundance of delicious, vegan pastries, I would do the same for you!

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    1. Vegans are so giving that way, aren't they? Always testing out treats on each other's behalf!

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  4. Man you're like Mr. Traveler Guy! So envious. :) And I always wonder about the vegan-ness of some European countries and cities, so I appreciate reviews like this!

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    1. It's been a bit of travelling year this one - I'm not normally this much of a travel bunny! That said, I'm off to Amsterdam next wee for my mother in law's birthday...

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  5. Thanks for suffering through all that pastry on the chance we might find ourselves in Copenhagen one fine weekend. I wish I could follow your recommendations at this very minute as I'm hungry and facing a bowl of hot cereal which is beginning to seem even more dull than it did before I read your post!

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  6. It has the same effect on me - I'd rather be chowing down on one of those rum balls then a sarnie at work!

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  7. oh yum. That looks so good. Thanks for all the info.

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  8. I have heard tell from people who have visited Denmark that Danish pastries are something quite different, not to mention better, than what we are used to here (in the U.S.), but I didn't know they called it Viennese bread. Although you say Copenhagen was not the most vegan-friendly city, I find it encouraging that there were two branches of a vegan-option bakery there. It may just be me, but I think that posting ingredients is a trend that may be catching on. Both of your choices look good, but I must admit my favorite vegan pastries are homemade cinnamon rolls which I will probably make for "the holidays."

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  9. "Being Danish and therefore speaking English better than the English" - ha ha! You are too funny! I am so envious of your travels, and it sounds like it was an educational and tasty excursion. :)

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  10. I really want to go to Copenhagen, so it's great to know I can enjoy some vegan pastries when I'm there! :) It looks lovely to top it off. Although I'm with you about wanting my cake to taste bad for you... ;)

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