Øens Have

Refshaleøen and the Ritual of Eating From the Ground Up

Approaching Refshalevej from the city centre, the neighbourhood signals its identity before any restaurant does. The former industrial peninsula that houses Refshaleøen, once a shipyard, now Copenhagen's most experimental food and culture district, has developed a dining character that sits apart from the Michelin corridor of Indre By and Frederiksberg. Where Geranium and Koan operate within formal tasting-menu structures that reward sustained attention and considerable budgets, the venues of Refshalevej tend toward a more immediate relationship with produce, fire, and season. Øens Have sits squarely in that second mode.

The address at Refshalevej 159b places the restaurant within a cluster of warehouses and repurposed industrial buildings that define the area's physical texture. The kitchen garden attached to the restaurant is not decorative, it is functional infrastructure, supplying vegetables that move from soil to grill within the same operation. That proximity shapes the entire rhythm of eating here, from the selection of what appears on the plate to the way individual ingredients are handled once they arrive in the kitchen.

The Grill as the Central Gesture

Copenhagen's vegetable-forward dining has evolved considerably since Noma reoriented the conversation around Nordic produce in the mid-2000s. What began as an intellectual and terroir-driven project has filtered outward into a broader civic attitude: that the region's short growing season produces ingredients worth treating with serious attention, not compensating for with technique or import. Øens Have operates inside that tradition, but from a specific angle, the open-fire grill as the primary cooking method, applied to vegetables that have been grown metres away.

The ritual of the meal here is structured around minimal processing. Vegetables arrive at the table in states close to their natural form, their textures preserved rather than transformed, their flavours pushed by char and heat rather than elaborate sauce work. This approach has real integrity. When the sourcing is this tight and the cooking this direct, the gap between garden and guest is almost negligible, which is a meaningful thing in a city whose serious restaurants often prize technical distance.

The dairy presence, however, is consistent and significant. Butter appears across multiple preparations, not as a finishing flourish but as a structural flavour component. This is not unusual in a Danish kitchen context, where fat has always played a supporting role in vegetable cookery, but at Øens Have it shapes the menu's identity in ways that close off certain paths for diners with dietary restrictions. For a vegetarian, the kitchen's approach is largely coherent and satisfying. For a vegan, the menu's architecture does not accommodate easily, and that is worth knowing before you arrive.

Where the Kitchen Sits in Copenhagen's Vegetable Conversation

Copenhagen's produce-led restaurants now occupy several distinct tiers. At the apex, Alchemist and Geranium operate as multi-course conceptual experiences, where vegetables appear within elaborate frameworks that include protein, fermentation, and theatrical service. Kadeau takes a more seasonal and island-focused approach, applying preservation and fermentation techniques to produce a menu with considerable technical depth. Øens Have occupies a different position: it is neither conceptual nor heavily technical. Its argument is more direct, that proximity to growing, honesty of preparation, and the specific flavour of live-fire cooking on seasonal vegetables is sufficient to build a meal around.

That argument is partially convincing. The produce integrity is genuinely high, and the kitchen's handling of texture is careful. The heavy reliance on butter as a flavour driver suggests that the kitchen has not yet found a full range of solutions for making simply prepared vegetables feel complete without dairy fat as support. For a kitchen with this level of access to its own produce, that gap is worth noting, not as a failure, but as an area where the cooking has room to develop.

The Score and What It Means

That score reflects genuine produce sourcing and a real commitment to working within the rhythms of season and place, alongside a menu that has not reached the technical or compositional level that would justify a higher mark. The dairy dependency that limits vegan access also signals a kitchen that is still finding its range beyond its primary strengths.

For context, the 3 Radish tier within Copenhagen's broader field is a position shared by restaurants that do something meaningfully well without having fully assembled all the components. It is worth more than a passing visit if the format aligns with your preferences, but it sits at a distance from the critical intensity of Copenhagen's higher-rated tables. Readers interested in the fuller New Nordic and creative spectrum should also consider Jordnær in Gentofte and the range of options documented in our full Copenhagen restaurants guide.

Planning Your Visit

Øens Have is at Refshalevej 159b, 1432 Copenhagen. The address is on the Refshaleøen peninsula, accessible by bike, car, or seasonal water bus from the city centre, the journey is part of the transition out of central Copenhagen's denser dining geography. Dress informally. The industrial-garden setting does not call for formality, and the meal's pacing reflects that, this is eating tied to the outdoors and the fire, not to ceremony.

For broader Copenhagen planning, our Copenhagen hotels guide, bars guide, and experiences guide cover the full range of the city. Denmark's wider restaurant picture extends from Frederikshøj in Aarhus to Henne Kirkeby Kro in Henne, Alimentum in Aalborg, ARO in Odense, and Domæne in Herning. For reference points further afield, the produce-to-plate discipline on display at Øens Have finds an interesting counterpoint in the classical precision of Le Bernardin in New York City, a reminder of how differently two kitchens can interpret the idea of letting the primary ingredient lead. Our Copenhagen wineries guide is also available for those building a longer itinerary around the city's drink culture.