Told & Snaps

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A Copenhagen Classic Since 2000

Told & Snaps has occupied its high-ceilinged basement on Toldbodgade, steps from Nyhavn, since the year 2000. White tablecloths, tall wall panels and portraits of well-known Danish faces set a tone that is unmistakably classic without feeling stiff. This is a lunch restaurant in the truest sense — open every day from late morning, focused entirely on doing one thing well: traditional Danish smørrebrød.

The Food

The menu is a careful survey of open-sandwich tradition, built on fresh, predominantly organic ingredients and prepared from scratch each day. Aged marinated herring sits alongside hand-picked prawn salad with house-made mayonnaise; butter-fried red mullet comes on coarse-grain rye bread with large shrimp; and the butter-fried pariserbøf arrives with freshly grated horseradish. A chicken salad — juicy meat in mayo with a touch of curry, crispy bacon and parsley — is the kind of dish that earns quiet loyalty.

Seasonal specials push the kitchen further. The White Guide, which awarded Told & Snaps its Fine level recognition in 2026, singled out a spring offering of fresh stone-bider roe on butter-toasted bread with finely chopped red onion and crème fraîche, as well as a "Havstryger" plate of large Portuguese sardines and dark-seasoned herring on butter-fried French bread, finished with a rich egg-yolk mayo, dill and chives. For dessert, the kitchen turns to what they call authentic mormormad — a well-prepared sweet-salty øllebrød of beer, rye bread, salt and honey, topped with vanilla whipped cream, dark chocolate and toasted crumbs.

The Schnapps

Smørrebrød without schnapps would be only half the story here. Told & Snaps produces more than 20 house-made varieties, all based on an organic base spirit made specifically for the restaurant. The range runs from classics — bog myrtle, walnut, spiced — to the more assertive, like horseradish and black pepper, and gentler seasonal expressions using aronia berry, apple and cherry. A house schnapps made from sweet cicely (Spanish chervil), with its mild anise and fennel notes, is a natural companion to the roe dish; the Swedish Bäska Droppar bjesk, with its pronounced absinthe-bitter character, stands up to the oilier fish preparations.

The Setting

The White Guide described Told & Snaps as "a royally decorated, cozy little hole in Toldbodgade" — members of the royal house watching from the walls, service efficient yet attentive and unpretentious. That framing captures the place accurately. There is nothing performative about it. The smørrebrød is classical, the portions are appropriate, the plating is considered. Private parties are accommodated, and a seasonal Christmas menu — a full traditional Danish frokost — is available for larger groups by pre-arrangement.