If you are visiting Copenhagen and someone tells you to head to Vesterbro for pizza, they are giving you good advice. Trust them.
Vesterbro is not just one of Copenhagen’s most exciting neighborhoods. It is the neighborhood where I chose to open MaMeMi, and where my cousins and I have been making authentic Roman-style pizza for over a decade. So I know this neighborhood well, and I know its food scene even better.
But before you just show up and hope for the best, let me tell you seven things that will make your Vesterbro pizza experience much better. These are the things locals know and visitors often miss.
1. Vesterbro Is Not Your Typical Tourist Neighborhood
Most visitors to Copenhagen spend their time around Nyhavn, Strøget, and the city center. These are beautiful places and worth seeing. But they are tourist areas, and the food reflects that. You pay more and get less.
Vesterbro is different. It is where Copenhageners actually live and eat. It used to be the city’s working class neighborhood and, further back, had a rough reputation as a red light district. Today it is one of the most sought-after addresses in the city, full of young families, creatives, musicians, chefs, and people who genuinely care about where they eat and drink.
When you eat pizza in Vesterbro, you are eating in a neighborhood where the locals will tell you immediately if something is not good. Restaurants here earn their reputation the hard way. That is exactly why we chose to open our Italian restaurant on Vesterbro — the neighborhood keeps you honest.
So if you are looking for the real Copenhagen dining experience, skip the tourist center and come west. Istedgade, which is our main street running right past MaMeMi, is one of the most interesting stretches of restaurants, bars, and shops in the entire city.
2. Roman-Style Pizza Is Different From What You Expect
Most people coming to Copenhagen for pizza have a picture in their mind. Maybe Neapolitan pizza, soft and foldable with a puffy crust. Maybe the American style they grew up eating. Maybe something from a chain restaurant.
What you will find at MaMeMi is something different. We make Roman-style pizza, which is the style from Rome where my family is from. If you want the full comparison, our dedicated blog on Roman vs Neapolitan pizza breaks down the differences technique by technique.
Roman pizza is thin. Really thin. And crispy all the way through, not just on the bottom. When you bite into it, you hear this satisfying crunch that Romans call scrocchiarella. The base holds its shape so you can eat it with your hands without everything sliding off. It is light, but satisfying. You finish a pizza and feel great rather than heavy.
This style of pizza requires different technique, different dough, different baking. We ferment our dough for at least 48 hours and use a secret blend of five organic flours from small Italian producers. The result is the best pizza in Copenhagen if you ask us — and something you genuinely cannot find anywhere else in the city. Many people who try it for the first time say they prefer it to the Neapolitan style they expected.
If you have only ever eaten soft, thick, or floppy pizza, authentic Italian pizza in the Roman style is going to be a revelation.
3. The Natural Wine Scene Here Is Serious
Vesterbro has one of the best natural wine scenes in Scandinavia. This is not an exaggeration.
The neighborhood has a concentration of wine bars and restaurants that take natural and organic wine seriously. People here understand wine, seek it out, and are willing to pay for quality. This has created an environment where restaurants compete on the quality of their wine lists, which is great news for you as a visitor. Our own wine bar on Vesterbro is part of that ecosystem.
At MaMeMi, my cousin Danilo is a certified sommelier who has personally visited hundreds of Italian vineyards. He has met every single winemaker on our list and can tell you the story behind every bottle. We have over 1000 natural wine labels, which makes our Italian wine bar in Copenhagen one of the most extensive natural wine destinations in the entire city, not just the neighborhood.
This matters for pizza more than people realize. The right glass of natural wine with a Roman-style pizza is a completely different experience from eating pizza with water or beer. Danilo pairs wines specifically with our pizzas — see our guide on which wine goes best with your pizza for the philosophy behind his choices — and when you let him guide you, it changes the meal.
When you come to Vesterbro for pizza, come ready to drink well too.
4. Book Ahead, Especially on Weekends
Vesterbro is popular. Really popular.
The neighborhood has transformed over the past twenty years from somewhere people avoided to somewhere everyone wants to be on a Friday night. On weekend evenings, the good restaurants fill up fast. If you show up without a reservation at a quality pizzeria at 7 PM on a Saturday, you might find yourself waiting or, worse, ending up somewhere that was not your first choice.
At MaMeMi, we recommend booking ahead for weekend evenings. You can do this online and it takes two minutes.
The good news is that we now also serve weekend lunch from 12:00 on Saturdays and Sundays. This is a quieter option, the atmosphere is a little more relaxed, and you can sit outside on our terrace if the weather cooperates. A long Italian lunch in Vesterbro on a Saturday afternoon is honestly one of the best ways to spend time in Copenhagen.
Walk-ins are always welcome and we will do our best to find you a table, but for weekend evenings especially, book ahead.
5. Make a Full Evening of It
One of the biggest mistakes visitors make in Vesterbro is treating it like a quick stop. Come for pizza, eat fast, leave. Please do not do this.
Vesterbro is a neighborhood designed for lingering. The whole philosophy of this area, and of Italian dining which we try to bring here, is that a meal should take time. You start with a drink, maybe an Aperol Spritz or a Negroni or a glass of something natural that Danilo recommends. You share some antipasti — the Italian way to start a meal. You order your pizza. You finish with a digestivo. The whole thing takes two hours and you do not notice because the conversation is good and the wine is interesting.
After dinner, Vesterbro has plenty of options. The Meatpacking District, which we call Kødbyen, is just a short walk away and has some of the best bars and nightlife in the city. Istedgade itself has great wine bars if you want to keep drinking without the club scene.
If you are in Vesterbro for pizza, stay for the whole evening. You will be glad you did.
6. Vesterbro Rewards the Curious
This neighborhood has layers. There are the obvious spots that everyone knows, and then there are the places you only find if you walk around and pay attention.
On Istedgade, you will find MaMeMi at the corner with Mysundegade. We have recently extended onto Istedgade, so we now have more space and our terrace faces the street. You can sit outside and watch the neighborhood go by, which is one of my favorite things about where we are located on Vesterbro.
A few minutes further down Istedgade takes you toward Enghave Plads, a square that has become a neighborhood gathering point. The metro station here connects you to the rest of the city in minutes, which makes Vesterbro very easy to combine with other parts of Copenhagen. Our pizza near Enghave Plads landing has more on this part of the neighborhood.
Vesterbro also has Værnedamsvej, a charming street on the border with Frederiksberg that people call the little Paris of Copenhagen. Cheese shops, wine bars, French-leaning bistros. Worth a walk before or after pizza.
The more you explore, the more you find.
7. Ask Questions and Talk to the People Serving You
This is something I feel strongly about, and it applies everywhere in Vesterbro but especially at MaMeMi.
The best dining experiences happen when there is a real conversation between the table and the people serving them. Ask what is seasonal today. Ask what Danilo recommends to drink. Ask about the dough. Ask where the ingredients come from. Tell us what you like and what you are in the mood for.
We are not a big chain restaurant with scripted answers. We are three cousins from near Rome who moved to Copenhagen because we believed this city deserved real Italian pizza. Francesco (that is me) oversees the restaurant. Danilo is our sommelier and he lives and breathes wine. Daniel runs the service and makes sure you feel looked after. That is our story, in short.
When you come to MaMeMi, you are meeting people who built this place from nothing and care about every pizza that leaves the kitchen. The more you engage with us, the better your experience will be.
This is true throughout Vesterbro. The neighborhood attracts restaurateurs, chefs, and sommeliers who chose their craft over a corporate career. They want to talk about what they do. Let them.
A Quick Guide to Finding Us
MaMeMi is at Mysundegade 28, on the corner with Istedgade in Vesterbro. We are about two minutes on foot from Enghave Plads metro station. You can also take bus lines 6A or 26 to Enghave Plads.
We are open Wednesday to Sunday for dinner, and now also for weekend lunch on Saturdays and Sundays from 12:00.
Our outdoor terrace is open in warmer months, facing Istedgade. It is one of the nicest spots in the neighborhood to sit outside with good wine and pizza. See the full menu online before you come.
Book your table online or walk in and we will do our best to accommodate you.
One Last Thing
Vesterbro is a neighborhood that rewards people who show up with curiosity and an open mind. Leave your preconceptions about pizza at the door. Be willing to try a natural wine you have never heard of. Order the seasonal special even if you do not recognize every ingredient.
This neighborhood changed my life. It is where I chose to put down roots and build something. I think it can surprise you too.
Come hungry. Come curious. Come ready to stay a while.
See you soon.
Francesco
MaMeMi is located at Mysundegade 28, Vesterbro, Copenhagen. Authentic Roman-style pizza with over 1000 natural wine labels. Weekend lunch open Saturdays and Sundays from 12:00. Outdoor terrace open in season. Book your table or walk in. Two minutes from Enghave Plads metro. Open Wednesday to Sunday.
