OTTO Pizza: a Neapolitan standout in a city of castles, kings, and surprisingly uneven pizza.
Pepperoni pizza
Copenhagen is a city with its rich history all around. You wander past Rosenborg Castle, where generations of Frederiks stockpiled crown jewels; you stroll along canals that remind you of Amsterdam; you pause at at open air beer garden for Tuborg on tap; you duck into Tivoli, the world's second oldest amusement park that has the look and feel of a fairy tale. It’s a place where old and new coexist effortlessly.
(Important side note: long ago, I drank Tuborg in college because I watched television ads for Tuborg Gold promising “the golden beer of Danish Kings." I thought it was a fancy import beer but priced in line with ordinary domestic stuff like Pabst and Miller -- although in fact it was brewed in the USA by Carling under a licensing agreement. Later it was sold to another US brewer and lost even more of its character. However, Tuborg in Denmark on tap is wonderful.)
"Proscuitto e funghi"
But let's get on to the Pizza! Copenhagen is still figuring that part out.
The city has world‑class restaurants and a design culture that obsesses over craft, but its pizza scene is uneven — a mix of decent Neapolitans, a few Roman experiments, and some Nordic‑chef reinterpretations that feel more like edible art projects than pizza. You can find good pies, but you have to know where to look. OTTO is one of the places worth looking.
It sits conveniently next to the CitizenM hotel (a Marriott property), which makes it almost too easy to wander in for lunch. And the lunch deal is borderline miraculous: a small pizza plus a drink for 70 kroner (about $11). In Copenhagen, that’s cheaper than a beer at Tivoli.
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| Modern but spartan interior |
The pies show real skill. The crust is the star — great puffy Neapolitan, airy and buoyant, with a rim that rises proudly like it’s auditioning for a royal banquet. The sauce has a zippy brightness that many Copenhagen Neapolitans lack, and the mozzarella, though slightly undercooked, is fresh and mild with good flavor.
Toppings are handled with personality. We ordered two different pizzas. The pepperoni pie uses proper snappy, spicy cup‑and‑char pepperoni, a welcome surprise in a city where “pepperoni” often means thin salami slices that wish they had ambition. The prosciutto e funghi is mislabeled — it’s ham, not prosciutto, and the mushrooms are standard button mushrooms — but the pie still lands as balanced and genuinely tasty.
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| Proper char underneath |
OTTO’s minor flaw is structural if actually more true to Neapolitan standards: they overload the center, and the middle collapses into a soggy zone. It’s a common Neapolitan issue, but more pronounced here than at American shops that understand that flop is not a desirable feature for any style of pie. Still, the crust and sauce are strong enough to keep the experience enjoyable, and the soggy aspect affected only the first bite of each slice.
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| Tivoli Gardens |
In the grand Copenhagen context — a city of kings named Frederik, castles that look like movie sets, and a beer culture that keeps Tuborg flowing — OTTO stands out as one of the better Neapolitans in town. Not a pilgrimage spot, but absolutely a place worth eating, especially if you’re staying at CitizenM. Overall, this was a very welcome find - a lively, tasty Neapolitan with a damp center but a great attitude.
