The Experience
Sushi Anaba is among the most demanding restaurants in Copenhagen to secure a reservation at — fifteen seats, two sittings per evening, and a waiting list that tracks the city's most dedicated food community. Chef Mads Battefeld spent years training in Japan before returning to Denmark to open a sushi restaurant that would meet the standards he had absorbed at Tokyo and Osaka counters. The result is a counter experience that stands with the best omakase operations in northern Europe.
The cuisine is Edomae nigiri — the Tokyo tradition of aging and curing fish to develop flavour before pressing it against hand-formed rice — adapted for the fish that Scandinavian waters produce. Battefeld sources exclusively from the North Sea, the Danish straits, and the cold Atlantic waters that supply the Nordic fishing industry: turbot, sea bass, shrimp from Greenland, langoustines from Norway, herring and mackerel treated with the patience that Japanese techniques require.
The counter seats fifteen diners arranged around the chef, who works through twenty to twenty-five pieces of nigiri at a pace that mirrors the Tokyo tradition — one piece, a pause, the chef's explanation, another piece. The rice is prepared with Battefeld's own blend of Danish vinegar and Japanese rice, the shari being the kitchen's most obsessively refined element.
Sushi Anaba's Michelin star recognises what the counter format achieves: a singular experience of ingredient quality and technical mastery that a conventional dining room cannot replicate. The counter position places each diner in direct conversation with the chef's work, which is the correct way to experience food of this precision.
Best Occasion: Solo Dining
The solo diner at a serious omakase counter occupies one of the most comfortable positions in all of dining — the counter culture was designed for individual engagement with the craft. At Sushi Anaba, each seat receives identical treatment, the pacing is calibrated to the individual diner rather than a table, and the chef's attention is genuinely shared rather than performed. It is one of the finest solo dining experiences available in Copenhagen.
What to Order
The omakase menu is the only option. There is no alternative and no à la carte. Trust the counter entirely. The marinated tuna preparations, appearing at different points in the menu with different curing intensities, are the dishes that demonstrate most clearly what Battefeld's training produced. The sake selection is curated with the same rigour as the food.
