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    Issa

    4.0 (54 reviews)
    InexpensiveJapanese
    Open 12:00 pm - 3:00 PM, 5:00 PM - 9:00 PM

    Issa Photos

    ISSA ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Moderate noise
    Casual
    Good for kids

    Recommended Reviews - Issa

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    Reviews With Photos

    Ginger pork
    Ana C.

    This tiny place is tucked on a side street and it unassuming from the outside but filled with so much yummy goodness inside. Food 5/5 This is home cooked Japanese food at its best! This isn't the place to get sushi but delicious rice dishes. We had the tonkatsu (fried pork cutlets) and pork ginger and though the menu doesn't show it, you are served a complete meal. There is soup, rice, salad and some fruit to end your meal. I will be back regularly during my stay in Copenhagen! Service 4/5 The staff is attentive and very friendly. We were surprised to discover they didn't speak Danish but they do speak English. Atmosphere 3/5 The restaurant is pretty small; there are less than 20 seats. The decor is no-frills but the food takes center stage. Value 5/5 This place is cheap by Copenhagen standards and the portions are very filling. For less than 150 kr/person, this place is a bargain!

    Tonkatsu teishoku
    Eva K.

    I'm afraid I must take one star out of earlier four star review I made. Reasons: Before, they had simple Japanese home-style food that we appreciated a lot amidst the sea of sushi restaurants in Copenhagen. Back then they were revolutionary in providing the good old Japanese cooking, just like your Japanese mom would make it (if you had one). Now, they have so many items in the menu that it's rather hard to look at. Pardon me if I get it wrong, but having so many items in the menu doesn't always spell a good thing in my dictionary. Why not keep it simple to the one that you're good at making? I went here to try their "ramen" menu that they recently added into the already enlarged menu book. I ordered miso ramen for 98kr. What came out more like a shoyu with a sad topping of cha shu (BBQ pork), lots of corn and two pieces of seaweed sheet and overcooked egg. It feels like the ramen was made lazily, compared to those beautiful beauties that other ramen shops in Copenhagen made. The noodles were undercooked as well (I don't mind al dente, but this is way too much and since my noodle state preference being overcooked, this was hard to enjoy for me). I ordered shrimp tempura on the side which was still good. The rules! The first page of the menu book contains a set of rules that a customer must read, among them are that "thou shalt not take picture of food or the surrounding". If you charge your cellphone here, then you would have to pay 20 DKK extra, if you happen to bring food from outside, you'd be fined 200 DKK added to your bill, BLA BLA BLA. Come on. I do understand their advice stating that this is the kind of place where you come, eat and go, not the place to linger (they even mentioned that this is not the place for you to practice your Japanese, or cooking - like whut?) but stating all those things at once on the front page of the menu feels downright hostile to me. Seriously? ...and the no picture thing, I don't get it. Wouldn't it be better for their business to have more people take pictures of their beautiful food and share them on instagram? That's the reason that I would never know.... They have also become stingy, charging 10kr for extra sauce. Say what? I mean. There's got to be a boundary of how many rules you can make without scaring the customers away? I do still give them three stars though because they still make good "home-style" Japanese food. Don't come here for the ramen, but come here for the tonkatsu, or donburi, or whatever teishoku set they have but I wish they weren't so downright hostile with the rules :/ That earns a very deep frown from me.

    Noodles soup with pork
    Sui L.

    Shop decoration is very delicate, the taste of the food is very good....The price is very reasonable.... The position is very easy to find.

    chicken namban
    Mina S.

    we came here as a group of six and all left very pleased. there aren't many seats available though, so we may not make a habit of eating in packs here. i ordered the chicken namban and traded a piece of tonkatsu with a friend; both dishes (friendmeat not included) were juicy on the inside and covered with crispy fried breading. tastes just like in japan! the amount we got was very filling, and reasonably priced. the waitress was very kind and kept coming by to refill our tea and water, which were either included in the sets or free since they didn't show up on the bill. what pushed it up to five stars? we had a vegetarian friend with us who was beginning to look worried when she realized that all that was available to her was salad, edamame, and seaweed. but the waitress talked with the chef and she got a lovely surprise of kakiage, tempura of assorted vegetable strips, in place of meat. i don't know if they will do this for any vegetarian than wanders in, but it was a nice touch.

    Shoyu with kakuni as the topping. Itadakimasu!

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    8 years ago

    Great food, small cozy atmosphere. The perfect date place. Warning, the food is right out of the oven = HOT.

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    11 years ago

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    9 years ago

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    12 years ago

    Great, simple, tasty Japanese food. No sushi here, but some amazing Tonkatsu (my favourite dish on their list). It's very cheap too.

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    9 years ago

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    8 years ago

    Craving some ramen and soba on a cold Copenhagen night and this restaurant did not disappoint!

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    9 years ago

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    9 years ago

    My favorite Japanese restaurant! Great chef, great service and great food! Very worth a visit!!

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    Issa Reviews in Other Languages

    Review Highlights - Issa

    Issa is one of my favourite restaurants in Copenhagen, and I come there often both with my girlfriend and friends.

    Mentioned in 10 reviews

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    Japansk Restaurant Sukiyaki - Hummer som blev lavet ved Tapanyaki bordet

    Japansk Restaurant Sukiyaki

    3.8(13 reviews)
    0.6 kmVesterbro
    $$$

    I was very skeptical at start about this restaurant, especially because it got three star rating…read moreand below from previous reviews and it seems like nobody (at least nobody from yelp) has visited this place recently. Although I have been walking along Vesterbrogade for so many times, somehow this place is invisible to me, only after Linnea R arranged an event to dine here that I discovered this place. I wasn't hungry enough to order the teppanyaki menu so I decided to get the sushi and sashimi menu instead and split a bowl of soba with raw egg with Mina K while the rest of us ordered teppannyaki. Oh well, how sorry I was for not choosing it. The seafood one looked absolutely divine especially when the chef was cooking them in front of us (we were seated by the teppan table). Although the price seemed a bit steep for the menu (420 dkk), you got tons of food for it as I have witnessed from my dining company's meal. You get the starter sushi / sashimi, you get the seafood teppannyaki with rice and miso soup and believe me, there were plenty of food to go around. One thing that pulls one star down from the perfect five was the SLOWNESS of the service. It took forever to get our food (well, the teppanyaki menu was a show of itself) but the sushi took a long time to appear, apparently. Even when we wanted to leave and wanted to get our bill, it took forever as well. This time it was alright because we had great dining company so we didn't mind waiting but we spent what it was like four hours in the restaurant. Sorry, I'd like my food to be faster please. Hungry! *points to stomach*

    If you're craving authentic Japanese food - this is the place to go! In a jungle of running sushi…read moreand wannabe Japanese restaurants this is the real deal. Hard to find on your own because it is on the first floor. As one of only two places in Denmark this place features a "Teppan yaki" table where the chef prepares your food on a big hot plate in front of you. The "Ume" course is my favorite but even at the regular tables you have a great variety of traditional Japanese dishes to choose from. Yum!!

    Photos
    Japansk Restaurant Sukiyaki - Half way through the awesome Ume teppan yaki course...

    Half way through the awesome Ume teppan yaki course...

    Japansk Restaurant Sukiyaki - Udsøgt sashimi

    Udsøgt sashimi

    Japansk Restaurant Sukiyaki - Sushi set

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    Sushi set

    STUDIO - Appetizer

    STUDIO

    4.8(44 reviews)
    1.9 kmVesterbro
    $$$$

    I made the mistake of mapping the restaurant via Yelp, Studio had just relocated. So we got to…read moretheir old location by foot and found nothing. Dialed the restaurant and found out we were about 3 miles away and CPH only has taxis - so we had to walk back to the city center to hail one. Front of the house was so graceful about the whole ordeal - told us not to worry and to just get their safely. Truly took the burden off us! The food - let it take you on a head to tail journey. Incredibly well thought out food - locally foraged and harvested ingredients. A beautiful bounty of Scandinavian ingredients, manipulated with the utmost precision. Chef presented several of the courses - inspiring to hear the descriptions from the creator himself and he was so authentically engaged when we peppered him with questions. At the end of the night it was a bit challenging getting a taxi back - even Chef got involved in the process. The humility and graciousness, stunning. All memorable and fantastic. Wouldn't change a thing.

    This was the most underwhelming meal in Copenhagen for me. This review is a few weeks late (i…read morevisited CPH last month). The location is awesome, the staff are great and friendly. Chef Alan Bates was pretty good in conversation. But, the food just didn't hit the mark. I was there lunch time and ordered 5 course menu (they only have that for lunches, otherwise you can go for more traditional 9 course menu). The trout tart looked beautiful, didn't have much of wow factor in taste though. The pasta dish was good with ton of truffle shavings. The main meat dish was not at all there. I mean it was cooked nice but there was a side of tempura made from pig-brain if i remember correctly, and it was pretty bad!! Not fried well, was chewy and the fried batter coating got badly stuck on my teeth! Dessert was good.

    Photos
    STUDIO - Our atmosphere at STUDIO

    Our atmosphere at STUDIO

    STUDIO - Appetizer

    Appetizer

    STUDIO - Our atmosphere at STUDIO

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    Our atmosphere at STUDIO

    Sticks 'n' Sushi - Seared Salmon Sushi

    Sticks 'n' Sushi

    4.2(105 reviews)
    1.0 kmVesterbro
    $$$

    Didn't know this was a chain restaurant when we visited! The set up for the restaurant and the…read moreatmosphere gave the feeling it was a stand alone location, not a chain. They are located at the top level of the hotel. It's recommended to have a reservation to dine. The staff was friendly, but wouldn't accommodate any party without a prior reservation. The food was excellent! I remember getting one of the set menus to share. It came with sushi, yakitori, and appetizers. The set was called (something like) "The perfect day", which it truly was!

    I went to Tivoli for the day and was craving sushi by the end of the day. I looked this place up on…read moreGoogle Maps & thought it looked really fresh. We came around 7PM on a Monday and it wasn't too busy. We were able to walk in and get sat right away outside (I definitely recommend sitting outside). It's got a nice view! Our server was very kind & answered a ton of questions we had about what to choose etc. We started with the tuna tartare which was light and refreshing. I thought the avocado on it would be more like cut up pieces instead of more like guacamole. I thought it would be better that way. I didn't love the texture of the avocado they put. We also got the blanched spinach with the goma sauce which was tasty but I wish it was warm instead of cold! It was a pretty small portion as well. Things I really loved: the seared salmon sushi - it was very fresh & the pieces were large! We got the wagyu stick and MYYYY GOD if steak were butter than that's how I'd describe the texture. Sprinkle a little of the flaky salt on it and it's one of the best things I've put in my mouth. Things I didn't love: the miso cod stick. I've had this before elsewhere and it's been way better. I expected the texture to be buttery and for it to not taste fishy - it was neither of those. Also, Ted Dansen & Lilly Collins walked right past our table so overall had a really cool experience here!

    Photos
    Sticks 'n' Sushi - 10.2024

    10.2024

    Sticks 'n' Sushi - Perfect day - sushi set

    Perfect day - sushi set

    Sticks 'n' Sushi - Menu

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    Menu

    Issa - japanese - Updated May 2026

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