Running a café in Denmark: how guests find you, and what the Danish rules say

Guests choose a café on what they can see before they walk in: opening hours they can trust, a menu with prices, real photos and replies to reviews. You can set all of this up for free in your Google Business Profile. Danish rules on the smiley, allergens and alcohol marketing also apply online, so check them too.

Button names and profile rules come from Google's Business Profile Help. Requirements for food businesses come from the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration (Fødevarestyrelsen), and the alcohol marketing rules from the Alcohol Advertising Board (Alkoholreklamenævnet). Their pages are in Danish. All sources were read on 10 November 2026.

Before you open: registration and the smiley

If you are opening a café in Denmark, register before you serve anything. Fødevarestyrelsen lists cafés among the food businesses that must be authorised or registered before they start trading. Changes count too: starting or stopping an activity, taking over an existing café, moving premises, or closing it.

The smiley is part of how guests judge you. The agency's starter brochure for new food businesses sets out three duties:

• The smiley sign must hang visibly at the customer entrance, and at every entrance if you have several.
• If the café has a website, it must link to your page on findsmiley.dk, or show your four latest inspection reports directly.
• The same applies if you sell through digital platforms such as Facebook.

Inspection reports are published on findsmiley.dk, so guests can look them up anyway. According to the brochure, most new food businesses get their first inspection visit within a month.

An English menu on the profile

If a visitor cannot read your Danish chalkboard, the profile is where they can read the menu. Food and drink businesses can use Google's menu editor: choose "Edit menu", then "Add menu item", enter the name, price and a short description, and "Save". "Add menu section" lets you split the menu into coffee, breakfast, lunch and cakes. If your menu exists as a photo or PDF, "Generate a menu" can build a draft for you to check before you publish it. Dish photos can be added once the menu is published. Changes can take 24 to 48 hours to show on Google Maps and Search.

If your menu already lives on your website, add a "Menu link" under "Edit profile", "Business information" and "Contact" instead. If you take orders, there are also links for "Food ordering" and "Pickup and delivery". Writing item names in Danish with a short English description helps both locals and visitors. Keep prices identical to the ones at the counter.

Allergen information

Fødevarestyrelsen states that allergen information for food that is not prepacked may be given in writing or orally. If you give it orally, a visible notice in the café, such as a sign, must tell guests that they can ask staff. If guests order through your website, the allergen information must also appear there.

The rules cover the 14 substances listed in the EU food information rules, among them gluten, milk, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, sesame and soy. If your staff speak English, say so on the sign. A guest with an allergy then knows whom to ask and in which language.

Hours that match the door

Set regular hours under "Edit profile" and "Hours". Use "Special hours" for public holidays, the summer break and event days. Special hours cover closures of up to 6 days in a row. For 7 days or more, Google suggests marking the business as "Temporarily closed". Google also suggests confirming your hours for official holidays, even when they match your regular hours. Add Danish holidays such as Easter, Whitsun and Christmas Eve well ahead.

Photos taken in daylight

Show the street entrance first, so a visitor can spot it, then the room, the counter with today's pastries and your best-selling drinks. Google accepts JPG or PNG files between 10 KB and 5 MB, at least 250 x 250 pixels and ideally 720 x 720. Photos can take up to 24 to 48 hours to appear on your profile. Videos can be up to 30 seconds long. Ask guests before you post a photo of them, or shoot before opening.

Reviews and replies

A small QR code at the till is an easy way to ask for reviews. A free coffee for a review is not: Google strictly prohibits free or discounted goods in exchange for posting, changing or removing a review. The Consumer Ombudsman's guidelines on user reviews add that reviews must not be selected on the basis of positive or negative experiences, so ask every guest the same way.

Once your profile is verified, reply from "Read reviews". Google reviews replies before they appear, usually within 10 minutes, but sometimes it takes up to 30 days. Keep them short and specific, answer in the guest's language, and never include personal details about the guest.

If you serve alcohol

Alkoholreklamenævnet's guidelines on alcohol marketing apply to every business marketing itself in Denmark, in any medium, including social media and websites. Among the rules:

• Marketing must never target children and young people, and anyone appearing in it must be at least 25.
• It must not encourage large or excessive drinking. Offers that require or encourage drinking within a narrow time frame may count as such encouragement.
• Price marketing is not in itself a breach of the guidelines.

A photo of a glass of wine with lunch is a different thing from a post about two drinks for the price of one in the next hour. If in doubt, read the guidelines before you post.

Listing the café on DenmarkGuide

In Copenhagen, DenmarkGuide now has two categories for cafés: Cafe Copenhagen with 53 places and Coffee shop Copenhagen with 48 places (counted on 10 November 2026). See how other cafés are shown, and check whether yours is listed. A listing in the directory is free, and the sign-up form will be added to the page shortly.

A short checklist

1. Check your opening hours on Google Maps from a phone.
2. Add special hours for the next Danish public holidays.
3. Publish the menu with prices, or add a menu link.
4. Make sure the allergen sign is visible to guests.
5. Check that your website links to findsmiley.dk.
6. Upload three new daylight photos.

No profile yet? Follow How to get your business on Google Maps in Denmark. Has the café disappeared from the map? Go through the checks in The business is gone from the map. What now?.

What guests see

Start with what a guest sees: hours, menu, photos and replies to reviews. If you want help getting the café to show up better on Google Maps, Madloba Consult can help:

Google Maps SEO for local business

Sources

All sources were read on 10 November 2026.

• Google Business Profile Help: About the menu editor
• Google Business Profile Help: How to set Special hours
• Google Business Profile Help: Manage your local business links
• Google Business Profile Help: Manage your Business Profile photos & videos
• Google Business Profile Help: Tips to get more reviews
• Google Business Profile Help: Manage customer reviews
• Fødevarestyrelsen: Autorisation og registrering af fødevarevirksomhed: Hvornår og hvordan? (in Danish)
• Fødevarestyrelsen: Kom godt i gang med din fødevarevirksomhed, brochure, page 3 (in Danish)
• Fødevarestyrelsen: Allergener i mad: Sådan skal du oplyse om allergener (in Danish)
• Forbrugerombudsmanden: Retningslinjer om offentliggørelse af brugeranmeldelser, 1. maj 2015, updated 1 July 2017 (in Danish)
• Alkoholreklamenævnet: Retningslinjerne for markedsføring af alkohol (in Danish)

Written by: DenmarkGuide editorial team (business guides). Fact-checked against Google's help pages on 10 November 2026.