PIRLO osteria

You don’t have to fly to Italy to sample Italian cooking at its simple best, just catch a cab or the metro to Strandlodsvej 42a on Amager. Tucked away in a hidden backyard , lies one of the area’s best new hidden gems. With its tall windows, open kitchen, interior in wood and floors the colour of English mustard, Pirlo grasps its own identity.

backyard secret, value for money

The first surprise at Pirlo is not the food, it is the price. In a city where a memorable meal can quickly become a serious investment, Pirlo feels refreshingly grounded. Guests can choose between the four-course “Experience Pirlo” menu at DKK 445 (EUR 59), or wander through the à la carte offering, where dishes begin at a humble DKK 45 (EUR 6) and rarely climb beyond DKK 175 (EUR 23). It is a rare thing: a neighbourhood Italian osteria with ambition, warmth and prices that still feel like an invitation rather than a barrier.

The meal begins with a small but telling gesture: homemade bread rolls, fried until they emerge in a delicate, frilly coat of crisp batter, accompanied by a smoky mayo for dipping. It is the kind of opening bite that makes you pause and think: well, this is a very good start.

The same restraint carries into the goat cheese tartlet, a seemingly simple composition of creamy goat cheese, pickled artichoke, green beans and raw marinated zucchini. Yet simplicity is often where Italian cooking reveals its confidence. The dish balances freshness and acidity, with the salty tang of the cheese adding a grown-up edge that keeps it from becoming predictable.

Among the starters, the seasonal ceviche at DKK 75 (EUR 10) delivers the biggest punch for the price, bringing brightness and precision to the table. But while the antipasti and secondi offer plenty of reasons to linger, it would be a mistake to fill up too quickly.

Because at Pirlo, the real temptation is obvious: pasta…pasta…pasta.

The secondi might include a beautifully cooked hanger steak, served rare with bagna cauda sauce and kale for DKK 175 (EUR 23), but the heart of the kitchen lies in the handmade pasta. This is where Jakob Koch Nielsen’s craft truly comes alive, a reminder that in Italian cooking, the simplest things are often the hardest to get right.

Agnolotti with veal jus, the agnolotti is stuffed with minced chicken breast and black truffle sauce glazed in long-braised oxtail bouillon. Imagine paper-thin, sublimely al dente sheets draped prettily in a sticky, nutty, silky, heavenly jus. This casually orgasmic type of dish does not need a 10-story panoramic view to help sell it. In addition to the Italian menu, Pirlo has a bar menu with simple Italian-inspired drinks, an extensive grappa menu with 25 different versions of the Italian brandy from the producer Marolo, while the wines are delivered exclusively from Era Ora Wine, a unique and award-winning wine collection.

Era Ora was an Italian restaurant in Christianshavn in Copenhagen, which was established in 1983. In the period 1997-2019, the restaurant owned a star in the Michelin guide. The restaurant is closed today, but the wine collection and import lives on. The wines are exclusively from top Italian producers, and most of the wines have been allowed to rest down for the necessary time to reach their potential. Wine list pricing is, like everything else here, eminently reasonable.

local charm, local proDuce and local love

Pirlo may celebrate the timeless flavours of Italy, but its soul is unmistakably Danish. Behind the pass is Jakob Koch Nielsen, formerly of Salon 39, whose deep respect for the craft of pasta is evident in every plate. Alongside him is Kasper Georg Jensen, trained chef, carpenter and great-grandson of Danish design icon Georg Jensen. His fingerprints are everywhere, from the restaurant's concept to the handcrafted bar he built himself.

Leading the dining room is restaurant manager and sommelier Morten Lindegaard, whose warm, unpretentious hospitality ties the experience together with effortless ease.

Pirlo doesn't try to reinvent Italian cuisine or chase the latest culinary trends. Instead, it focuses on doing the classics exceptionally well, letting quality ingredients and careful craftsmanship speak for themselves. Hidden away in a quiet Amager courtyard, it's the kind of place you stumble upon after a day of museums, galleries or wandering Copenhagen's streets and wonder why nobody told you about it sooner.

Small in size but generous in character, Pirlo delivers the kind of casually irresistible dining experience that lingers long after the last forkful. Intimate, deeply satisfying and, perhaps most surprisingly, refreshingly affordable.