Frikadeller: The Danish Meatball Every Kid Will Actually Eat

If you have a picky eater and you’re nervous about a Denmark trip, start with frikadeller. It’s a pan fried meatball, usually pork or a pork and veal mix, held together with a little flour or breadcrumb and a grated onion, and it’s about as close to universally kid friendly as food gets anywhere in Europe.

It’s flatter and softer than an Italian meatball, pan fried instead of simmered in sauce, and it shows up on nearly every home style Danish menu, usually served with boiled potatoes, a simple brown gravy, and pickled red cabbage on the side. It’s the kind of dish Danish grandmothers have been making for generations, the actual definition of comfort food here, not a tourist dish dressed up for visitors.

You’ll find it at casual restaurants all over Copenhagen and smaller Danish towns, and it’s usually one of the more affordable things on the menu, which matters when you’re feeding a family of five and every meal out adds up fast. Look for it on a frokost, or lunch, menu specifically, since that’s when it traditionally shows up alongside other classic Danish dishes.

If your kids balk at the gravy or the cabbage, that’s fine, let them eat the meatballs plain with the potatoes on the side. Nobody in Denmark is going to judge a kid for skipping the pickled cabbage. I wouldn’t force the full traditional plate on a first try. Let them find their way into it.

If you want to try making it at home before your trip, or after, to get everyone excited, it’s a simple recipe, ground pork, grated onion, egg, a little flour, salt and pepper, formed into flattened ovals and pan fried in butter. It’s a good one to cook together as a family the week before you leave, so the food feels familiar instead of foreign the first time it lands on the table in Copenhagen.

More on where to eat in Denmark with kids, frikadeller included, is in our Denmark family travel guide.