På caféen serverer de en lille portion suppe, og den kommer på en bakke med brød ved siden af.

In Danish, på is often used for being at certain public places or businesses, so på caféen is a very natural way to say at the café.

• på caféen = at the café
• i caféen = in the café, physically inside it

So i caféen is possible, but på caféen is more idiomatic here.

Because caféen is the definite form: the café.

Danish usually puts the definite article at the end of the noun:

• en café = a café
• caféen = the café

This is one of the biggest differences from English.

This is because Danish follows the V2 rule in main clauses: the finite verb usually comes in second position.

Here, the sentence starts with På caféen, so the verb must come next:

• På caféen serverer de ...

If the sentence started with the subject, then you would get:

• De serverer en lille portion suppe på caféen.

So the word order changes because På caféen has been moved to the front.

Here de means something like they in a general sense: the people working there, the café staff, or the people at the café.

It does not have to mean a specific known group. English does this too:

• They serve good coffee there.

So de is a very natural way to talk about what a place generally does.

In Danish, after words for amounts, containers, or servings, the next noun is often used directly without af.

So these are natural:

• en kop kaffe
• et glas vand
• en skål ris
• en portion suppe

So en lille portion suppe means a small portion of soup.

If you used af, it would sound more like you are talking about part of a specific soup already being discussed.

Because suppe is being used as a mass noun here, like soup in English.

So Danish naturally says:

• en portion suppe

rather than

• en portion en suppe

That second version is not correct. The same pattern happens in English: a bowl of soup, not a bowl of a soup in this kind of general description.

Because portion is an en-word in Danish, so it takes en:

• en portion

The adjective lille means small/little, and it is the normal singular form here:

• en lille portion
• et lille bord

So the phrase is grammatically normal Danish.

Den refers back to the serving just mentioned: the soup / the portion of soup.

Grammatically, den is used for singular common gender nouns. Both portion and suppe are en-words, so den fits.

In context, English would probably just say it.

Yes. In Danish, komme can be used naturally for how food is served or arrives at the table.

So:

• den kommer på en bakke = it comes on a tray
• more naturally in English: it is served on a tray

This is a very normal way to describe restaurant food in Danish.

Because the soup is being served on a tray, not in one.

• på en bakke = on a tray
• i en bakke = in a tray/container

A bakke here is a tray, so på is the natural preposition.

Because brød often works as an uncountable noun, just like bread in English.

So:

• med brød = with bread

If you wanted to mean one piece or one loaf, you would say something more specific, for example:

• med et stykke brød = with a piece of bread
• med et brød = with a loaf of bread

Here it just means bread in general, served on the side.

Ved siden af means beside it, next to it, or in food contexts often on the side.

So:

• med brød ved siden af = with bread on the side

It tells you the bread is separate from the soup, not mixed into it or placed in the soup.