One of the earth-shattering news in the culinary world last year was Noma’s announcement of its closing at the end of 2024. Helmed by René Redzepi who put New Nordic cuisine on the map, Noma for anyone who has casual knowledge of restaurants has long been considered one of the finest dining institutions in the world. It’s probably the highest compliment for a restaurant when diners plan their entire vacations around visiting it (I was no exception as noted later), and I suspect Noma is one of the trailblazers that started this itinerary trend. After its closing, Noma is supposed to become a food laboratory featuring dishes for retail consumption. Noma has long been on my wish list but given how notoriously difficult it is to get a reservation at the restaurant, I haven’t really thought about making the pilgrimage to Copenhagen until the news of the restaurant’s closing. When the restaurant’s reservation window for its Ocean Season starting in early January 2024 opened up in October last year, I set an alarm clock and frantically started looking for an open spot in February, and voila! I was able to secure a table for my wife Jun and I! It was only after the booking was completed that we started looking for a flight to Copenhagen. We arrived early in the morning on a Thursday in Copenhagen, and while we normally would have walked around the city on our first day like any other trip to Europe, this time Jun wanted to fully relax in our hotel room so she can be 100% recovered from the jet lag before heading over to Noma. The sense of our anticipation only grew higher when we entered a waiting room inside a greenhouse-like structure before knocking on a large door full of shells. Verdict: our dinner at Noma was without question one of the best meals in our lifetime!

Following a sneak peek at the ingredients brought by our server (the langoustine was still moving!), we were greeted later with whole cooked langoustine. Jun was struck by how the kitchen managed to extract the tiny legs to put together a beautifully deconstructed version of the shellfish; more importantly, it was quite a delicious langoustine with wonderful texture, enhanced by sour berry paste and plantain powder you can add. Next to the langoustine was a seductively aromatic broth based on mussel with bergamot. I didn’t grow up particularly enjoying seaweed, but if I had encountered something as delicious as the “salad” version from Noma (for its memorably crunchy texture as well as a touch of fermented barley oil), I might’ve become a true believer. Jun and I most likely have not had blue mussel with beets together in a single dish before, and we would love to see other restaurants try this combination.

Sea urchin is not Jun’s favorite seafood, but Noma easily won her over with a terrific bowl in tomato water and salted hazelnut sprinkled on top. One of my favorite dishes of the night was the incredibly thinly sliced raw squid on top of grilled koji (fermented barley) “cake” (our server brought a whole bed of this grain for display). I don’t even know how the kitchen figured out this impeccable textural combination between the squid and barley, and it shows the relentless attention to detail that it pays to every ingredient at its disposal. We frequently have cod roe for dinner at home, and it was quite a revelation that the kitchen put together a confit version in elderflower waffle (with wasabi leaf in between); Jun was in awe with how the cod roe, typically quite a salty ingredient, managed to show a very balanced flavor. I have to say Noma ruined it for us when it comes to scallop; I mean how could you get anything comparable to this exceptional dish with cream of sencha tea that was so spot-on in both flavor and texture? The kitchen had some fun with cod for this season, starting with its tongue on the bone you can take out from the fish’s head and an “eye” pie (we saw diners next to us skip this dish thinking this was an actual cod eye, but only the meat around the eye is used, while the real eye is made is jasmine tea gelee), followed by throat confit and jaw with smoked pumpkin.

Noma’s Ocean Season not surprisingly didn’t have a single meat dish but we didn’t miss any, especially after immensely enjoying the barbecued burbot from Sweden with cockle sauce that had the meaty texture comparable to swordfish. The kitchen certainly didn’t let up even after all the memorable savory dishes. Another favorite of mine from the night was this incredible dish of hazelnut milk foam forming a circle with seaweed oil and caviar within. We have certainly tried dessert dishes with savory ingredients before, but Noma really has made a loud statement on how to do justice to sweet and savory for a dessert. Oh yeah, and you would also love this sweet oyster (not really an oyster but made of ice cream entirely in the form of one), too. By the time we finished the meal with snobrød (Danish twist dough) on kelp skewer with yuzu syrup on top as well as clam gel, we were one very happy couple (maybe it was the fact that this was our first meal after we landed in Copenhagen and “fasted” the entire day or maybe it was the seafood-only menu, but we weren’t quite as stuffed as we had thought, either).

As noted above, getting a reservation at Noma will require deft fingers on the keyboard (make sure to sign up for the restaurant’s newsletter which will tell you when the reservation window opens in Tock) and sheer luck. Consider yourself one of the luckiest persons in the world if you manage to snag a table. It’s certainly not too late to try: at the time of this writing, the restaurant announced that it will stay open until the spring next year (with a pop-up in Kyoto later this year). The serenity of the restaurant’s dining space and the surrounding area with its quintessential Scandinavian sensibilities will only further enhance your experience, as will a friendly and surprisingly low-key service staff and a wine list that was not as outrageously priced for a restaurant of its caliber. Recently, we’ve had some moments of trepidation from other restaurant visits questioning whether we have become too jaded by all the fine dining experiences. Well, Noma gave us renewed confidence that we could still discover phenomenal dining experiences around the world. What we saw in the restaurant was unparalleled dedication to sourcing the best ingredients it can find, as well as supreme command over putting them together to bring joy to diners without stuffiness that can undermine a restaurant from becoming truly great. We will forever cherish this meal and look forward to seeing how the restaurant evolves as it enters the tail end of its illustrious history.

Address: Refshalevej 96, 1432 Copenhagen, Denmark

KenScale: 9.5/10 (Jun’s Score: 9.5/10)

Website: https://noma.dk/

Reservation via Tock