Background:
A lot has happened at Noma over the last year and a half. Rene Redzepi and his team got best restaurant in the world again, a third Michelin star, announced that it’s “shutting down” - more on that later - and moved the whole restaurant to Kyoto, Japan to do one of their famous worldly pop-ups.
Noma’s pop ups have always intrigued me. Their previous iterations, Tokyo, Sydney, and Tulum, seemed to inspire the best out of Noma by forcing the team to be creative with local ingredients while utilizing the techniques perfected in Copenhagen. I wondered if the wow factor that we experienced at our first meal at Noma in 2018 could be replicated seven time zones away.
Yvonne and I were originally supposed to go to Japan in April 2020 as our “pre-baby” trip. We had the whole thing scheduled, bags almost packed, and then Covid happened. Japan completely shut down for foreigners at that time and didn’t reopen until October 2022. It had been rumored for a while that Redzepi wanted to do another pop-up in Japan, and that it was planned for a few years but because of Covid kept getting delayed. When the Kyoto pop-up was finally announced, we had a one year old baby, so we turned our pre-baby trip into a post-baby trip.
Because of the exclusivity of the pop-up, we had to book a four-top table. I don’t have a lot of friends who want to travel halfway around the world to spend $810/person and eat (let alone I don’t have a lot of friends), so I turned to The Hungries, which is an online food community started by Anders Husa & Kaitlin Orr. It’s a great community of people who travel to eat and generally like the finer things in life. Joe from San Francisco and Katherine from Copenhagen ended up joining us, making our table a worldly representation of The Hungries. It also added a nice mix up for Yvonne and me, allowing us to have new conversations with like minded food people. Case in point - don’t be scared to dine with strangers. Sometimes it can be bad, but most of the time it makes the experience better.
Eat This:
Noma’s meals always tell a story, the dishes are always so layered, that I half joking said during this meal that I’m going to have to wait for the book to come out in a few years to understand half of what I was eating and what it meant in the context of the meal, Japan, the wider culinary scene, and maybe even humanity as a whole.
My general strategy when going to special restaurants is I try to not see the menu beforehand, which in this day in age is almost impossible. Noma is normally pretty good about not posting current menu items, but for this pop-up they were a little fast and loose, so I basically avoided instagram posts and stories, trying to keep the surprise alive. I prefer to enjoy the meal not knowing what is coming next. I find that makes the meal more enjoyable.
That being said, the anticipation for this meal was sky high. Would Noma live up the hype?
Hassun
1. Fresh Yuba and wild greens
2. Koji and red ginger
3. Dried tomato and roses
4. Cherry leaf with black garlic
5. Pollen and tomato
The first dish was a series of small bites meant to be Noma’s play on Hassun, which in a traditional Kaiseki meal would be the first bites served to represent what is currently in season. In Copenhagen this would have probably been presented at 5 separate dishes, but having them all on one plate and to experience at once really set the fireworks in place for the meal.
We’ve been to Noma now five times, and this was by far the strongest start to any meals we’ve had there and probably ever. Each sub-dish was so good and different from the next that it made the 10 minutes were eating these dishes a true experience. The outstanding bite for me was the koji and red ginger. The ginger was muted to just get the flavor and the koji’s umami made the bite unforgettable.
Shabu Shabu
various seaweeds, konatsu citrus, seaweed ponzu
This dish was a play on shabu shabu, which is normally made with meat. We were instructed to dip the seaweed into the broth and allow them to cook for 5 seconds. Then we were supposed to dip in the ponzu and eat.
The seaweed immediately changed color when put into the water, which made the dish look cool; however, this one to me just didn’t taste that good. The coolest bite of this dish was the konatsu citrus, which we were instructed to eat with the rind on. It was a mild citrus that wasn’t overly sour, making it easy to eat and enjoy.
Cuttlefish
The cuttlefish sashimi was served on a top of beautiful block of ice, appearing as if floating on top of the rocks of the sea. This was a great bite, delicate and subtle.
Bamboo
with black pepper and squid sauce
This one was also a slight miss to me - I love the concept but the bamboo was a little too “al dente” for my liking. But i’ve never had bamboo so who am I to judge.
Swordfish belly
with kombu butter and caviar
This was just fatty, buttery, silky excellence. If I could eat this every day, I would, multiple times a day. The swordfish was very meaty, which played well with the rich kombu butter and the creaminess and saltiness of the caviar.
TOFU
with almonds and nasturtium flowers
This dish was a standout to me. It reminded me of a coconut curry, with the combo of fresh grated almonds, the green soy milk tofu, and the spicy nasturtium. I think of all the dishes, this is the one I think about the most for creativity and perfection.
Kinki Fish
with egg yolk sauce
Kinki Fish (rockfish to us gringos) was bathed in a very nice egg yolk sauce and i’m sure some other ferments I don’t remember. This tasted really meaty, but nothing to write home about.
Lotus Root
This lotus root is confit in koji oil overnight and then put on the barbeque for multiple hours while being glazed with different concoctions from the fermentation lab. This dish reminded me of Noma’s famous celeriac shawarma - a way for them to take a pretty hard root vegetable and turn it into something special.
Sansai
lobster head sauce
This started a 3 part lobster progression. First were local, seasonal raw vegetables served on top of a lobster head sauce. This was a polarizing dish at the table. Some loved it, some hated it. I loved the local seasonability of the vegetables, but thought they could have used a little cooking instead of being served raw.
Spiny Lobster
with smoked corn, pumpkin, and sansho leaves
The lobster was served on top of a corn/pumpkin remoulade which was delicious. A great main course dish to highlight the lobster in a very Noma way.
Green Rice
with ise ebi, lobster, and rose petals
The final main dish was a tribute to Kaiseki again, where traditionally rice is served as the last main savory dish. This green rice was served with rose petals and the rest of the lobster. It was unique, as in the rest of the world you normally end with a more substantial dish, however, it made for a nice palate cleanser for the desserts.
Yuzu Shijimi Clams
Talk about a wow, A++++ dish. The yuzu ice cream is made to look exactly like local clams. The taste was sweet, citrusy, and slightest bit sour, and the creaminess and the temperature of the ice cream were perfect.
Desserts
1. Dried Strawberry stuff with Mochi
2. Sweet Potato paste in White Chocolate
3. Egg Fruit custard
We ended the meal as we started, with a series of small bite desserts that were all out of this world. The sweet potato had almost a marapan quality, and was one of my favorite bites of the night. The egg fruit is a fruit that has the texture of an egg yolk, and book ended the meal nicely in comparison with pollen and tomato custard from the first set of bites.
Drink:
The price of the pop-up included either a non-alcholic or alocholic pairing. The alcoholic pairing, which we didn’t do, had a variety of sakes, local beers, whiskey, and Japanese wines that Joe enjoyed. Katherine did something I had never seen and which was ingenius: she asked for a combo of the non-alcoholic and alcoholic. I think that’s a good way to go, especially if you tend to get drunk easy (aka me), as a full pairing can have you forgetting the second half of your meal.
The non-alcoholic pairing was a classic Noma pairing of local fruits, vegetables, and teas. We especilaly enjoyed the iced green tea.
After the meal we were offered special cocktails which we had to pay for. I chose a Paloma that had local hot peppers in it. It was good, nothing insane, and when the bill came it was ¥5,000, or the equivalent of $36. We were wondering what the price would have to be before someone said something about a cocktail being too expensive. It might have been over/under $36.50. But what can we do - YOLO.
Jasmine tea with amazake (fermented rice)
The $36 Paloma
Tomato & Smoked Corn Juice
Melon & Kiwi Juice
Atmosphere:
Noma did an excellent job making the decor feel like we were in Japan but with a Scandanavian vibe that put us all into what I thought was the proper setting for the dinning experience. Noma customized and furnished the entire restaurant for this pop-up, from the plates and silverware on up to the custom chandeliers as part of their extensive research and prep for the pop-up. The staff were wearing the familiar Noma blue outfits and grey aprons that we were familiar with from Copenhagen, and overall the vibe we had was a casual and fun.
The main dining room
Walking up to the restaurant by following the sea shell clues
View of the kitchen from our table
The view from our table
Hospitality:
The hospitality was top notch, with our main server Cornelia being extremely knowledgable and accommodating. This being our 5th trip to Noma, I was not walking out of the restaurant without a picture with Rene Redzepi, so Katherine was kind enough to be the loud American and ask if we could take the picture. It took about 30 minutes to make happen (a million other people had asked and wouldn’t stop talking to him), but we finally got it as we were walking out the door. Mission accomplished - I have a picture with Redzepi doing the Japanese peace sign and Joe looking creepy in the background. The perfect encapsulation of the meal.
FRANKIE/Jeff’S NOTES:
Our other big family news is we have a new pug, who we aptly named Jeff. He is an insane puppy, but we love him dearly; Yvonne during the meal asked Katherine if her earrings had Lizzo on them - turned out it was the Virgin Mary; I wanted to give a 10 second elevator pitch on how I thought that Noma should sell branded chopsticks or some other Japanese tchotchke to commemorate the pop-up, but decided against in and instead put it here to satisfy my introverted ways. I also think they should have a one day food tour the day before you dine with them to take you on a tour of Kyoto to get a better understanding of the place before the meal. And while i’m at it, Rene Redzepi should go around to each table for a 30 seconds each and take pictures with the guests. It would save him time and make everyone happy; We saw guests wearing everything from a t-shirt to kimono, and I think that sums up the world pretty well; Apparently every American has told Redzepi they want to move to Copenhagen, and his response is that Copenhagen is great except the weather could be 10% better.
Jeff aka Jeffrey aka Jeffy aka Geoff aka Poo Poo Jeffy aka El Malo
RATING: 5 OUT OF 5 WITH 3 MICHIGAN PUGS
I did a lot of nitpicking above, but overall the whole meal was amazing, thoughtful, and mind blowing. It brought us back to our first meal at Noma in Copenhagen, where we left shell shocked, not understanding what had just happened to us, and wanting more. There was so much to meal to unpack, so much meaning in each dish, that it’s hard to even know in the moment what was going on other than what we were eating tasted really good. I think the sign of a truly amazing meal is that when you come back to it in your mind you keep uncovering and finding new meanings and levels to the dishes and the experience as a whole. There is no doubt that Noma Kyoto was that type of meal.
Since the news that Noma as we know it is shutting down, and everyone knows that we are obsessed with Noma, we have been asked 100 times what our thoughts are on the news. You know it’s a big deal when People Magazine writes an article on the closing with the title “World’s Best Restaurant Noma, Which Often Served Reindeer Penis, Will Close.” My take - Redzepi accomplished what he wanted with Noma 2.0. He got best restaurant in the world again, got his third star, and now wants to move on to the next thing. If there is one thing we know, Redzepi is not one to sit on his laurels of past success. I think that the worldly pop-ups really stimulate him, and I think we’ll see a lot more of those in the future. I think we’ll see Noma do a lot of collaborations and pop ups in Copenhagen as well, just not as defined of menus as we saw with the three season restaurant. You’ll see a lot more products being sold from the fermentation lab, more books, and I think a more subscription based model like their current Taste Buds.
Whatever is in store next for Noma, you’ll know we’ll be first in line to sign up for the experience. There is no other restaurant in the world that has had a bigger influence on us and probably the rest of the culinary world then Noma, and we’re excited to see what the team decides to do next.
