Background:
We have done what few mortals have done - we’ve completed the holy trinity of the three Noma seasonal menus (Catch up by reading our reviews on the Vegetable season and Seafood season).
Getting to Noma this time was a year and a half process. We had originally booked a table for last summer, but then our friend Covid-19 hit and Denmark, like most of the world, shut down their borders. We kept pushing off and pushing off our trip until finally Denmark opened up and we were able to secure a table for the Game and Forest season.
During the pandemic Noma, like most restaurants in the world, had to pivot to keep its doors open. While they couldn’t have enough physical diners in their restaurant because of capacity laws they decided to open up a wine and burger pop-up, which now has a permanent location in the former, now deceased 108 spot next to Barr (Noma’s other sister restaurant) called POPL. They have two main options on their menu, a meat burger made from organic Danish cows and a vegetable burger from the famous Noma fermentation lab. The veggie burger is legitimately one of the best “burgers” I have ever eaten. The patty is made of a combination of quinoa and tempeh spores, which is fermented for 24 hours and then lathered with a garum of yeast, fava bean shoyu, and smoked vegan butter. It’s topped off with a slice of cheddar cheese, lettuce tossed in a chervil vinaigrette, POPL’s secret sauce, and a potato bun. The combination of all of those magical ingredients provides you with a texture of eating a meat burger but with much more intense and rich umami flavors. This burger is a great way to experience a part of Noma for $20 if you can’t make it to the main dining room and is a must try if you are in Copenhagen.
Don’t forget to order the fries with chili mayo as a side!
The Noma veggie burger
We visited Noma two weeks after its LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG overdue awarding of its 3rd Michelin star and a week before to 50 Best Restaurant list is to come out, of which Noma was named #1 in the world. It was also the first week of the new menu, which is always a fun time to go as it’s easier to avoid spoilers of the menu on the internet. Noma is famous for not repeating a dish on its menu, although if you have a vegetarian or someone with a food allergy dining with you you might see a reprisal of a dish from a former menu show up at the table. Because they don’t repeat a dish it’s always interesting to see what they come up with next to live up to the highest of high expectations. Most restaurants in the world, if they change their menu, will serve their “signature” dish, think Five Ages of Parmesan at Osteria Francescana or the balloon at Alinea. I think the non-repeating of a menu item forces Noma to be creative and to also throw some dishes on the menu that take some risks. Our first dish of the night, reindeer brain custard, was an example of this. The custard was topped with a gel made out of chestnuts, and the dish left us wondering if it was a good dish or not, mainly because neither of us are familiar with the taste of reindeer brain. But that’s how Noma goes - you’re going to try some shit that you’ve never contemplated trying in your life and 95% of the time you’re going to wonder why you don’t eat that ingredient every day because its so delicious, but of course we don’t have Noma to cook for us every day.
After three visits to Noma i’ve noticed a few recurring themes to how the team likes the structure it’s menu. For one, the first dish and the last dish normally have something in common. At our first visit during the vegetable season it was a potato soup served in a flower pot for our first dish and a cake shaped like a flower pot. For the seafood season it was a raw scallop to begin and a chocolate seafood cod to end, and finally for the game and forest it was reindeer brain custard to begin and a reindeer caramel to end. They also like to have a milk dish to start the desserts instead of a cheese course, which we’ve had berries and cream, sheep’s milk with dried berries, and buttermilk and scoby. There are also some ingredients that Noma likes to showcase - there is normally some sort of insect dish (grasshoppers, ants, etc), there is also the most delicious small pine cone somewhere in the meal, and they like to use quince instead of lemon to help flavor a dish or two. The Noma fermentation lab is always very involved in the dishes, whether it’s overt or not. There are garums, sauces, juices and whole dishes that the fermentation team works on and show up through out the meal.
Eat This:
The end of September through December is game and forest season, which is the only season which meat plays a predominate role (or really a role at all) at Noma. There is one menu, and it’s a whirlwind so hang on for the ride.
Reindeer brain custard
The first dish was served in a reindeer skull. We were asked to turn the skull over the reveal the reindeer brain which was covered in a chesnut gel. The reindeer brain tasted and had the texture of a pate, while the chesnut custard was like of like a weird jello experiment. This was a dish where we couldn’t quite figure out if it tasted good or bad, because it was so different than anything we’ve really ever had. Normally I like the first dish to be outstanding and set the tone, but what I think this dish did was let us know we were going to try some stuff we’ve never tried so be ready for it.
hipberry stuffed with Pollen
This dish and the next were focused on the bee, with this hipberry being stuffed with sweet bee pollen. The hipberry was very sour and reminded me of the fruit leather from past Noma meals. Noma did a very similar dish with this same combination for the first rendention of the Game and Forest menu in 2018.
pluM with bee larvae
One thing that Noma excels at is presentation. The plating of this dish inside of a honeycomb accentuated the fact that we were eating bee larvae. The plum’s sweetness and texture complimented the stuffed larvae on the inside perfectly.
Pickled Quail Egg
The pickled egg was served on with seaweed and truffle spread. The seaweed added a nice balance to the egg and heartiness of the truffle.
Oregano Sandwich
This was one of the best bites of the night. The Mexican oregano leaf was stuffed with chopped up truffles, and the oregano provided a buttery, umami texture to combine with the truffle.
Wild Board Speck & Chestnut Paste
This was, for both of us, the best tasting dish of the night. The boar meat was so juicy and tasty and combined with the chestnut paste it was so damn good. It was also served with quince, which we were to squeeze over it like a lemon.
Grilled Mushrooms
Served alongside the boar was grilled hen of the woods mushrooms. The Hen of the Woods is a huge mushroom that can be upwards of 35 pounds each. We were served a piece that was smeared with a garum from the fermentation lab. An amazing, earthy bite.
Apple Salad
This dish continued another theme of the night, which was turning over the vessel to reveal the edible portion of the dish. We were served a cut out apple (see below) which we turned over to reveal cubes of apples and ants in a sweet broth. You know the dish is good when you drink the remaining broth out of the cup, which we did.
Yellow Beet Sashimi
The yellow beets were cut sashimi style and served over cloudberries. The earthiness of the beet mixed well with the sweetness of the cloudberries. I think this is obligatory time to bring attention to the beauty of each dish which Noma serves. Noma has a serving style unlike any in the world. They combine the intricacy of the dish with the earthiness of the plate, and pay homage to the season and theme I think the best of any place in the world. There aren’t too many restaurants where you can show a picture of a dish and immediately guess where it came from, but Noma is one of those places.
Reindeer Ragout
The warm reindeer ragout salad was served in a huge leaf which you ate with a spoon. Three days after we dined at Noma, Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin went to Noma and his dish was “reindeer penis” served with caviar on top. Did we have reindeer penis? God we hope so.
Pumpkin in Koji Butter
The pumpkin was wrapped in a cabbage and served with a froth of koji butter. What was subtle and nice about this dish was that the chefs cut up the cabbage to make each bite each to eat. Too many fine dining restaurants serve dishes that are physically difficult to eat, which almost always takes away from the enjoyment of the experience, especially when you’re trying to cut something and the juices are flying everywhere.
Bear Dumpling
This is, as Adam Carolla would say, a classic rich man, poor man situation. The only people in the world who have tried bear are rich people who go to Noma and poor people who hunt bear in Appalachia. I think we’re pretty much right in the middle of that demographic now that we live in South Carolina.
The bear was served in a warm dumpling, and we were given a spoon of bear caramel so we could get an understanding of the flavor of the bear. I don’t think my palate is sophisticated enough to recognize the quintessential bear flavor, but this dish overall was very balanced and tasted delicious.
Wild Duck
The duck was served with a truffle sauce, very reminiscent of the sauced celeriac shawarma served during vegetable season 2018. It was served with different plays on leaves and feathers, which were all edible.
Having duck a few days earlier at Mirazur, which was pretty underwealming, this duck was well seasoned and cooked perfectly. The star of the show for me though were the leaf and feather sides, which balanced the duck and showed the amazing talents of the Noma chefs.
Foraged Things
This one didn’t have a title, so I’m going to call it foraged shit you find in the woods. The pine cone, a Noma staple and one of the most amazing things you’ll ever eat, showed up here, along with various nuts, pickled fruits, and leaves.
Mushroom broth with Sumac
Next we were served a mushroom broth with a piece of the sumac bush. We were told to soak up the mushroom broth with the sumac and then suck the sumac. Sumac by itself does not taste good, but sucking the juices from it added a subtle sweetness and bitterness to the mushroom broth which accentuated its flavor. Probably one of the more unique dishes we’ve ever had.
Buttermilk and Scoby
We are now transitioning to the desserts, and our first was a buttermilk ice cream with a kombucha scoby on top. This was the one miss of the night for us - we thought the ice cream was served too hard that it almost hurt when biting in, and the scoby didn’t add much to the non-flavored ice cream.
Saffron Ice Cream with Poppyseeds
The saffron ice cream was layered between rich dark chocolate from Mexico. I thought the chocolate counter balanced the saffron nicely, and it was also nice to have the layers of chocolate to dig into.
Reindeer Marrow Caramel
The last bite started like the first, with us flipping over the bone to reveal the caramel marrow and dried berries. The caramel was sweet and had a perfect, not too sticky, texture. This was an outstanding dish that left us wanting more.
Drink This:
Both Yvonne and I did the juice pairing this time, which are always amazing. My favorites were the bee pollen and the cloudberry and pumpkin. At the end of the meal, I asked if I could have a schnapps, which is a traditional Nordic way to end a meal. I was brought out an apple schnapps from the Sydfyenske region, which is a large island that separates the main part of Denmark that connections with Germany to the region where Copenhagen is. The story goes that 100 years ago most workers would take an apple on the train for breakfast as they went to work. Once they were done, they discarded the apple pit off the train. Flash forward to today, and now there are thousands of apple trees of various varieties all over this park of Denmark. The schnapps I had was made from these apple trees in a direct collaboration with Noma and is called “Jernbaner”after the railway company which still operates there.
Bee Pollen
Apple Schnapps
Seaweed Lemonade
Cloudberry and Pumpkin
Atmosphere:
The vibe at Noma always feels like a fairytale. From when you approach the gate, to the long walk down the path past the greenhouses, test kitchen, and garden, the approach to the main dining room door which is always decorated for the season, and then the parade to your seat always feels like you are entering a world which you never want to leave. I’ve always felt it was hard to take it all in at Noma, because there is so much going on and everything seems so magical that you don’t want to miss anything, from the decorations to the kitchen, to Rene Redzepi roaming around. When you walk out after your meal is done, you look back and it almost feels like a dream. I never went to the old Noma location, but the current location is hallowed culinary ground to me.
Main kitchen
The alley of antlers
Long path to the entrance
Main dining room
Noma Hospitality:
One of my only complaints about Noma is that the hospitality can come off, at times, as cold. When we were first seated our waitress said “I understand this is your first time.” That right there tells you that there is a miscommunication somewhere, or they don’t have a good system of knowing when there are repeating guests, or worse yet they don’t care. We also have noticed that the team plays favoritism to certain guests, whether its Rene Redzepi delivering dishes to certain tables and not others, or certain tables getting special dishes. This creates a feeling, for those of us who don’t receive that treatment, that we aren’t special enough to receive these special items from the team. And maybe we aren’t special, but on a night where you go to a place that you love you want to be treated that way. It’s like when you go to the big dance and see your crush making out with the high school quarterback. This has never set well with me, especially for someone who cares about what Noma means to the culinary world and how important I believe what they are doing with fermentation, foraging, and their work as a whole. I just want them to pretend to care about me as much as I care about them. And maybe that’s not possible, but I don’t think its too much to ask to know that we’ve traveled to Copenhagen three times just to visit Noma that this isn’t our first time at the restaurant.
Also a few other things I’ve noticed that have changed, and for me not for the better. Noma used to give you a menu with the date on it. Now the date is missing, which is a small thing, but just makes me think that they print the menus out a week ahead of time. The date added a personal touch that let you feel like that day was your day at Noma and was special. They also didn’t give us a little trinket for the season, which they used to do for each guest. They also brought us the same dish twice, which I’ve never seen happen at any three Michelin star restaurant. They were nice about it, and let us keep it and eat it, but still that is a mistake that shouldn’t happen.
The front door, with dead ducks and all
The front door at night
The top of the apple and ants dish
The view from our table
Frankie’s Notes:
Sam Hart, chef at Counter-, told us that his friend Alex was working at Noma. Before we went, we DMed Alex on Instagram (@reunionparkpopup) to tell him we knew Sam and that we were dining at Noma next week. He said to say hi, so we told our waitress when we arrived at Noma that we wanted to say hello to him at some point in the meal. Keep in mind, we’ve never met him, just DMed him on his food-based Instagram, so we have no idea what he looks like. After our meal is over, Alex shows up and we talk for a bit. He was a little quiet, but we figured we took him from his job, so we didn’t think anything of it. The next day I DMed him and just said how proud we were of a local guy from North Carolina working at Noma. He then writes back and says sorry he didn’t have time to come by and say hi to us the night before. SO WHO DID WE SPEAK TO? Turns out there is another American Alex from Virginia who we came and spoke to us and pretended to know who we were. Sorry Virginia Alex, we didn’t mean to freak you out by asking to speak to you, we were just asking to speak to the other American Alex. A classic case of Alex mix-ups.
Rating: 5 out of 5 with 3 Michigan Pugs
Putting all the hospitality qualms aside, Noma still dazzles with its unique, amazing food and fairytale atmosphere. It remains my favorite restaurant in the world and a place that any fine-dining lover should visit. Comparing it to the other seasons, we both enjoyed the menu slightly more than the seafood season and slightly less than the vegetable season. The vegetable season was our first visit, and I think that will always be number one for us since it was such a revelation for us as far as what a meal could be, so it will always be hard to top that, but Game and Forest lives up to the hype and then some.
