World’s best restaurant Noma postpones closure, to stay open until 2025, eyes return to Kyoto for ‘unfinished business’

In January 2023, Rene Redzepi announced the closing of his world-famous Copenhagen dining room Noma – the five-time winner of the World’s 50 Best restaurant list and one of the hardest tables to book on earth – at the end of 2024.

Now, Noma’s chef and co-owner is giving diners a reprieve. And a new venue to consider. Noma will return to Kyoto for a second residency at the end of the year. The 10-week engagement will once again be at the Ace Hotel Kyoto and run from October 8 to December 18.

And when Redzepi and his team return to Copenhagen, they won’t immediately close the doors to the storied compound. Instead, they will extend Noma 2.0 into Spring 2025. The chef, who divides the year by three, not four, seasonal menus – Vegetable; Game and Forest; and Ocean – will serve the seafood menu for the last few months before Noma 2.0 ends its run, for real they say, on an undisclosed date.

Reservations for Kyoto will open on May 14 via the Noma newsletter. This year’s Kyoto menu and drink pairings will cost €840 (US$912) plus a 10 per cent charge for service; last year it was €775 plus 10 per cent.

There will be seven services a week, four dinners and three lunches, for a total of 70 meals. About 100 team members and their families, around the same number as last year, will come to Kyoto; Noma in Copenhagen will be closed during that time, although Noma Projects, which produces products like smoked mushroom garum, will continue to operate.

Noma might be returning to the same place as the inaugural pop up a year ago, but don’t expect the same shabu-shabu with seaweed and tomato-as-rose that was served last year.

“Well, Kyoto in autumn will certainly offer a different experience; seasonality plays a crucial role with its 72 micro