Noma, a 5-time winner of the 'World's Best Restaurant' title, is closing down and I got one of the l

• Founded by chef René Redzepi in 2003, Noma is an iconic restaurant based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Known for bizarre servings, like reindeer penis and duck brain, the restaurant is closing to become a "pioneering test kitchen."
• My friend and I got reservations for their last Vegetable Season tasting menu. Here's what our experience was like.

I'm a 27-year-old who has had the incredible opportunity to spend most of this year traveling the world. In classic backpacker fashion, I've been staying in hostels with shared bathrooms and bunk-bed rooms of six to 10 people.

But in February, my friend Kinnery asked if I wanted to meet her in Copenhagen this summer, and she suggested we try to get a table at Noma, a famed restaurant that has snagged the top spot on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list multiple times and earned three Michelin stars in 2021. 

It wasn't exactly the kind of experience I'd been used to while backpacking, but I told her if we could get a reservation I was in. At just under $600 per person plus about $250 to $330 more for a juice or wine pairing, Noma isn't cheap.

As someone who teased a friend for buying astronomically expensive Taylor Swift tickets, I did feel a bit hypocritical. This was the most I've ever personally spent on a singular event of any kind, let alone a meal, and though my wallet deeply regrets it, I do not.

Noma serves "New Nordic" cuisine and has inspired an entire wave of cooking since opening 20 years ago.

Noma's influence can be seen far and wide across the food industry, which has elevated the restaurant to legendary status. But there is also a fair amount of infamy surrounding the restaurant. 

This type of fine dining has come under criticism in recent years. Noma has specifically been highlighted for bad behavior. In a 2015 essay, founder René Redzepi admitting to verbally bullying his staff. The restaurant has also faced criticism for employing unpaid intern labor for meticulous tasks, such as creating beetles out of fruit leather.

Noma had about 30 unpaid interns along with 34 paid chefs in 2019, according to the Financial Times. They just started paying their interns in October 2022, adding additional costs. 

Redzepi told The New York Times that he was closing the restaurant because it was "unsustainable."

"Financially and emotionally, as an employer and as a human being, it just doesn't work," he said.

With the closing, there is a new urgency among those who have long been interested in visiting the restaurant. Noma's tasting meal, which would consist of 17 courses over about 4 hours, was more pared down than I expected.

While I wasn't necessarily blown away by the presentation of each dish, the flavors were unlike anything I have ever tasted. I was shocked and delighted with each bite.

I probably won't ever have a dining experience like this again, and after this winter of 2024, it seems like no one else will either — pop-ups notwithstanding. So despite everything about Noma's complicated history and reputation, I'm glad I had a final seat.

Getting the reservation was insanely difficult.

I would like to say I helped get the reservation, but I slept through a myriad of texts as Kinnery aggressively refreshed the Noma home page the minute the Vegetable Season reservations opened in late February. 

Kinnery was only able to secure a table for six for lunch, instead of dinner as we had hoped. Since we were only two, she turned to Reddit. 

After posting, Kinnery was fielding messages left and right. She had never actually been on Reddit before this, but she adapted fast and was able to sell the other four seats. We put together a WhatsApp group chat for our assembled table crew.

Months later we arrived in Copenhagen to dine with strangers from Reddit.

Unfortunately, two women who were planning to come were unable to join us after a family member's passing. Thankfully, they had been able to replace their seats with people they knew. 

I was going to meet Kinnery there and was almost late for the reservation after breaking a zipper on the only nice dress I packed. After panicking and spending too long trying to repair it I realized I would be late if I took the metro, and instead decided to e-bike to the restaurant. 

Unsurprisingly, bike lanes in Denmark are wonderful, and I made it with ten minutes to spare. Unfortunately, that also meant showing up flustered and sweaty.

The impeccably calm greeters were very kind despite my disheveled appearance and led me into a greenhouse where the rest of my party was waiting and enjoying a cider that had been served prior to my arrival.

There, I met Jenna and Billy Wilson from Asheville, North Carolina, and Mirjam Dolislager and Alexander van Zanten from Holland.

Although we were all strangers who had met on Reddit, we found common ground around our shared anticipation for this meal. 

Other groups in the greenhouse were led to their tables. We ended up being seated last after I realized my rented e-bike was still on and I had to scramble outside to remedy that situation.

After coming back, the stress I had been feeling from my chaotic morning finally evaporated. I was at Noma and the experience was just beginning. The only choice I had left to make was whether to do a wine or juice pairing.

After the morning I'd had, the choice was obvious.

We entered the restaurant through garlands of vegetables, plants, and flowers.

The vegetable-heavy decor foreshadowed the meal to come.

A small army of employees greeted us as we walked past. As someone who has experienced sorority recruitment, it felt … eerily familiar.

It made me feel very welcomed, but also kind of awkward.

The restaurant's ambiance mirrored how the food would end up tasting — natural and simplistic with a quiet beauty.

The interior felt in sync with the landscape outside, with floor-to-ceiling windows alternating between being open and closed. 

As we sat down our waiter asked if we all knew each other or were in separate groups. It seemed others had also used similar tactics to get tables.

On the other side of the dining room was the open kitchen Noma is so famous for.

We didn't get a tour of the kitchen or grounds, which was disappointing. I'd heard that sometimes that is part of the experience, but I didn't dwell on this as I was eager to eat, having skipped breakfast.

Half the table was doing a wine pairing and half was doing a juice tasting. I went for the former.

My only other experience of fine dining with this many courses was at the restaurant Daniel in New York City years ago for a family member's birthday. Another family member had to be sent home early in a cab after not being able to keep up with the wine pairing.

I was moderately concerned about facing a similar fate, but luckily the pours were appropriately measured. Sake was also served throughout the meal.

Kinnery found the juices nice but not worth the price tag.

Our first dish arrived. It was a mushroom sashimi that was refreshing.

The presentation was fun and did feel like real sashimi. I also really liked this fish fork. This was the first of many utensils I wanted to discreetly hide in a napkin and ferry away. Don't worry, I resisted. 

The waiter explained that the restaurant had hosted a pop-up in Kyoto in May, and he referenced the experience frequently throughout the meal as being influential to their techniques and the food itself.

After this, we were served a flower you eat on a pine cone you don't eat (which was equally confusing and charming) along with an elderflower miso crisp that was adorned with daintily folded golden beets.

The flower contained a small raspberry and was the first flower of many we would ingest.

Next, I learned what ramson is (it's wild garlic) and ate it with a koji cake filling (koji is a fungus) and fried elderberry capers on the side.

Just one course after being served a pine cone we were not supposed to eat, we were served a pinecone we were supposed to eat. I found the presentation of this a little lame.

It also made my tongue feel funny. It was very minty.

Next was the flower soup. Made up of foraged flowers, this was beautiful and refreshing.

At this point, we had all apologized to each other about how many meal photos we would be taking.

We got over the embarrassment of taking photos fast. You're paying for the meal, you have to make sure you remember it.

We started talking about Noma's interesting reputation, and about "The Menu," a horror film that satirizes fine dining and is speculated to be inspired by Noma. The TV show "The Bear" came up, as well.

As we talked, I turned around to observe the staff's deep intensity as they quickly and delicately assembled and sent out dish after immaculate dish in the open kitchen.

The staff was attentive and dedicated, but far less intimidatingly serious than I had expected after reading reports that an intern was forbidden to laugh. (A Noma spokesperson said this intern's account "does not reflect our workplace or the experience we wish for our interns or anyone on our team.")

Our waiter did have a sense of humor about some of the more ridiculous aspects of the dishes, but it's hard to tell what it's really like behind closed-open kitchen doors.

Now it was time for one of my favorite dishes: sushi made up of peas and pumpkin seeds rolled in currant leather.

The bottom of the bite was cheesy, and it was unexpected and heavenly.

Kinnery, a vegetarian, wanted to go to Noma to experience the veggie-based menu. I had been initially disappointed to find out there would be no meat, but this meal quickly made me realize the limitless potential veggies have.

More and more high-profile restaurants have been realizing this as well and turning vegetable-focused, such as New York's Eleven Madison Park, which went plant-based in 2021.

After this, an eggplant and mountain pepper came in an umami foam.

The texture threw me off a bit, but the taste quickly made up for that.

Next up was a dumpling stuffed with young garlic. This one was nice, but forgettable.

Then we had yuba with milk "skin," gooseberries, and courgette flowers. The milk skin was inspired by tofu skin they had seen in Japan.

I had to really resist drinking the sauce I had left over from this right out of the bowl.

Asparagus tempura was next, wrapped in a leaf and presented in a nest that reminded me of something I could get at a craft store.

I guess the leaf was effective though, my hand never touched tempura! Leaves should be used in place of utensils more often.

After this was a green rice and soy tofu dish that was decadent and heavenly.

Next was the crudité, and here I was introduced to ice plants, which may be the most insane thing I have ever tasted. It crackled and kind of reminded me of sour candy.

Also, the strawberries were out of this world. I actually think they ruined all other strawberries for me.

Finally, it was time for the main course, which was a king oyster mushroom with truffle that had been grilled on charcoal. This was wonderfully rich and decadent, melting on my tongue.

This was filling enough to make me feel satisfied as we approached dessert. I also liked how it looked like a little tiny ham with the carvings detailed all over the mushroom. Very cute.

Then it was time for the first round of dessert: berries with a cream sauce to pour over. Refreshing, but not the most exciting.

Then the strangest dish on the menu made an appearance — fuzzy ice cream. This molded onigiri was exactly what I was hoping for from Noma — delicious and a little unnerving.

I kept wanting to just pet it instead of eat it.

It garnered a lot of discussion at the table.

Our last course was a magnolia flower with saffron, cardamom, caramel, and Mexican chili, presented with a beautiful knife to cut. It felt anticlimactic for the last course, but the salty-spicy tang was a perfect end to the meal.

We were given the flowers in groups of two. Cutting it was kind of difficult.  

Finally full and maybe a little tipsy, we ordered some tea and coffee and reflected on the highs and lows of the meal. I felt a sense of sadness. I had been looking forward to this for so long and now it was over. Would I ever taste flavors so daring again?

Something about the setting of Noma was so tranquil, and as everyone filed out, it was just our table looking over the empty restaurant and out into the gardens that created the ingredients that had fed us.

We were presented with the menu and a goody bag of sauces we were nervous may break in our luggage.

Kinnery and I made sure to take an obnoxious amount of photos before leaving.

Surprisingly, the staff didn't say anything to us about it as they prepared for the next seating. They were probably used to it.

Looking back at the meal, I do wish the presentation had pushed the limits a little more.

We had visited the Design Museum Denmark earlier in the week and saw a display of some of Noma's old tableware from an earlier season. The presentation we saw at the museum seemed more exciting than what we had experienced at the restaurant.

Though the presentation at our lunch seemed a little repetitive for Noma standards, the flavors were jaw-droppingly outstanding, and in the end, that's what matters most.

I'm curious to see what the next two seasons will bring … from a distance. I physically recoiled at the bill and don't feel the need to recreate that part of the experience. 

It makes sense that this kind of restaurant may not be able to continue, but the impact of Noma, which challenged and irrevocably changed the global fine dining industry, can't be overlooked. It was also just a ton of fun.

It may need to evolve into something new, but I'll never forget this summer lunch in Copenhagen, and not just because of the pictures overflowing my camera roll.

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