Noma to reinvent Michelin-starred restaurant as new food ‘lab’

COPENHAGEN — Noma will close as a full-time restaurant in 2025, with the $505 per head foodie favorite focusing on pop-ups and innovation instead in order to secure a long-term future.

With three Michelin stars, Copenhagen’s Noma was established in 2003 by Danish chef Rene Redzepi and is renowned for its avant-garde approach to Nordic cuisine, topping the rankings of the world’s best restaurants several times.

“In 2025, our restaurant is transforming into a giant lab — a pioneering test kitchen dedicated to the work of food innovation and the development of new flavors,” Noma said in a posting announcing the move on its website.

“Our goal is to create a lasting organization dedicated to groundbreaking work in food,” said Noma, whose name is a play on the Danish words “nordisk mad,” meaning “Nordic food.”

Reservations for a table at Noma, which is serving its Game and Forest Season menu until Feb. 18 at a cost of 3,500 Danish crowns ($505) per person, were hard to come by even before the announcement of its new “Noma 3.0” incarnation.

“We will still serve guests in Copenhagen for shorter seasons, and through pop-ups, but the details are still to be worked out,” a spokesperson for Noma told Reuters. — Reuters