Really shame that you had bad experience and for that cost - yikes. I’ve visited Noma say 6-7 years ago during winter and we had some fish and duck but it was mainly plant-based food. One thing I remember really well was the quality of the desserts! They were truly horrible. Sour and bitter. Just something you don’t want at the end of a meal. Although the wines were great and there weren’t so many natural wines at that time. We even got to taste a white wine from Denmark.
One thing caught my eye.
Don’t think there isn’t much more summery stuff than forest mushrooms, asparagus and strawberries in Scandinavia.
Ask is really amazing place. Had one of my best meals ever there just few years before they had their Michelin star. Especially their buckwheat and turnip dish totally blew me away. It was a perfect dish for 2008 Huet Clos du Bourg Demi-Sec.
sorry you had a bad experience, but none of this surprises me. what noma is doing is inherently not for most people. they can only do it because they have enough global patrons. but they are always experimenting and pushing the envelope. inherent in that process is failure, a lot of it.
the only people that should go there are those that are predisposed to enjoy this or are sufficiently curious to not care if the food is tasty or not.
These “50 best list” top places cater to the “international foodie tourist crowd.” I love EMP but go there, survey the patrons in the room, and you’ll see what I mean. Then go to Noma or one of the other top 50 places and same people.
I’m reminded of the joke:
What’s the best hospital in the USA? Mass General.
What’s the best hospital in Boston? Brigham and Women’s.
Resurrecting this thread. Heading there in a couple of months. Food is personal and I enjoy experimentation so I’ll cross my fingers for the “seafood” menu.
Was curious If people had specific recommendations on the wine list. No pairing and orange wine for sure. But I read up thread there’s natural leaning burgs. Like? Prieur roch? Bizot? Pachlet?
Overnoy for below ws low doesn’t sound terrible?
Any specifics would be great. Impossible to find a list on line
Mark - Would love to hear about your experience. FYI I was like you and I clearly explained no orange wines. They brought them anyway. My only advice is grab the list, try to find something you like or even recognize and go with that. I truly hope you do better than I did wine wise.
Just had a nice meal at Kadeau - wanted to go to Noma for the seafood menu but I was traveling solo and they discriminate against solo diners…(aka, no reservations for solo diners even though they have seats open). Geranium is a 3* and had a lovely lunch there a few years back - enjoy wherever you go and report back!
We like to get the fish fry and Champagne at Torvehallerne soon after landing on our Copenhagen trips. Looks like you have a good schedule. I would add that our meal last year at Restaurant 108 (we have eaten there several times) was just outstanding and we always think Kadeau is as good if not better than Noma and much preferred to the others on your list. As far as wine at Noma they should email you the wine list. They do have Prieuer Roch at European prices, Metras etc and I really enjoyed the Veyder-Malberg wines, an eccentric but fairly clean producer from Austria.
was pretty disappointed with geranium so never made the effort for booking noma. i have heard from a friend who has eaten there pretty regularly that it can be a mixed bag. i agree that kadeau is fantastic and was definitely most delicious food i ate in copenhagen amongst the michelin places.
I felt the same about Geranium. However Noma and Geranium are absolutely nothing alike and not comparable. Geranium could be in any major city in the world. And well like it or not Noma is Noma.
On 100% the same page. We were with Robert and his wife at Geranium and Noma (the first version) and none of us were impressed with Geranium, not the food and definitely not the oddly formal but pretending to be friendly service. Noma was totally different.
that may well be very true but i still think they are comparable from a standard of your expectation going in. if you eat at either place there are so many accolades and hype associated how can they live up to the reputation? also i would say winning a bocuse d’or is far more impressive than topping the world’s 50 best list.
Just want to clarify. When we say disappointed. It’s relative to the cost and hype right?
If the quality and service was $100 all in at ur neighborhood spot, you/folks would be blown away?
Or it’s baddd even if it was free kinda bad? Hahah just trying to set expectations. I don’t usually really buy into hype (Altho admittedly some what excited to try noma).
It’s interesting, I had two meals with wine pairings in Australia recently, both at very high-end restaurants: Attica in Melbourne, and Orana in Adelaide. Both restaurants play up under-utilized native Australian ingredients, and both are approximately the same cost.
Attica was utterly spectacular. Food, wine, experience/theater. All were very good. This was definitely the best meal I’ve ever had (haven’t come close at US michelin-starred restaurants yet). The wine/beverage pairing was also excellent – only one price option, and it included many moderately aged wines (up to 20 years), with the vast majority being delicious and excellent matches to the food.
I wanted to like Orana similarly, but it just wasn’t as good. The staff were clearly a lot less confident and experienced and the food, while mostly still quite good, just didn’t come close to Attica. The wine pairings started at the same price as Attica, and went up 2.5-3x from there. I stuck with the base option and it was actually just terrible. I had specifically shared my preferences (balanced, but higher-acid wines, don’t want giant barossa reds, etc), and the Sommelier assured me it was along the lines of my taste. He was right that it didn’t have giant reds, but none of the wines had much of anything at all. I thought they almost all needed more acid, definitely needed more fruit, and generally needed less bitterness. Somehow they came up with a pile of wines that almost completely lacked fruit, were at most medium in acid, and had bitterness as their most defining characteristic. It was just bizarre. I think if Orana’s prices overall were half it’d still be a good meal (although I’d certainly never order their wine pairing again), but it’s comically poor value in comparison to Attica.
i don’t understand the music analogy because there was definitely a lot of ‘twigs and berries’ going on in the food at geranium when i visited. perhaps it is not the same tone as noma but it definitely followed the prototype of ‘nordic’ flavors pretty much every restaurant i visited was pushing. i went to quite a few places, several of ex noma chefs, and i felt the food was starting to taste more similar than different after my two week stay. i am not saying noma is not special or idiosyncratic but i guess after chasing the restaurant scene for several years i look back and i couldn’t care a less that i did not go.
Mark - In my experience the food was bad. Forget the cost. This is my experience and obviously it does not jive with a lot of others. I call it like I see it. I have been to many, many high end restaurants in the U.S and Europe and would never describe the food as bad. I don’t think I have ever written a “review” like the one I did that started the thread.
Not sure if you are asking about Geranium or Noma, but if it’s Geranium, I would not go back at $100 in my neighborhood. Not only do I think the food wasn’t worth it, it wasn’t at all fun. That’s on absolute scale because I did not have any expectations going in. I did have expectations at Noma, on the other hand, and they were exceeded. At Geranium, most of the food was just fine, though nothing surprising or innovative or exciting. Pretty much exactly what you’d expect, conceptually, from a good kitchen trying to get with what’s popular in fine dining at the time. A very predictable menu. One dish was terrible, so over salted I couldn’t eat it - and it was my main. Some of the smaller dishes were quite tasty, but other than something about a potato, I can’t remember any of them, which I can with dishes from many other restaurants. I had bigger complaints about the service. What Robert said is apt - it could have been anywhere. There are things happening in Copenhagen that are both delicious and exciting. Unique to place and time. That’s why I travel to other countries for food, to get something amazing that I can’t get elsewhere. I am sure others have different criteria.
I don’t usually really buy into hype (Altho admittedly some what excited to try noma).![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}