Photos up from Noma’s last service of 2010. Excellent meal and definitely one of the best restaurants in the world. It may be a Michelin 2 Star, but it’s a 3 Star in my book, and rivals the best of them, including El Bulli, Fat Duck, etc. Eitherway, photos up for now. Full post and review to come.
Can’t wait for the full review…the pictures look GREAT (though dark).
How many people did you dine with?
Noma has evolved a lot since my only and last dinner there (2009, only item I had in common with you were the quail eggs). Although I was not that impressed on a personal level (purely subjective: just not the type of dinner experience that triggers top tier enthusiasm from my part), I do insist with my friends that they do give it a try since Noma is truly a different experience that is refreshingly interesting and deserves to be experienced at least once. Do not get me wrong: my dinner there was not bad at all (great service, interesting and very creativite dish, a cuisine that shows amazing vision and genuine passion) , just not my type of prime dining experience. Will I go back one day? Definitely, if I happen to visit Scandinavia again (which will surely reoccur since I love this region). Noma, the Fat Duck, El Bulli may not rank among my personal best restaurants in the world, but they deserve all the attention and fame they are enjoying for the novelty, for the vision, for this amazing opportunity to push culinary trends forward. In many ways, I am a huge fan of those 3 (for the reasons I have just exposed right before). As for the 3 star Michelin assignment, that is another purely subjective matter but I believe that Noma is great as it is (plenty of vision, creativity) and stars should not matter. It is a gem on its own. There are restaurants that are just perfect at what they do, and that we just need to appreciate as they are whether they have stars or not. Since Michelin star is initially from France, I could relate easily to a Michelin star assignment if the restaurant offers French fine dining / French Haute cuisine. Noma is not French cuisine, thus I’ll have hard time associating Noma to Michelin Stars. To each their own.
Definitely agree with you. It’s very special like Fat Duck and El Bulli and was really great, but not sure I’d say it’s the best in the world or in my top 10 of all times, but I would definitely recommend it. As for Michelin stars, I don’t think anyone really cares about Michelin when it comes to Noma. They definitely don’t care that much in Asia or LA
Welcome back from your trip. Happy new year to you and yours!
Indeed, I too believe that Michelin stars do not matter that much to some restaurateurs. I personally think those Michelin stars are more appropriate for French haute dining type. Have a great one