Rene Redzepi is bringing his famed Copenhagen restaurant Noma to Kyoto, Japan next year.
Ace Hotel Kyoto will host Redzepi and the Noma team for 10 weeks from 15 March 2023, marking the restaurant’s return to the country after a 2015 residency in Tokyo.
The 64-seat restaurant is set to offer a tasting menu highlighting the history and seasonal spring ingredients found in and around Kyoto across lunch and dinner.
It’s a project that has been in the works for two years, with Redzepi describing his time in Japan as instrumental to his culinary career.
”I believe Kyoto to be the birthplace of the western tasting menu, and it remains one of the most important cities through which to understand the fine dining scene today,” he says.
“We have had a team on the ground since late spring, foraging and researching what will form the foundation of our Kyoto menu. Our main inspiration comes from the very heart of Kyoto, the kaiseki cuisine, while not at all being a Japanese restaurant.
“We come to be inspired, to learn, to absorb new creative processes and to hopefully bring back new perspectives and a clearer vision for how to be Noma.”
Noma Kyoto will operate from Wednesday to Sunday, with bookings opening on a first-come, first-served basis on 7 November.
The tasting menu is priced at $740, with a non-alc or alcoholic beverage pairing costing $467.
Noma has been synonymous with innovation since its inception, with Redzepi relocating the Nordic restaurant in 2018 and spearheading a new approach that would see it secure the top spot on the 2021 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.
The restaurant currently operates around specific seasons throughout the year encompassing seafood from January to June, vegetables during summer and game and forest in winter.
Each season sees the team partake in an extensive research and development phase which sees the creation of the boundary-pushing menus Noma is lauded for.