Groundbreaking Copenhagen restaurant Noma to take residency at Ace Hotel Kyoto

• Noma takes top place in World's 50 Best Restaurants 2021

"We have a plan" announced Noma chef and co-owner Rene Redzepi, in July 2022. "And I can't wait to share more with you."

The wait, for Noma's legions of global fans, is over. Redzepi has revealed that Ace Hotel Kyoto will be the home of the groundbreaking Copenhagen restaurant's newest global residency.

Redzepi and the entire Noma team (all 95, including spouses, families, and much-loved former dishwasher Ali Sonko) will open the doors of Noma Kyoto on March 15, 2023 for a 10-week run.

"Much of my own journey and inspiration can be boiled down to a handful of important moments" he says. "Going to Kyoto for the first time was one of them. The food culture there is mind-boggling; rich and dense, with as many layers as a millefeuille".

Up to 64 diners will be seated at communal tables to dine kaiseki-style.

Following Noma's first residency in Japan in Tokyo in 2015, a journey through mountain grapes, lethal hornets and farm-raised turtle, they can expect rare ingredients sourced from local hunters and foragers, served on plates and bowls created by local artisans in clay, wood and stone.

Redzepi says it's a deep dive, Noma style, into the region's heavily ritualised, ancient cuisine.

"Kaiseki comes from Zen Buddhism, from the tea ceremony, it was the birth of the tasting menu," he says. "We're bringing the minds of Copenhagen to Japan, so a menu will come that is neither Japanese nor Scandinavian, but perhaps a true fusion of the two."

The adventure coincides with Noma's 20th anniversary and another Redzepi curveball, as he calls 2022 "the end of Noma as we know it". The use-by date is up for the current annual format of three seasonal menus: vegetables, seafood, and "game and forest".

"We've been laying some new foundational stones" he says, "so we can continue to grow as an organisation for the next 20 years".

We'll just have to wait for that news to break, too.

Noma Kyoto at Ace Hotel Kyoto, March 15 to May 20, 2023.

Reservations open on Monday, November 7, 2022, at 10pm AEDT, with Ace Hotel Kyoto launching an accommodation package that includes a table reservation at the residency. Bookings are for lunch or dinner, Wednesday to Sunday, until Saturday May 20, with the menu to cost about AUD$700 (€450 EUR) per person with a beverage pairing of AUD$470 (€300) per person.

Accommodation packages acehotel.com/noma

Dinner reservations noma.dk/reservations