Noma, One of the World’s Top-Rated Restaurants, Is Closing Its Doors

Noma, the Danish restaurant considered one of the best in the world, said Monday that it would close its doors next year and reopen as a test kitchen.

“To continue being noma, we must change,” Noma’s owner René Redzepi said on the restaurant’s website, without elaborating why the restaurant was closing to regular service in the winter of 2024.

Restaurants have struggled during the pandemic to cope with mounting food costs and diners staying home. Fine-dining establishments in particular have had trouble hawking expensive menus to patrons. At Noma, a meal currently costs at least $500 a person.

Mr. Redzepi said that starting in 2025, Noma would become a test kitchen and would sell products online. He said Noma would also have pop-ups around the world.

“Serving guests will always be a part of who we are, but being a restaurant will no longer define us,” he said.

He said on Instagram Monday that he and his team had planned the move for the last two years.

“It’s scary and weird but I also know it’s the right thing to do,” he said. “As soon as the pandemic hit I had this feeling in me that it was time for something different.”

He said he was on a plane bound for Kyoto, Japan, where Noma was set to open a pop-up restaurant for two months.

A representative for the restaurant said Mr. Redzepi wasn’t available for comment.

Mr. Redzepi opened Noma in Copenhagen in 2003 and eventually became the crown jewel in a booming food scene. He introduced Nordic food to new audiences and foraged through Danish shorelines and forests for ingredients like herbs and roots. As word spread about Noma’s experimental dishes, it became almost impossible to get a reservation.

After Noma was first named the world’s best restaurant in 2010 on Restaurant magazine’s influential list, it received about 100,000 reservation requests a month for its 40-seat dining space. It was named the world’s best restaurant again four more times. The restaurant has three Michelin stars.

Noma led Copenhagen’s reinvention as a fine-dining destination, drawing talented chefs and real-estate developers to Denmark’s capital. It also attracts diners who make pilgrimages from all around the world to try its multi-course menus. Noma has served dishes including pork neck with bulrushes and violets and king crab with leeks rolled in ashes.

Noma used to be based in an old warehouse on Copenhagen’s docks before closing in 2016 and reopening at a new location two years later.

Mr. Redzepi said in a 2015 blog post that he had been a bully and a terrible boss at times because he was under pressure. He said he would yell at employees over messing up dishes for journalists or overcooking fish. He said as a result that he had changed Noma’s culture to boost staff morale.

From Scotch whisky and luxury retreats to fashion collaborations and world-class hospitality, Ross Blainey has spent years shaping high-end experiences around one idea: modern luxury is no longer just about what you own.

It is about access, connection and moments money alone cannot buy.

As Citizen Kanebridge continues to grow as one of Australia’s most sought-after private members’ clubs, Blainey, the club’s new Head of Membership, says the future lies in creating experiences members cannot find anywhere else.

“The ultimate memorable experiences are the money can’t buy moments,” Blainey said.

“The things that you can’t just put together anytime or any place. They make up something that is greater than the sum of its parts.”

On June 4, Blainey will bring that philosophy to life when he hosts an exclusive whisky evening for Citizen Kanebridge members at Sydney’s Royal Automobile Club of Australia.

Titled A Journey Through Whisky, the intimate event will see Blainey guide members through a curated selection of rare and unreleased whiskies drawn from his personal archive, alongside stories gathered across years working at the highest levels of the Scotch whisky world.

The evening will also include reflections on Blainey’s induction as a Keeper of the Quaich at Blair Castle in Scotland last year, one of the whisky industry’s rarest global honours.

A career built around experience

Before joining Citizen Kanebridge, Blainey built a career spanning luxury hospitality, Scotch whisky, premium lifestyle brands and experiential events.

But he says one industry above all others shaped the way he thinks about people and community: Scotch whisky.

“At its core, at its heart and throughout its whole history, Scotch has been about sharing, enjoyment, telling stories, meeting people and generally having a good time,” he said.

“Whisky can be that shared moment of laughter, and it can also be a shared moment of just slowing down, taking stock and contemplating. These are so key to building community.”

Blainey’s deep involvement in the whisky world culminated in 2025 when he was inducted as a Keeper of the Quaich at Blair Castle, a recognition is reserved for a select group of individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to Scotch whisky internationally.

“I was inducted last year, 2025, an incredible honour,” he said.

“There were a couple of teary-eyed moments as I stood in Blair Castle, on historic ground, realising that this was a moment I would remember forever.”

The next chapter for Citizen Kanebridge

Looking ahead, Blainey says Citizen Kanebridge will continue to focus on highly curated experiences, exclusive access, and bringing together like-minded members from Australia’s property, finance, and investment sectors.

“Our baseline of Car of the Year is already one of the most impressive events on the social calendar of Australia,” he said.

“My job is to find a way of raising the bar, taking things to the absolute top level for access, experiences and events.”

Blainey said the long-term goal was not simply to create another networking group or luxury club, but to build a community centred around meaningful relationships and unforgettable experiences.

“We provide the access, the money can’t buy memories, and we will be making those happen regularly,” he said.

“If we start with how amazing Car of the Year is and the only way is up, we are going to have some mind-blowing moments for our members.”

Hospitality at its absolute best

Another major influence on Blainey’s thinking came through his connection with world-famous New York restaurant Eleven Madison Park, once named the best restaurant in the world.

He says two concepts from the restaurant’s owners still shape the way he approaches luxury experiences today: “enlightened hospitality” and “unreasonable hospitality”.

“Enlightened hospitality is a way of doing business that looks at not just the product of what you serve, but how it makes people feel,” Blainey said.

“Unreasonable hospitality is more about striving for the absolute best all the time. If you’re going to do something, do it to an unreasonable level that blows everything else out of the water.”

It is a philosophy, he says, which aligns closely with where Citizen Kanebridge is heading next.

“That’s what we’re doing here with CK, taking members’ experiences to another level,” he said.

Fashion, whisky and creative collaborations

Blainey’s career has also included working with Glenfiddich as a Creative Collaborations Lead, where his role centred on bringing luxury experiences and partnerships to life through designers, chefs, artists and bartenders.

Among the projects were runway collaborations with leading Australian fashion designers, with pieces from the partnerships now housed inside Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum.

“My job was to find a creative way of bringing the brand to life,” he said.

“How do we make something that none of us could make on our own? Searching for the things that will resonate with people.”

What luxury consumers want now

Beyond whisky and events, Blainey also played a key role in building Blackbird Byron, the boutique Byron Bay hinterland retreat later recognised in Tatler’s Top 101 Hotels list.

The property, known for its dramatic views, minimalist architecture, and secluded atmosphere, helped shape his understanding of how luxury consumers are changing.

“I think I learned that people looking for luxury in hotels want memorable moments, considered design and the ability to get away from the hustle and bustle of modern life,” he said.

“To feel at home without being at home is important.”

More broadly, he believes today’s luxury consumers are increasingly driven by authenticity and emotional connection.

“For luxury consumers overall, I think it comes down to craft, story and connection,” he said.

“The product itself has to be impeccable, the story behind it builds your reason for looking at it, and then you need to make a genuine connection with people.”

Interested in becoming a member of Citizen Kanebridge? You can contact Ross here.