Up until Noma took over the winner's spot in 2010, El Bulli had been the uncontested emperor of this list. But after the Spanish restaurant had won the top place five times, its chef Ferran Adria suddenly confessed that he wanted to stop, at least for a while in 2011. El Bulli is probably one of the most iconic restaurants ever and its departure will leave the culinary world with a gaping hole. Anticipating Adria's retirement, Restaurant Magazine (their voters !) chose a new leader for their list, Rene Redzepi, Noma's chef and owner. This young man surely knows that the restaurant guests of today want a unique and adventurous gastronomic experience. He does his best to provide it but is just as surely aware that without media attention he won't get people to travel from all over the world to dine at his restaurant.
So, the media is inextricably linked to Noma. They need good stories and Noma gives them what they want. In turn the media rewards Noma with the coverage that is encouraging people to visit Copenhagen in the hopes of getting the meal of a lifetime. In most cases Noma manages not to disappoint. The experience starts the moment you enter the restaurant. Noma is housed in an old warehouse, and straight away the decor sets it apart from many other Michelin-starred restaurants: big wooden tables are dressed without linen and only the absolutely essential items. Rough stonewalls and solid beams create an impression of rugged nature right inside the city.
if you are looking to find the best food in the world, Noma is not the place 
The natural ingredients you find served on your plate inevitably remind you that you are in Scandinavia. For example, you can get shrimp so fresh they are still alive, caught in a fjord near Copenhagen. These shrimp burst with an incredibly refined flavour: creamy, a bit sweet and crispy because of the shell. Some people may find the sensation of live shrimps tickling your tongue a bit too adventurous.... That Noma does excellent work with shrimps is also proven by another dish, this time using raw shrimps from Greenland, with powdered sea urchin and salty local plants. The dish is presented ice cold, but the freezing temperature doesn't numb the great taste. Instead it lets you discern the incredible purity of the flavours. With shrimp softer than you can imagine, the dish is invigorated by the strong character of the sea urchin powder and local plants. Both shrimp dishes are exceptional in that they have just a touch of acidity, which makes the flavours more rough than elegant but totally fits in with the Noma décor, where everything is masculine and somewhat rugged.
The Noma version of classic steak tartar backs up this impression even more. The tartar is made of little strips of ox meat (aged 48 days), and a creamy emulsion of tarragon and local herbs accompanies the meat, nothing more. It's meant to be eaten with your fingers, thereby breaking another unwritten rule of the Grand Restaurant. The balance between the meaty ox and the fresh herbal flavour of the tarragon hits exactly the right note, and the result is fantastic. Indeed, most of Noma's raw dishes work particularly well because they are simple and effective. But when the kitchen tries to do more elaborate food, the cooking looks less confident. Dishes prepared with such ingredients as ox cheek, king crab, raw vegetables, langoustines and oysters are visually stunning but taste rather bland; they're missing real stability in the cooking. Everything looks superb, but after the first bite, the magic is lost. One reason could be because the produce is not always of the very best quality. Scandinavia does have some good produce (think of the seafood) but it's certainly not the best in the world.
However, it is admirable that Rene Redzepi uses only Scandinavian produce, and indeed he has started a veritable trend because now there is a whole bunch of good restaurants serving local produce with a similar concept. With Noma, Redzepi has given ‘Nordic cuisine' a new face and a place that the media loves to write about. Every Noma dish has its own story, allowing people to dream about the Nordic wilderness where all the food is rugged and real. The actual food seems to be nearly irrelevant; it is all about the stories, the feeling, the perception. It has less to do with a restaurant, far more with a romantic spirit or movement. If you are open to it, Noma is the place to be, worth the long journey. However, if you are looking to find the best food in the world, Noma is not the place - yet. Hopefully, it will be in future as Rene Redzepi is a very talented chef.
