Noma
Strandgade 93
1401 København K
Denmark
Tel.: +45 32 96 32 97
Overall rating: 9/10
Date of visit: July 2012
Jump to Danish review – Gå til dansk anmeldelse.
Before I say anything else, if you go to Noma, choose the juice menu!
Noma is the torchbearer in the trend of “New Nordic cooking”, and at Noma the concept is that they only use ingredients from Scandinavia (except for wine). Although this is definitely an interesting idea, and it challenges the cooks to be creative with less, I’m not sure it works better in practice than having everything at your disposal. Nevertheless, they showed me that it could clearly be done really well.
Ever since Noma was awarded the price of being the best restaurant in the world by Restaurant Magazine in 2010, and has held that position for three consecutive years, it has been extremely difficult to get a table. Once a month their website opens for reservations for a full month three months into the future. According to a staff member, all the tables get booked within the first five minutes, sometimes even sooner. I have, however, been told that it should at times be possible to call the restaurant in the morning and ask if they have a table the same day, next day or the coming week, as some people will inevitably have to cancel. That however means you have to be in Copenhagen or be able to get there quickly. The restaurant also have a waiting list. We were lucky to book a table for lunch two weeks in advance. I do think we were very lucky. I just had a look at their website, and there’s not a single table available for the next three months.
The restaurant itself is bleak and unpolished, has no tablecloths, and the chairs have Viking-like fur hanging over the back rest. It’s far removed from the luxurious “castles” you would find in for instance France, but it suits the style of cooking perfectly. The staff is simply dressed in black jeans, a light blue shirt and an apron.
Earlier on, Noma had the choice of a 7 course menu or a 12 course menu. Now, the restaurant has listed a tasting menu on their website, and although we had a menu each after the meal we were actually not presented with a menu when we were seated. It seems to be an increasing trend among top restaurants in Copenhagen that there’s only one menu, and the only option you have is choosing the number of courses (although we weren’t given that option at Noma either). Most can change bits and bops if you have allergies, or if there are certain things you simply don’t like.
At Noma, we just asked for no oysters for both of us and no clams for me either. Then they cooked for us. One of the waiters later told me that they cook what they have and what they can get, so there are some variations from table to table. But alas! They didn’t cook us the famous musk with milk skin. I would think it would also be possible to ask for a vegetarian menu – a guest at another table had something different, and it seemed to be all vegetarian.
A menu was 1500 kroner (€200) per person, and we also chose a juice menu at 550 kroner (€74) for 7 glasses. There is also the option of a wine pairing at 950 kroner (€127) for 7-8 glasses, and they of course also have an extensive list of wines per bottle. Water was 50 kroner (€7) per person (which is actually the second cheapest of all the top restaurants I’ve been to in Copenhagen, except for Geranium which actually didn’t charge for water). They serve the same menu for lunch and dinner, so it doesn’t matter when you go.
So, it’s not a cheap place, and it’s the most expensive menu in Copenhagen. Nevertheless, Scandinavia is one of the most expensive areas in the world, so compared to the cost of living and eating here the price seems reasonable when considering the food served here.
The bread was a sourdough served with three types of spread: Pork lard with crispy onions on top, a goat milk butter, and a so-called virgin butter. This was apparently butter where the churning process had been stopped early, so it contained more buttermilk – and you could really taste the buttermilk in there. Refreshing, slightly acidic and great light texture too.
First was served quite a flurry of small appetizers, and I must admit that I have difficulty remembering all of them, despite the pictures, as there were so many, and they came so rapidly.
The first one was already on our table when we arrived, as it was part of the flower pot sitting on the table. It was a malt bread served with a dipping.
Next was one of favourite appetizers, which was dried moss with cep dust. The taste is difficult to describe, but it was slightly woody (obviously), but very, very pleasant.
Cod liver was served in very thin slices on top of a pancake like-texture.
I was served crispy pork rind with a blackcurrant layer on top, slightly similar to thick paper in texture, whereas my wife at the time had a clam where the bottom shell was edible.
A cake tin contained small biscuits with cheese and stems on top.
Next was an appetizer I had heard of before coming here. A jar of ice cubes was put on our table, and two small live (!) prawns were lying on the ice. We then had to take the twitching prawn, slightly sedated from the ice, dip it in slightly browned butter, and then eat it.
A crispy sphere that looked a bit like crispy noodles was served with a creamy filling and dusted with mushroom.
Rye bread was sandwiched together with chicken skin, having a cream with lumpfish roe in the middle.
Quail eggs were smoked lightly in hay. This was another of our favourites among the appetizers. I feel it’s quite limited how interesting you can make an egg, and often the success depends on what you combine it with. Nevertheless, this is quite possibly the best egg I’ve ever had, the smokiness being perfectly balanced. The white was solid, while the yolk was suitably runny and warm.
A flowerpot contained a green cream as the soil, some malt on top (the top soil), while small carrots and radishes were the plants. An amusing idea, although I have read it’s not an idea originally created by Noma, but the ingredients weren’t particularly flavourful, neither the cream, nor the vegetables.
Paper thin toasts were sandwiched together around herbs and a smoked cod roe cream.
Æbleskiver (literally “apple slices”) is a pancake-like batter that has been fried in a special pan with big round indentations, and they are traditionally served around Christmas, although you can find them frozen in all Danish supermarkets all year round. Here they were filled with a cucumber cream, and a Finnish anchoy-like fish had been inserted into it. This was one of my favourites among the appetizers.
Then the first proper course came: Fresh and fermented peas. The cook explained that Japan ferment rice or soy beans for miso, but Denmark specialise more in peas, so they had substituted the rice/soy with peas. Around it was green tea but in liquid form and in jelly form. I have to admit that I might be a little bit biased with this dish, because I absolutely adore peas, and I have heard that scientists say that Denmark and Norway have the best climates in the world for peas (as well as apples). I have clearly tasted the difference to fresh peas in Spain. The flavour of the peas were divine, and it worked terribly well with the green tea, which was perfectly balanced in intensity. This was truly memorable (10/10, or at least 9.5/10).
My wife at the time had dehydrated scallops served as crispy discs on top of creamy biodynamic buckwheat with a mussel and squid ink sauce. I was instead served a cucumber dish. It was very pretty to look at, but the problem with this dish was that it was very one-dimensional. Granted, I find cucumber to be very uninteresting, but the cucumber I had at Sant Pau in Spain really impressed me. Here, everything on the plate, except for the pickled elderberries on top, tasted like cucumber, and not spectacular cucumber either – the balls of cucumber, the black “berries” (I believe it was cucumber dipped in squid ink), and both the green and the white “snow” tasted of nothing else than cucumber. This was the worst dish in the meal for me (5/10).
I tried a bit of my then-wife’s dish, and although I don’t like clams, I actually preferred her dish to mine, although I didn’t feel the scallops’ full potential had been used. Simply fried scallops or just a tartar would have been fine, but at least they had put some thoughts into this.
Next up was crab served with a bit of light soup, some tarragon and three egg yolks. The crab was clearly very fresh, but we both agreed that it lacked seasoning, and we should probably only have had a small bit of the egg yolk at a time instead of eating a whole egg yolk, as they were very rich (6/10).
Beef was served as tartare with a bit of spices, some horseradish, a few shallot rings and sorrel leaves on top. On the side was a tarragon sauce. When choosing a la carte I usually never choose tartar of any kind, as I simply find that cooked meat or fish brings out the flavour a lot better than when raw. Along with the steak tartar I had in El Gastronomo in Valencia, Spain (which is done in a completely different way), this is the best steak tartar I’ve ever had. Here, the beef was very thinly sliced, rather than minced, and extremely tender and with very good flavour. The amount of horseradish was also just right, not being overly spicy, and the sorrel gave acid to cut through the rich beef (8-8.5/10).
Next was an absolutely stunning dish: Caramelised onions with green (unripe) strawberries and a sauce made from green strawberries and thyme. Even though it was a very simple, and I suppose one-dimensional, dish, I never felt that anything was missing, simply because I felt like I was in heaven with every single bite. The onions were still crisp, but had none of the pungent taste that raw onions have. I’ve had really good onions at El Celler de Can Roca, Geranium and Kokkeriet , but these really topped everything. This was nothing short of astonishing in all its simplicity (10/10).
Zander had been wrapped in cabbage and then grilled – that is the cabbage itself was grilled, whereas the fish was steamed inside the leaves they explained. A beautifully presented and very refreshing green sauce of verbena decorated the plate. At the table a foamy sauce made of fish bones and white wine was poured on. Zander is one of my favourite fish, and when I have served it pan-fried for friends, who are not keen on fish, or when we had it pan-fried at Restaurant Herman (also in Copenhagen), everybody were clapping their hands because of this spectacular fish. Here it was a bit more stringy and chewy, although not over- or undercooked. The cabbage was not a very obvious accompaniment, but it fit the theme of the restaurant very well (still 7/10).
We were then brought a very hot cast-iron plate, a whole raw egg (in its shell), some herbs, a bit of butter and a crispy spiral of Jerusalem artichoke (or maybe it was just potato). They then put on a timer when we cracked the egg onto the pan and returned after 1:20 minutes and instructed us to scramble it a bit around and put in the herbs and the crispy spiral. The theatre involved in this dish was fun, but the food itself seemed like something that could easily have been done better and more interesting if they had served a prepared dish instead (although this would mean no theatre). More about this later (6/10).
Veal sweetbreads had a bit of green (unripe) strawberry purée on top and was resting on several different types of leaves, mushrooms, and a small piece of turnip. A soup made from dried mushrooms were then poured onto it. The staff told us that five guys went out and found these leaves in the countryside every morning. The leaves all had quite different tastes, and although some of them were a bit bitter, it was never too bitter, nor did they overpower the mushrooms and the excellent sweetbreads. I didn’t like the turnip, as it was simply extremely bitter, but apparently I only like turnips as a purée made with cream. The score is for the rest (9/10).
Desserts were a mixed affair. After the first dessert, the staff told us that in general their dessert were are not very sweet.
The first one was milk curd, rhubarb (I believe raw, but it might have been marinated), sorrel leaves and a Norwegian cheese type called brown cheese blended with shortcrust pastry. A rhubarb soup was then poured on at the table. We both felt this dessert was too sour, and the milk curd both vanished in this combination and was frankly quite plain. The brown cheese pastry was definitely better, although my wife at the time said it was not very good compared to the brown cheese she had in the past. I can’t say. I’ve only had a bit from a tube several years ago (5-6/10).
Gammel Dansk is a type of bitter alcohol, and I really don’t like it (I wonder how many people in Denmark actually truly like it), so I was quite surprised at how pleasant the ice cream made with Gammel Dansk was. It was served in a soup of sorrel and was decorated with a few fresh sorrel leaves and biscuit-like flakes of milk. Although, again, the milk just tasted like milk, the texture was great, and it worked really well with the rest of the ingredients (8/10).
After this we were offered another dessert. I was a bit unsure about whether everybody had this particular dessert, or it if was just because my wife complained that the desserts had not been very sweet. When I asked a waiter he said “Weeeell, maybe” and then winked at us. In any case, I’m glad they served it, as it was the best of the desserts: Walnut ice cream with walnut powder, freeze-dried berries and frozen, granulated cream. Admittedly, walnuts might be my least favourite type of nut (I prefer the similarly tasting pecans ), but here the walnut flavour was intense but without having any of the bitterness or harshness that almost always ruins walnuts for me. The texture was simply perfect – wonderfully smooth and not too frozen, nor too defrosted. The freeze-dried berries and walnut powder was a good match and gave a good texture contrast to the ice cream, but I found the frozen, granulated cream a bit redundant, as the ice cream already had cream in it, and the granulated cream simply tasted like cream. They could easily have substituted this with something more exciting (like for instance frozen and granulated buttermilk – another great Scandinavian product) (8.5/10).
Then came the petit fours, although we said no to coffee and tea. A couple of old cake tins and a paper-wrapped parcel contained potato crisps covered with chocolate and a few fennel seeds, a very refreshing “flødebolle” (roughly translates to cream puff, chocolate tea-cake, or chocolate-coated marshmallow treat) with a malt base and a filling of fluffy yoghurt cream, and, my favourite, a toffee where the butter had been replaced by smoked bone marrow. It might sound disgusting, but it was actually incredibly tasty, and the smoke added a whole new dimension to a well known treat (overall 8-8.5/10, but more for the toffee, and maybe also more for the flødebolle).
Then there were the juices:
Like I said in my review of Geranium, some people couldn’t dream of going to a restaurant like this and not have wine with the food. What I can say is that a good sommelier will be able to find a wine that suits each course well, but he’ll never be able to find something that suits it as well as a drink that the restaurant has made especially for that dish. We both agreed that the juice menu here made the meal even better, and both here and at Geranium the juices matched the food extremely well. When I go to high end restaurants I usually have 2-3 glasses of wine with the food, but I have never before had a meal where the food and the beverages were such a great match as it was at Geranium and Noma. We had these juices:
* Cucumber & dill
* Apple & pine
* Celery & celeriac
* Carrot & juniper
* Beetroot & cowberries (lingonberries)
* Pear & verbena
* Elderflower
The only juice I could fault was the first one where the taste of dill seemed absent. Especially the apple and pine has lived on long in my memory. Celery and celeriac might not seem like a very creative combination, and in general the juices were quite simple, but they really fitted the meal which is essence was quite simple.
The service was just as good, or quite possibly even better, than in all the three-star restaurants I’ve ever been to (meaning this was probably the best service I’ve ever had). Everything you see in most three-star restaurants (topping-up, walking you to the toilet, holding the chair when you return, etc.) were here. What made the service special here was the very informal atmosphere. We immediately felt welcome, and the staff was very talkative and humorous. In general, I prefer having just one or two waiters for the duration of the meal (which was done to perfection at Pierre Gagnaire), but at Noma I actually liked that the dishes were served by an ever-changing brigade of cooks rather than waiters (but the same two people took away all our plates), as you could really sense the passion with which they presented the food they had cooked.
Some people prefer just being left alone as fast as possible to eat their food, and I’m sure the staff was professional enough to tell who was up for a chat. Four Brits were sitting at the table next to us, and they kept on yakking for minutes after the staff had put the plates on their table and were waiting to present it. Initially, the staff cracked a few jokes, but I’m quite sure they stopped that when they realised those guests weren’t up for it. As we are talkative, it was very pleasant to have a staff that was professional while at the same time so down to earth and humorous. We asked a waiter to take a picture of us, and another waiter jumped into the picture. It’s worth showing just for the priceless look on my then-wife’s face. Afterwards, he took another picture just with the two of us.
My only tiny complaint is that the appetizers were served too quickly after one another, so often we would have 2-3 appetizers on the table at the same time. They did warn us about this when we came, but I would have preferred that they were served separately, but that is really a tiny detail.
So, was it the best restaurant I’ve even been to? That’s difficult to say, but I would put it in my top five so far. Besides, I wouldn’t call Restaurant Magazine’s top 50 list that believable – or at least I don’t agree with it so much so far, nor with what seems to be their criteria. I think we might have had one of the Noma’s less elaborate menus. That’s of course reason enough to go back, hoping to get an even better meal.
It’s definitely not a restaurant everybody will like. The food is far from the elegant, powerful and refined French cooking soaked in cream, butter and reduced stock, but it’s light, refreshing and rustic, and the food actually also seemed quite healthy.
Of all the restaurants I’ve been to in Denmark that subscribe to the “new Nordic food”, Noma has been the one with the most consistent Nordic theme and style of cooking. All the rest seem to adopt a bit of French cooking. Noma definitely wanted to do something different, but never to shock or to put two ingredients together that nobody had ever thought of before. I suppose the live prawns would fit into the shock category, but that’s the only thing. The combinations usually worked very well, and the quality of the ingredients were top-notch – especially the prawns were spectacularly fresh ;-).
A friend of mine had a point when he said that Noma probably had thought “Hey! We’re number one in the world. We might as well see how much we can screw with people”, when they had us eat live prawns and even cook our own food (the egg). With regards to the egg, this was the only time were I felt, at least in retrospect, that the meal became stupid. Although it was fun, I would simply have preferred to see what the kitchen could produce instead of just making me cook an egg.
There were several ingredients that could have been “spiced up” (the milk curd, the frozen granulated cream), and several ingredients were also repeated: Green strawberries X2, malt X3, mushrooms X3, eggs X3, and sorrel X3. In general, leaves were a big part of the meal. No fewer than 8 dishes contained leaves of some sort. But, besides from the leaves, none of the repeated ingredients were featured in the same way twice.
So, am I trying to be objective here and say “everybody else thinks this restaurant is great, so I feel the same”? No. Noma was simply collectively a very consistent experience with the food, the juice, the creativity, the theme, the service, the stories, the imagination, and the visions. At the time of writing, Noma would be in my top five, but maybe not in my top three. Although I’m Danish, Nordic cooking is actually not my favourite style (I prefer French and Italian), and I still feel that a meal can be just a tad better than this.
Dansk anmeldelse
Noma
Strandgade 93
1401 København K
Tel.: 32 96 32 97
Sammenlagt vurdering: 9/10
Besøgets dato: Juli 2012
Før jeg siger andet: Vælg juicemenuen, hvis I tager på Noma!
Siden Noma vandt prisen som verdens bedste restaurant fra Restaurant Magazine i 2010, og beholdt den titel de næste tre år, har det været ekstremt svært at få et bord. En gang om måneden åbner deres hjemmeside op for reservationer til en hel måned tre måneder ude i fremtiden. Ifølge en af medarbejderne bliver alle bordene taget inden for de første fem minutter, endda af og til før. Jeg har dog hørt, at det af og til kan lade sig gøre at få et bord ved at ringe til restauranten og spørge, om de har et bord ledigt samme dag, næste dag eller næste uge, da der altid er nogen, der må melde afbud. Så skal man selvfølgelig allerede være i København eller kunne komme hurtigt frem. Restauranten har også en venteliste. Vi var heldige at få et bord til frokost to uger i forvejen. Jeg var ved at skrive mig på deres venteliste, da jeg opdagede, at der var to ledige borde. Jeg var nok bare heldig. Lige før jeg skrev det her, kiggede jeg på deres hjemmeside, og der var ikke et eneste bord ledigt i de næste tre måneder. Sådan har det været, siden de fik prisen som verdens bedste restaurant.
Selve restauranten er rå og upoleret, der er ingen dug på bordene, og stolene har vikingagtig pels hængende over ryglænet. Det er langt fra de luksuriøse “slotte” i f.eks. Frankrig, men det passer perfekt til maden. De ansatte er klædt ganske enkelt i sorte cowboybukser, en lyseblå skjorte og et forklæde.
Tidligere tilbød Noma både en menu på syv retter og en på tolv retter. På deres hjemmeside står der nu kun én lang menu, og selvom vi fik udleveret en menu bagefter, fik vi faktisk ingen menu udleveret, da vi kom. Det lader til at være en udbredt tendens blandt Københavns toprestauranter, at der kun er én menu, og ens eneste valg er, hvor mange retter man vil have (selvom vi dog heller ikke fik det valg på Noma). De fleste restauranter kan nok ændre visse ting, hvis man har allergi, eller der er ting, man ikke bryder sig om.
På Noma bad vi kun begge om at slippe for østers, og jeg bad også om at slippe for muslinger. Så lavede de ellers mad til os. En af tjenerne fortalte mig senere, at de tilberedte, hvad de kunne skaffe, så der er variationer fra bord til bord. Men ak! Vi fik desværre ikke den berømte moskusokse med mælkeskind. Det er nok også muligt at bede om en vegetarmenu – en gæst ved et andet bord fik tit andre retter, og de så alle sammen vegetariske ud.
En menu kostede 1.500 kroner per person, og vi delte også en juicemenu til 550 kroner for syv glas. Restauranten tilbyder også en vinmenu til 1.000 kroner, og de har selvfølgelig også en lang vinliste. Vand kostede 50 kroner per person (hvilket faktisk er det andenbilligste jeg har set i København, selvom Geranium faktisk ikke tog betaling for vand). Noma serverer samme menu middag og aften, så det er lige meget, hvornår man kommer.
Så det er ikke ligefrem nogen billig restaurant, og det er byens dyreste menu. Ikke desto mindre er Skandinavien jo dyrt, så med alt andet taget i betragtning, virker prisen rimelig, når man ser på, hvad der bliver serveret her.
Brødet var et surdejsbrød serveret med tre slags smør: Svinefedt med ristede løg på toppen, en gedemælkesmør, og en såkaldt jomfrusmør. Det var åbenbart smør, hvor kærnen var blevet stoppet før tid, så smørret indeholdt mere kærnemælk – og man kunne virkelig smage kærnemælken. Forfriskende, let syrligt og også en dejlig let konsistens.
Først fik vi en lang række appetitvækkere, og jeg må indrømme, at jeg har svært ved at huske dem alle, da der var så mange, og de kom så hurtigt.
Den første var allerede på bordet, da vi ankom, da den var en del af blomsterne på bordet. Det var maltbrød med dyppelse.
Den næste var en af vores favoritter blandt appetitvækkerne – tørret mos med karljohansvampestøv. Smagen er svær at beskrive, men det smagte (selvfølgelig) lidt træet, men rigtig dejligt.
Torskelever blev serveret i meget tynde skiver oven på en lille pandekage.
Jeg fik flæskesvær med et lag solbær på toppen, som konsistensmæssigt var lidt som et tykt papir. Min hustru fik en blåmusling, hvor den nederste skal var spiselig.
En kagedåse indeholdt små kiks med smøreost og urter.
Så kom en appetitvækker, som jeg havde hørt om tidligere. En krukke blev sat på bordet, og to små levende (!) rejer lå på isen. Vi skulle så tage de spjættende rejer, som var let bedøvede af isen, dyppe dem i brunet smør og så spise dem.
En sprød cylinder, der lignede sprøde nudler, var drysset med svampestøv og havde en creme i midten.
Tyndt rugbrød var sammen med sprødt kyllingeskind lagt om en creme med stenbiderrogn.
Vagtelæg var blevet røget let i hø. Det var også en af vores favoritter blandt appetitvækkerne. For mig at se er det begrænset, hvor interessant et æg kan være, og ofte afhænger rettens succes af, hvad man sætter ægget sammen med. Ikke desto mindre var det her nok det bedste æg, jeg nogensinde har fået (men som sagt er der ikke så meget konkurrence), og mængden af røg var perfekt afstemt. Hviden var fast, mens blommen var tilpas flydende og varm.
En urtepotte indeholdt en grøn creme som jord, malt på toppen (det øverste lag jord), og små gulerødder og radiser var planterne. Det var absolut en sjov ide, selvom jeg dog har læst, at konceptet ikke er noget, Noma selv har opfundet, men ingredienserne smagte ikke af særlig meget – hverken cremen eller grøntsagerne.
Papirtynde stykker brød var lagt sammen om urter og en røget torskerognscreme.
Æbleskiver var her fyldt med en agurkecreme, mens finske ansjosagtige fisk var stukket ind i dem. Det var også en af mine favoritter blandt appetitvækkerne.
Så kom den første egentlige ret: Friske og gærede ærter. Kokken forklarede, at man gærer ris eller sojabønner til miso i Japan, men ærter er mere typisk dansk, så risen/sojaen var erstattet med ærter. Rundt om var en grønt te i både flydende og geleret form. Jeg må indrømme, at jeg nok var lidt partisk med den her ret, for jeg er helt vild med ærter, og jeg har hørt, at forskere har sagt, at Danmark og Norge har verdens bedste klima til ærter (og også æbler). Jeg har nemt kunnet smage forskel på danske og spanske ærter. Smagen af ærter var guddommelig, og det fungerede frygtelig godt sammen med den grønne te, hvis styrke var perfekt afstemt. Den her ret var virkelig noget stort (Hvis ikke 10/10, så i det mindste 9-9.5/10).
Min hustru fik dehydrerede kammuslinger serveret som sprøde skiver oven på cremede biodynamisk boghvede med en muslinge- og blæksprutteblæksauce. Jeg fik i stedet en argurkeret. Den var flot anrettet, men problemet med den her ret var, at den var alt for enstrenget. Jeg skal dog sige, at jeg synes, at agurker er meget uinteressante, men den agurk, jeg fik på Sant Pau i Spanien, imponerede mig virkelig. Her smagte alt på tallerkenen, på nær de syltede hyldebær ovenpå, af agurk, og heller ikke nogen videre spektakulær agurk – agurkekuglerne, de sorte “bær” (det var vist agurk dyppet i blæksprutteblæk) og både den grønne og den hvide “sne” smagte bare som agurk. Det her var den værste ret for mig i hele måltidet (5/10).
Jeg prøvede lidt af min hustrus ret, og selvom jeg ikke bryder mig om muslinger, foretrak jeg faktisk hendes ret af de to, selvom jeg ikke syntes, at kammuslingernes fulde potentiale var blevet udnyttet. Stegte kammuslinger eller som tatar ville have været fint, men de havde i det mindste tænkt over, hvad de lavede.
Den næste ret var krabbe med lidt let suppe, lidt estragon og tre æggeblommer. Krabbekødet var tydeligvis meget friskt, men vi savnede begge salt og peber i retten. Vi skulle nok også have nøjes med at spise en lille smule af æggeblommerne ad gangen i stedet for at spise en hel æggeblomme, da det var lidt voldsomt (6/10).
Sjællandsk oksekød blev serveret som tatar med lidt krydderier, peberrod, et par skalotteløgsringe og syre på toppen. Ved siden af var der en estragonsauce. Når det er a la carte, vælger jeg næsten aldrig tatar af nogen slags, da jeg ganske enkelt synes, at tilberedt kød og fisk bringer smagen mere frem, end når det er råt. Sammen med den tatar, jeg fik på El Gastronomo i Valencia i Spanien (som er lavet helt anderledes), er det her den bedste tatar, jeg har fået. Her var kødet skåret i meget tynde skiver i stedet for at være hakket, og det var utrolig mørt og med en rigtig god smag. Mængden af peberrod var også perfekt og ikke for stærkt, mens syren gav et godt syrligt modspil til det kraftige oksekød (8-8.5/10).
Den næste ret var helt fænomenal: Karamelliserede løg med grønne (umodne) jordbær og en sauce lavet af grønne jordbær og timian. Selvom det var en meget enkel, og på sin vis enstrenget, ret, følte jeg på intet tidspunkt, at der manglede noget, ganske enkelt fordi hver mundfuld sendte mig i himmelen. Løgene var stadig sprøde, men havde ikke noget af den skarpe smag, som rå løg har. Jeg har fået rigtige gode løg på El Celler de Can Roca, Geranium og Kokkeriet, men de her overgik alt. Det var intet andet end forbløffende i al dens enkelhed (10/10).
Sandart var pakket ind i kål og grillet – det vil sige, at selve kålen var blevet grillet, mens fisken var blevet dampet indeni. En smukt anrettet og meget forfriskende sauce af jernurt dekorerede tallerkenen. Ved bordet blev en skummende sauce lavet på fiskeben og hvidvin hældt på. Sandart er en af mine absolutte yndlingsfisk, og når jeg har serveret den pandestegt for venner, eller da vi fik den pandestegt på restaurant Herman i København, var alle helt vilde med den. Her var den lidt mere sej, selvom den hverken var over- eller undertilberedt. Kålen var ikke nogen oplagt sammensætning, men det passede alligevel godt ind i restaurantens tema (stadig 7/10).
Så fik vi en meget varm støbejernspande, et helt råt æg (i skallen), nogle krydderurter, lidt smør og en sprød spiral af jordskokker (eller måske var det bare kartofler). De stillede så et stopur, da vi slog ægget ud på panden, og kom tilbage efter 1:20 minutter og bad os røre det lidt sammen og komme urterne og spiralen i. Det var sjovt at lave retten, men selve maden kunne sagtens have været bedre og mere interessant, hvis de havde tilberedt en ret for os i stedet (selvom der så ikke var noget interaktivt). Mere om det senere (6/10).
Kalvebrisler blev serveret med lidt grønt (umodent) jordbærpuré på toppen sammen med forskellige slags ukrudt, svampe og et lille stykke majroe. Så blev en suppe lavet på tørrede svampe hældt over. Kokken fortalte os, at fem personer tog ud og fandt bladene ved Dragør hver morgen. Bladene smagte alle forskelligt, og selvom nogle af dem var bitre, blev de aldrig for bitre, og de overdøvede heller ikke svampene eller de pragtfulde brisler. Jeg brød mig ikke om majroen, da den simpelthen var frygtelig bitter, men jeg bryder mig åbenbart kun om majroer som puré lavet med fløde. Karakteren er for resten (9/10).
Desserterne var en blandet omgang. Efter den første dessert fortalte tjeneren os, at generelt er deres desserter ikke særlig søde.
Den første dessert var mælkecurd, rabarber (vist rå, men det var måske marineret), syre og en norsk brun ost blendet med mørdej. En rabarbersuppe blev så hældt på ved bordet. Vi syntes begge to, at den her dessert var for sur, og mælkecurden både forsvandt i den her sammensætning og var ærlig talt ret smagløs. Ostedejen var klart bedre, selvom min hustru dog sagde, at det ikke var særlig godt i forhold til den brune ost, hun havde fået tidligere. Jeg kan ikke udtale mig om det. Jeg har kun prøvet lidt fra en tube for flere år siden (5-6/10).
Jeg bryder mig virkelig ikke om Gammel Dansk (og jeg spørger af og til mig selv om, hvor mange folk der i virkeligheden kan lide det), så jeg var positivt overrasket over, hvor velsmagende den næste rets is lavet med Gammel Dansk var. Den blev serveret i en suppe af syre og var anrettet med lidt friskt syre og kikseagtige mælkeflager. Selvom mælken igen blot smagte af mælk, var det en god konsistens, som fungerede rigtig godt med resten af ingredienserne (8/10).
Så fik vi en ekstra dessert. Jeg ved ikke helt, om alle fik den her dessert, eller det var, fordi min hustru havde sagt, at desserterne ikke havde været så søde. Da jeg spurgte tjeneren om det, svarede han “jaaah, måske” og blinkede til os. Jeg var under alle omstændigheder glad for, at vi fik den, for det var den bedste af de tre desserter: Valnøddeis med valnøddepulver, frysetørrede bær og frossent granuleret fløde. Valnødder er faktisk den slags nødder, jeg bryder mig mindst om (jeg foretrækker de lignende pecannødder), men her var valnøddesmagen intens, men uden bitterheden og harskheden, som næsten altid ødelægger det for mig. Isens konsistens var intet mindre end perfekt – vidunderlig blød og hverken for frossen eller optøet. De frysetørrede bær og valnøddepulveret var et godt match og gav en god afveksling i konsistensen sammen med isen, men den granulerede fløde virkede overflødig, da der allerede var fløde i isen, og den granulerede fløde smagte simpelthen bare som fløde. Det kunne nemt være blevet erstattet af noget mere spændende (f.eks. granuleret kærnemælk – et andet godt skandinavisk produkt) (8.5/10).
Så kom der petit fours, selvom vi havde takket nej til kaffe og te. En række gamle kagedåser og en papirpakke indeholdt kartoffelchips overtrækket med chokolade og et par få fennikelfrø, en meget forfriskende flødebolle med en maltbund og fyld af en luftig yoghurtcreme samt min favorit: En flødekaramel, hvor smøren var blevet skiftet ud med røget marv. Det lyder måske ulækkert, men det smagte pragtfuldt, og røgen gav en helt ny dimension til et ellers så velkendt stykke slik (i alt 8-8.5/10, men mere for karamellen og måske også mere for flødebollen).
Så var der juicemenuen. Som jeg sagde i min anmeldelse af Geranium, er der visse mennesker, der ikke kunne drømme om at tage på en restaurant som den her og ikke drikke vin til maden. Det eneste, jeg kan sige, er, at en god sommelier kan finde vin, der passer godt til hver ret, men han vil aldrig kunne finde noget, der passer så godt som en drik, som restauranten selv har lavet til lige præcis den her ret. Vi var begge enige om, at juicemenuen gjorde måltidet endnu bedre, og på både Geranium og Noma passede juicen ekstremt godt til maden. Når jeg tager på fine restauranter, får jeg oftest to-tre glas vin til maden, men jeg har aldrig før fået et måltid, hvor maden og drikkevarerne passede så godt sammen, som de gjorde på Geranium og Noma.
Vi fik følgende juice:
* Agurk og dild
* Æble og fyrrenåle
* Blad- og knoldselleri
* Gulerødder og enebær
* Rødbeder og tyttebær
* Pære og jernurt
* Hyldeblomst med kuldioxid
Den eneste juice, jeg kunne kritisere, var den første, hvor man næsten ikke kunne smag dilden. Især æble- og fyrrenålejuicen har jeg tænkt meget tilbage på. Blad- og knoldselleri lyder måske ikke som den mest kreative kombination, og generelt var juicerne ret enkle, men de passede utrolig godt til måltidet, som et langt stykke hen ad vejen var ret enkelt.
Betjeningen var lige så god eller måske endda bedre end på alle de tre-stjernede restauranter, jeg har været på (så det var måske den bedste betjening, jeg nogensinde har fået). Alt det, man finder på trestjernede restauranter (hælde vand op, følge en på toilettet, holde stolen, når man kommer tilbage osv), fandt man også her. Det, der gjorde betjeningen her til noget særligt, var den meget uformelle atmosfære. Vi følte os straks velkomme, og personalet var både snakkesalige og humoristiske. Generelt foretrækker jeg at blive betjent af blot en eller to tjenere gennem hele måltidet (hvilket blev gjort til perfektion på Pierre Gagnaire), men på Noma var det faktisk rart, at retterne blev serveret af forskellige kokke hver gang i stedet for tjenere (selvom de samme to tjenere fjernede alle vores tallerkener), da man virkelig kunne fornemme den lidenskab, som de præsenterede maden, de havde lavet, med.
Nogle mennesker foretrækker at få fred så hurtigt som muligt, og jeg er sikker på, at personalet er professionelt nok til at fornemme, om folk har lyst til at snakke. Fire briter sad ved bordet ved siden af os, og de blev ved med at knevre i flere minutter, efter tjenerne havde sat tallerkenerne på bordet og ventede på at præsentere maden. I starten fyrede tjenerne et par vitser af, men jeg er ret sikker på, at de stoppede det, da de indså, at de gæster ikke gad den slags. Vi er snakkesalige, så det var dejligt, at personalet både var så professionelle og samtidig helt nede på jorden og humoristiske. Vi bad en tjener om at tage et billede af os, og en anden tjener sprang ind i billedet. Det er værd at vise her blot for min hustrus uvurderlige ansigtsudtryk. Bagefter tog han et andet billede med blot os to.
Mit eneste lille kritikpunkt er, at appetitvækkerne blev serveret lidt for hurtigt efter hinanden, så vi ofte havde to-tre appetitvækkere på bordet på samme tid. De advarede os dog om det, da vi kom, men jeg ville have foretrukket af få dem separat. Det er dog en meget lille detalje.
Så var det den bedste restaurant, jeg har været på? Det er svært at sige, men jeg vil sætte den i min top fem indtil videre. Desuden synes jeg heller ikke, at Restaurant Magazine’s top 50 er videre troværdig – eller jeg er i hvert fald ikke så enig med den indtil videre eller med, hvad der lader til at være deres kriterier. Jeg tror, at vi fik en af Nomas mere simple menuer. Det er selvfølgelig grund nok i sig selv til at tage tilbage i håbet om at få et endnu bedre måltid.
Noma er absolut ikke en restaurant, som alle vil kunne lide. Maden er langt fra den elegante, kraftfulde og afrundede franske madlavning, hvor alt er svøbt ind i fløde, smør og indkogt fond, men det er let, forfriskende og rustikt, og maden lader faktisk også til at være forholdsvis sund.
Af alle de restauranter, jeg har været på i Danmark, som går ind under betegnelsen “ny nordisk mad”, har Noma været den med det mest gennemførte nordiske tema og madlavningsstil. Alle de andre lader til at inkorporere lidt fransk madlavning. Noma ville tydeligvis lave noget anderledes, men hverken for at chokere eller for at sætte to ingredienser sammen, som ingen nogensinde havde tænkt på før. Rejerne faldt måske i chokkategorien, men det var også det eneste. Sammensætningerne fungerede for det meste rigtig godt, og kvaliteten af ingredienserne var helt i top – især de levende rejer var særdeles friske 😉
En af mine venner havde fat i noget, da han sagde, at Noma nok havde tænkt: “Hey, vi er den bedste restaurant i verden. Vi kan lige så godt se, hvor meget pis vi kan tage på folk”, da de fik os til at spise levende rejer og endda også tilberede vores egen mad (ægget). Med hensyn til ægget var det den eneste ret, hvor det blev, i det mindste set i bakspejlet, lidt åndssvagt. Selvom det var sjovt, ville jeg ganske enkelt have foretrukket at se, hvad køkkenet kunne finde på frem for bare at stege et æg selv.
Der var nogle ingredienser, der kunne have været gjort mere interessante (mælkecurden, den frosne, granulerede fløde), og visse ingredienser gik også igen flere gange: Grønne jordbær to gange, malt tre gange, svampe tre gange, æg tre gange, og syre tre gange. Generelt var blade/ukrudt en stor del af måltidet. Ikke mindre end otte retter indeholdt blade af den eller anden slags. Men ud over bladene gik ingen af gengangerne igen i samme form.
Så prøver jeg at være objektiv og sige, at “alle andre synes, at restauranten er fremragende, så jeg synes det samme”? Nej. Noma var sammenlagt en utrolig gennemført oplevelse med maden, juicen, kreativiteten, temaet, betjeningen, historierne, fantasien og visionerne. På nuværende tidspunkt ville Noma være i min top fem, men måske ikke i top tre. Selvom jeg er dansker, er nordisk madlavning faktisk ikke min yndlingsform (jeg foretrækker fransk og italiensk), og jeg tror, at et måltid godt kan blive bare en lille smule bedre end det her.
