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If you’ve read Margot’s blog post, about our dinner at Noma, you’ll already know that it was fantastic. In fact it was so fantastic that I just had to write about it too.

The entire Noma experience is phenomenal but there are a few things that were standouts for me.

Image courtesy of paz.ca (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pazca/4065853316/)

The first standout – the décor:

Noma’s décor is minimalist. It showcases beautiful, simple Scandinavian design and there isn’t a tablecloth in sight! In many ways the decor is not what you’d expect from the best restaurant in the world. But it is very true to its heritage and, as we rediscovered throughout the night, Noma is all about being Nordic!
The second standout – the ingredients:

All the ingredients, used at Noma (which incidentally stands for Nordic Food), are from Nordic countries. So, for example, no olive oil is ever used! In fact René and his team (from 21 different countries) spend time foraging on the local beaches for natural and different ingredients.

The third standout – the food:

We indulged in Noma’s 12 course menu. What I experienced was a series of flavours and textures each more extraordinary than the last. From the moment you, as a guest, arrive at Noma you receive food starting with tastes from smoked quail eggs to chicken skin sandwiches. Then the courses start arriving and they ranged from crayfish tales, that have to be eaten by hand, to marrow bones wrapped in brown paper and filled with smoked toffee … all exceptional!

The fourth standout – the plating:

All tastes and courses, at Noma, are served in unusual containers including: old cake tins, felt and rocks from the sea-bed. At Noma the plating is as intriguing as the food. The cutlery, on the other hand, is simple. Only one style and size of knife and fork are used throughout the meal. Then there is the fantastic interaction that guests have with the chefs who come to the table and actually pour the sauce, they’ve created, into the plate. At Noma the artists don’t hide in the kitchen!

The fifth and final standout – the juice pairing:

As someone who doesn’t do wine pairings I find that I end up drinking glass after glass of water with a great meal. As you can imagine this can get a little boring so I absolutely loved the fact that I could have my 12 courses paired with different juices. This made me feel, like I too was experiencing something very special!

The trip was worth every minute and, if you get a booking at Noma, you have to go! This might be a feat in itself because after being named no.1 in the San Pellegrino World Top 50 Restaurant Awards their website crashed, their emails gave up and their phone stopped working. They could be fully booked for the next 3 years but, luckily, they only take bookings 3 months in advance. For more information visit the Noma website.