The restaurant that redefined “fine dining” by fermenting ants and serving moss is packing its knives and flying into L.A. René Redzepi’s legendary Noma, the three-Michelin-starred Copenhagen icon once crowned World’s Best Restaurant five times over, is coming to town for a months-long pop-up in 2026.
The official teaser dropped today with a moody montage of citrus, mushrooms and the Hollywood sign, promising “Noma LA 2026” and inviting fans to sign up for reservations. Cue mass hysteria.
While details are still under wraps (price tag TBD but likely sky-high), we know this won’t be your average tasting menu. Noma residencies are less “imported restaurant” and more full-blown cultural immersion. Redzepi’s team—which includes foragers, fermentation wizards and globe-trotting chefs—has previously decamped to Kyoto, Tulum, Brooklyn and Sydney. L.A. has been on his radar for years. Now, it’s official.
“We’ve been working on America for a while,” Redzepi told the Los Angeles Times, noting that he fell for the city after a laid-back stint in Manhattan Beach with his family. Farmers markets, taco crawls with Roy Choi, Thai feasts with the Night + Market crew—it all sealed the deal. “There’s a creative energy I find in Los Angeles that is based on this grassroots experience, not on money,” he said. “It’s actually more rare than you think in food these days.”
View this post on Instagram
The plan? Five to six months of pop-ups, collaboration, hiking (yes) and all the culinary R&D you’d expect from the man who turned reindeer moss into a status dish. If all goes smoothly—visa gods willing—Redzepi will land in L.A. this November to start scouting and soaking it all in.
As for the menu, your guess is as good as ours. Noma’s Kyoto residency leaned hyper-local with kaiseki-inspired dishes and temple garden herbs; its Tulum takeover used jungle-foraged ingredients. What will L.A. taste like through Noma’s lens? Citrus peels? Mulberry leaves? Insect tacos? Don’t rule anything out.
Just don’t wait too long to sign up. If history is any guide, Noma LA will book out faster than you can say “koji.” Dreams, as Redzepi commented on Instagram, really do come true.