Eminent chef René Redzepi will bring his globally renowned, award-winning restaurant, Noma, to Japan once again this year, returning to the Ace Hotel Kyoto for an autumn residency. Following a sold-out debut at the hip hotel in the spring of 2023, the residency will take place in Kyoto, Japan from October for 10 weeks, drawing upon over two decades of culinary innovation from the original Copenhagen concept.
It gives keen fine-dining enthusiasts a chance to experience Noma, with the revered Danish restaurant entering its new era: turning the original site of the fine-diner into a “pioneering test kitchen” while the team continue to work there and at residencies around the world.
The Noma Kyoto residency in 2024 will continue to build on what the team describes as “a decade of study of Japan and its foodways”. It follows a string of residencies for the forward-thinking chef and team, with a Tokyo residency in 2015, as well as residencies in Sydney, Australia and Tulum, Mexico, as well as the aforementioned Kyoto run last year. As with past Noma pop-ups, it will be highly collaborative, working with local growers, artisans, artists and farmers to underpin the menu and overall dining experience, down to the exquisite details. Plus, given Japan’s steeped culinary history in fermentation and Noma’s continued exploration of the practice, GT assumes pickles and ferments will no doubt find their way onto diners’ plates throughout the residency.
The Noma Kyoto residency will run on four days weekly, Mondays through Thursdays, starting on Tuesday 8 October and running until Wednesday 18 December, 2024. There will be four dinner sittings, and three lunch sittings per week, with all guests seated at communal tables in Ace Hotel Kyoto’s main dining room.
Noma Kyoto residency in the Ace Hotel Kyoto main dining room.
(Photo: Tanaka Kotaro)Ace Hotel Kyoto is located in the beating heart of the bustling-yet-calm old capital city of Japan; where long-held traditions sit side-by-side with forward-thinking fashion, architecture and food, reflecting Japan’s rapid modernisation. The hotel is situated in a 1926 building once home to Kyoto Central Telephone Company designed by Tetsuro Yoshida, one of Japan’s most respected modern architects, merged with a new build. It was the first Ace Hotel in the Asia-Pacific region, and will be followed by the opening of Ace Hotel Fukuoka in 2027.
The Noma Kyoto menu will cost €540 EUR (around $900AUD per person), with an accompanying beverage pairing of €300 EUR (around $500AUD per person). A 10 per cent service charge will be added, too, with the whole dining experience set to total around $1542AUD per person.
Accommodation and Noma Kyoto dining packages are available to purchase via the Ace Hotel Kyoto website and include a minimum of two nights’ accommodation at Ace Hotel Kyoto, plus access to a lunch or dinner reservation for two people at the Noma residency. Reservations for the residency will be released via Noma’s newsletter on Tuesday 14 May at 9pm AEST as well as via Ace Hotel Kyoto’s website for the accommodation and dining packages.
Entrance to the Noma Kyoto residency last year.
(Photo: Tanaka Kotaro)Reservations for Noma Kyoto residency and room packages will be available to book on Tuesday 14 May at 9pm AEST via the Ace Hotel Kyoto website. Reservations for dining only will be released via the Noma newsletter, which you can sign up via the Noma website.
