Would you pay $1,500 for dinner? Noma’s Los Angeles residency tests dining norms
It is the gastronomic equivalent of a Taylor Swift residency at the Forum — exclusive, impossibly expensive and the most sought-after ticket in town.
Copenhagen’s renowned Noma, a restaurant that has claimed the title of “Best in the World” five times over along with three Michelin sparklers to boot, is officially landing in Los Angeles this March for a 16-week residency in Silver Lake. But as the countdown to the Jan. 26 booking release begins, a different kind of conversation simmers beneath the surface of the hype.
The price tag? A stratospheric $1,500 per guest.
While that figure includes beverage pairings, service and tax, it remains an eye-popping entry fee even for a city accustomed to paying $400 for omakase. Yet the demand at such a seemingly unreal price is undeniably real: More than 20,000 people have already reportedly chucked their hats in the ring (subscribing to newsletters and setting notifications) all hoping to secure one of the 42 nightly seats from March 11 through June 26, with midday seatings on Wednesday and Fridays.
Is this pop-up the ultimate celebration of California’s famed fruitful bounty, or is it a clumsy arrival at the worst possible time?
The ‘creative playground’
For Rene Redzepi, Noma’s visionary chef, the move to Los Angeles has been years in the making. In a statement explaining his choice, the Danish chef painted a romantic picture of California’s biggest city:
“There are melting pots, and then there is LA. It’s an epicenter of culture, art, and entertainment, with one of the most interesting and dynamic food scenes in the world. In one place, we can learn about ingredients from communities all over the world … Coming to LA as a team means we get to enter a new creative playground. There is a sense of possibility, of going into the unknown, with the hope of experiencing the power and creativity that come from collaboration across crafts, perspectives, and disciplines in even deeper ways than we have before. We’re going to LA to cook, to create and to see what’s possible.”
The California iteration of Noma will be “exploring everything within a 300 miles radius of LA” and build its test kitchen pantry “completely from scratch with hundreds of flavors developed on the ground.”
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Jenn Tanaka, a food and travel writer who met Redzepi during a previous visit to the culinary bookstore Now Serving in Chinatown, recalled how the chef’s executive team was enchanted by the local landscape.
“He was so impressed that Southern California had all of these diverse communities,” said Tanaka, a contributor to Eater LA and Southern California News Group publications. “There’s a Chinatown, there’s a Koreatown, there’s a Little Tokyo. There’s amazing Armenian food in Glendale, and the Persian food he found on the Westside. Just the ingredients of California-grown produce blew them away.”
The price of a memory
From a chef’s perspective, the $1,500, while high, isn’t only about the food on the plate. Zach Scherer, co-chef and co-founder of Darkroom in Santa Ana, views the residency through the lens of artistry.
“It’s a tricky one for me because Rene is a hero of the industry and has done so much to really spotlight locality,” said Scherer, wondering, “The price is insane, don’t get me wrong, but it may be worth it?”
The noted chef, whose own eatery has earned plaudits galore over the last two years, compares the experience to a high-stakes concert. “Think of it this way: If you could see your favorite band in a small-capacity venue, play a show you thought they’d never play, how much would you pay? The $1,500 isn’t for food on the plate; it’s for a memory you may never get to have again.”
Similarly lauded spots, for example, like the French Laundry in Yountville, cost roughly anywhere from $900 to over $1,200 per person with beverage pairings.
Noma has attempted to bridge the accessibility gap by offering an “Industry Table” (i.e., free reservations for young hospitality professionals under 25) and pledging 1% of revenue to school lunch programs via the nonprofit MAD and Brigaid.
But for some, the math still doesn’t add up. Anne Marie Panoringan, Culture OC food writer, notes that even for seasoned gastronomes, the value proposition feels off. “We got the update to register, but decided at the last minute that it’s wasted on us,” said Panoringan. “[My husband] and I don’t drink enough wine. And it’s roughly the same price per guest as 21 Royal,” an $18,000 multi-course feast high above Disneyland’s New Orleans Square that comes with a park hopper, valet and a stone’s throw from Pirates of the Caribbean.
A city with PTSD
Not everyone is ready to give the Danish team a standing ovation. For Mona Holmes, James Beard Award-nominated editor of Eater LA, the optics of a 16-week, $1,500-per-head pop-up feels jarringly out of step with reality on the ground.
“The response is fairly negative,” said Holmes, when asked about the reaction to Noma’s residency, pointing to the feedback on social media. “I haven’t seen a single person be enthusiastic about Noma. The response, and I happen to agree with this, is that it’s remarkably tone-deaf.”
Indeed, the bulk of comments on Eater’s social media aren’t overwhelmingly positive on the upcoming pop-up, ranging from “Ugh” to “If you book Vespertine, Providence, N/naka and Kato all in the same night, it still comes out less expensive.”
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Holmes points to a city still reeling from a series of body blows: the aftermath of horrific and fatal wildfires, the strikes that decimated the local economy, a restaurant industry struggling to survive post-pandemic malaise and skyrocketing costs, and ICE raids creating rampant fear and chaos.
“To come in and charge $1,500 feels remarkably tone-deaf and not particularly a part of Rene Redzepi’s principles around sustainability,” she said. “What are you contributing? I don’t really see what that is yet, and I think a lot of people are really [ticked] off. The majority of people here cannot afford it. So, why the hell are you coming?”
Holmes also questions the choice of Silver Lake, a Los Angeles neighborhood she suggests is in a state of flux. “Silver Lake … certainly doesn’t have the same status that it used to, especially on the main drag. A lot of restaurants have closed and haven’t reopened. Bar Moruno, which was a really great restaurant I loved, closed more than two years ago.” (For now, the exact Silver Lake location remains under wraps; the address and directions will be sent to guests once bookings are confirmed.)
For Holmes and many Angelenos, the arrival of Noma feels like an outsider misreading the room. “Right now, I’m sitting in my car looking at the mountains above Altadena and Pasadena, and they are still scorched from the Eaton fire,” she said. “You can see the burn scars. For someone to come in and try to make an impression on a population that is very much in a state of PTSD, I can’t imagine that this is going to go well. I really believe there will be protesters.”
Tanaka shares the same sentiment, noting the disconnect between city denizens and Redzepi’s ostensible ideology. “It’s frustrating because the communities here that he’s celebrating, like Koreatown or Little Ethiopia, might not be the type of diners that are going to be able to afford Noma.”
With the approach of Jan. 26 — the day when the Noma-fied lucky few learn their fate — the tens of thousands of names on the waitlist prove there’s no shortage of people willing to pay for a rarified memory. But as the literal smoke clears from the torched hillsides, the question remains whether Los Angeles really needs a $1,500 “creative playground” or a visitor who sees the scars beneath its fertile surface.