I Spent All Day at One of the World's Best Restaurants Thanks to This Credit Card — Here's How You Can, Too

I arrived in Copenhagen at the peak of midsummer when the sun barely takes a moment to rest. I was there to take part in one of the most coveted activities the Scandinavian city has to offer: a visit to Michelin three-starred Noma. Noma’s founder, René Redzepi, and his team were hosting 40 guests for a behind-the-scenes adventure — a chance for us to spend the morning, afternoon, and well into the evening at the restaurant in the Refshaleøen neighborhood. The only thing the 40 of us had in common? We're all American Express cardholders, which is how we gained access.

While a Noma reservation is always wildly in-demand, it became even more of a commodity when, after a two-decade run, Redzepi announced that Noma would close as a full-service establishment at the end of 2024. “Twenty years ago, it was so hard for people to comprehend just how different the food scene was [in Copenhagen],” Redzepi said to the intimate crew of diners at breakfast. The future Noma will be more of a creative lab, with intermittent pop-ups, instead of daily service. His vision for 20 years from now is to go beyond restaurants. “I want to be in a place where creativity is at the forefront … so the restaurant work in the future becomes our hobby. It's where we have fun.”

Here's how I got to spend a whole day at Noma — and how you can, too.

Getting Access 

Many of the major banks that issue credit cards — including Amex, Chase, and Capital One — continue to push to be a one-stop shop for travel, dining, and lifestyle benefits. For several days throughout the year, reservations platform Resy (owned by Amex) provides remarkable back-of-house access to Noma. Think of this as the ultimate perk for those who have the right credit card — and can snag a ticket. While I was there in June for Noma’s vegetable season, Resy will offer two additional dates for premium credit cardholders in the fall: Oct. 14 and Nov. 4. That period is Noma’s game and forest season, which means the menu will be meat dominated.

Fall tickets go on sale today, July 17, with reservations available only to those enrolled in Resy’s Global Dining Access program; eligible cards are The Platinum Card, Centurion Card, Delta SkyMiles Reserve Card, and Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card. The cost of admission isn’t cheap; we’re talking $1,500 for the 12-hour marathon experience, with a short two-hour break in the afternoon. The day starts with a canteen-style breakfast at 10 a.m. and an array of classes in the test kitchen and fermentation lab. And it all concludes with the main event, a four-hour, 20-course dinner in a lofty, glass-fronted dining room. 

The Experience 

To kick things off, Redzepi delivered morning remarks including a retelling of Noma’s past. “Noma happened with us going into the landscape, sniffing out what's edible and what's not edible. What will poison you? What will give you fantastic delight? What will give you on-the-spot diarrhea?” And with that, our culinary immersion officially commenced. However, instead of foraging for dinner with potentially catastrophic results, we ventured around Noma’s sprawling grounds, from the greenhouse-like test kitchen to the chef’s garden that sits on the water’s edge. 

Over the next several hours, Redzepi’s impassioned team shared their skills and answered our questions — explaining what makes Noma, well, Noma. In the test kitchen, where a menu for each season is crafted over a three-month period, I sampled a variety of delicate ingredients, most of which would be served that evening. “Some of the dishes, especially the drinks, have a million components,” said Mette Søberg, head of the lab that directs the creativity of the restaurant. “Of course, you don't want to hear about everything; it would be too much information at the table. We [can] show you a couple of those things here.” 

At dinner, I drank an infused tea made with caterpillar poo, and I ate an ice-cream sandwich assembled from mold. There’s a certain suspension of disbelief when dining at Noma (the thinking that this will taste good because someone says it will). While the chefs might tell you otherwise, it’s those types of ingredients that captivate many diners, myself included. However, by looking into the ingredients and the process a little closer, you’ll realize some of the peculiar concoctions tell a much deeper story. 

“For a while, ants were crawling on the food. Crickets were fermented into sauces and worms pounded into pastes,” Redzepi said of Noma’s reputation over the years. However, there’s a certain method to the madness. In this case, after a 10-week pop-up in Kyoto, the Noma team returned to Copenhagen earlier this summer with some inventive ideas (and many suitcases full of sake).  

That moldy ice cream sandwich I sampled was koji, an ancient natural bacteria crucial in the making of soy sauce, miso, and sake. And after spending an hour in the fermentation lab to hear from Noma’s resident bacteria geniuses, it made more sense. Koji is both a conduit and a chameleon, with the ability to take shape in many forms — including an ice cream sandwich. The caterpillar poo, meanwhile, was the ideal complement to sakura and benifuki green tea. As it turns out, caterpillar’s number two had a slight berry-like taste. And with all three ingredients melded together, there was a subtle flowery aroma and flavor. A drink was born. (I decided not to ask how someone first decided to sample insect poo.) 

There’s a universality with food that can be shared at every level — no matter what you know or don’t know about a pine skewer olive or woodruff plant being turned into anglaise (both on the dinner menu). The hours with the Noma team reframed my thinking of how the World’s Best restaurant winner can feel relaxed and accessible (well, as accessible as it gets for the price point). Noma’s chefs, and really most chefs, are creatives who use finite resources to turn nothing into something. While the meal was inventive, memorable, and a work of art, the real treat was, as you might expect, exclusive access. 

The next exclusive experiences at Noma happen on Oct. 14 and Nov. 4. You can buy tickets, now on sale, at resy.com with eligible credit cards (The Platinum Card, Centurion Card, Delta SkyMiles Reserve Card, and Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card).