Copenhagen, Denmark -Those trying to snag a table at Denmark's Noma restaurant may be out of luck as "the world's best eatery" will close by the end of 2016 and re-open on an urban farm in 2017.

"It makes sense to have your own farm, as a restaurant of this calibre," the influential restaurant's chef and founder, Rene Redzepi, told the New York Times.

The restaurant, named the world's best four times by Restaurant magazine, will move to what is currently a derelict warehouse near the self-governed Copenhagen hippie community of Christiania. 

Its new farm will be built by putting a greenhouse on its roof and by digging up an adjacent asphalt lot. Parts of it will float on water, Redzepi said.

The celebrated kitchen will move away from traditional tasting menus in favour of dishes reflecting the season even more closely than they already do, resulting in a variety of wild game in the autumn, seafood in winter and a completely vegetarian menu in spring and summer.

Business at Noma -- where booking a table can be near impossible -- was still booming, but the move was necessary to "progress", Redzepi said.

A Noma spokesman confirmed the closure to AFP but declined to comment further.

The two-Michelin-star restaurant grabbed the number one spot in Restaurant magazine's prestigious annual ranking in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014.

This year it finished third behind Spain's "El Celler de Can Roca" and Italy's "Osteria Francescana".

It is currently based in a converted 18th-century shipping warehouse, where it has become a favourite of gourmets worldwide for using seasonal and local ingredients in dishes like pike perch and cabbages, and wild duck and pear.

In January Noma will begin a 10-week stint in Sydney, following a similar trend that saw it relocate to Tokyo for several weeks this year.

"We're bringing the entire team, from dishwasher to general manager," Redzepi said on the restaurant's website.