Nobu London

EXPERIENCE » Nobu Restaurants

The eponymous Nobu London was the first European venture for the celebrated Japanese chef Nobu Matsuhisa.

Opened in conjunction with partners Robert De Niro, restaurateur Drew Nieporent, and hotel owner Christina Ong, the restaurant occupies the first floor of The Metropolitan Hotel on Park Lane.

The menu at Nobu London, draws heavily on Matsuhisa's classic Japanese training as a sushi chef in Tokyo, as well as on South American influences gained during his extensive travels.

With its own street entrance on Old Park Lane, the 150 cover restaurant includes a separate sushi bar and enjoys commanding views across Hyde Park through full-height windows.

Designed with simple elegance by United Designers, the interiors make subtle use of light woods and natural stone to reflect the diverse influences of Nobu's cuisine, incorporating the purity and quality materials inherent of traditional Japanese design.

http://www.noburestaurants.com

Nobu Hotel Shoreditch, London - review | CN Traveller

Nobu's first London hotel opened in Shoreditch in September, and already it's one of the city's hottest hangouts Lobby at Nobu Hotel Shoreditch Will Pryce Hollywood loves a good yarn.

The mean streets of Shoreditch feel a long way from Mayfair (where Nobu restaurant opened in 1997), but then De Niro's always been a downtown sort of guy, championing New York's Tribeca since the 1980s.

Saten Mori chef's selection at Nobu Hotel Shoreditch Claire Menary Of course, it's the main restaurant that's the centrepiece.

Read next Will Pryce A premium room at Nobu Hotel Shoreditch Will Pryce Shoreditch is London's old schmutter district, and the Nobu has textures everywhere: linear slats of wood and charcoaled timber, blackened cork and stacks of pebbles, expanses of bare concrete and folds of hessian.

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NOBU, Park Lane: Still London's best Japanese restaurant ...

Last week was my wife’s birthday, which gave me a perfect chance to don my diamond-encrusted top hat and solid gold tuxedo, and hit up Park Lane to find out if NOBU really is the best Japanese joint in town.

Next we receive a small plate with salmon, tuna and scallop, served in a rich sauce with delicate, if somewhat unwieldy green vegetable rolls.

I was slightly unnerved at the prospect of these initially (let’s just say me and fish tacos have history…) but the crisp, light taco and salsa serve as an excellent refresher among more rich salmon and tuna.

An incredible dish, certainly worthy of its rep. At this point there’s a short break in our service, but I’m unsure if it’s down to a slip in our overly-attentive staff, or that they’d kindly decided to give us a short breather before bringing out the sizzling Wagyu beef.

I’m not normally a fan of green tea ice cream, but this avoids the powderyness that many experience, while the fondant is an excellent little melt-in-the-middle brownie.

Nobu London restaurant review 2013 January London | Japanese ...

Nobu Matsuhisa was born in Japan and worked at a sushi restaurant in Tokyo for seven years after finishing his education.

Also good was the black cod with miso, a signature dish of Nobu.

The sushi itself was reasonable but not thrilling, a selection of yellowtail, salmon and shrimp and a few rolls, the rice perhaps not as warm as ideal but certainly not cold, the fish itself of moderate quality; Atari-Ya is the main supplier here, and presumably Nobu gets first pick, but this particular set of fish was not of obviously high standard (13/20).

Objectively the food at this last visit was quite good, between 14/20 and 15/20 level, but the price is high.

However Nobu clearly aims at a clientele for whom a high price is no barrier, and perhaps actually an attraction.

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The backstory: Once upon a time, and a while ago it is now, ‘Nobu’ referred to Robert De Niro’s chef friend, Nobu Matsuhisa.

Tremendous success with his early restaurants saw Matsuhisa become a celebrity in his own right – bit parts in Casino and Memoir of a Geisha followed – and he and De Niro opened New York’s Nobu, built it into a chain, and created byword for celebrity glamour and Japanese haute cuisine.

In general, plates are small – no surprises, then, that it’s such a hit with models – but executive chef Mark Edwards has worked flavour into each of them, using bold, bright sauces to perk up the delicate flavours of the fish.

The wood oven is for more solid dining: think duck Breast with wasabi salsa, or Iberico pork, labelled with the wonderfully vague promise of ‘Nobu sauces’.

Most of the rest of the list – well, if you’re rich enough to afford it, the price probably doesn’t matter.

Nobu | Restaurants in Mayfair, London

The hype has died down, the celebs are long gone, but London’s first branch of Nobu (there’s a second on Berkeley Square) is still a heavyweight on the Japanese dining scene.

Imitations of the restaurant’s signature dishes – black cod with miso, or rock shrimp tempura, for example – can be found on many a menu in the capital these days, but if you want to try the original Nobu Matsuhisa version, then head to Old Park Lane.

Then it’s time to explore the rest of the restaurant’s much-lauded range of Japanese/Peruvian fusion dishes.

A vegetarian dish of tofu anticuchos came bar-marked with a spicy red-pepper sauce.

A meal at Nobu might not come cheap, but a few things are guaranteed: impeccable service, great views (the restaurant overlooks Hyde Park) and perfectly fresh fish.