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Categories: Japanese, Sushi Bars [Edit]
19 Old Park LnHyde Park Corner (Piccadilly)
Green Park (Jubilee, Piccadilly, Victoria)
Mon-Fri 12:00 - 14:00
Mon-Fri 18:00 - 22:00
Sat-Sun 12:30 - 14:30
Sat 18:00 - 23:00
Sun 18:00 - 21:30
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There's no way around it: Nobu has the best Japanese food I have (yet) had in London. All the fish is so incredibly delicious, so flavorful and perfectly cooked/not cooked/marinated/spiced....just absolutely divine.
My favorite dishes:
-Raw oysters: Seasoned perfectly with a delicious, light, sauce. Not to mention the presentation of the dish was gorgeous.
-Yellowtail sashimi: I've had a LOT of yellowtail, and this was the most incredible yellowtail I have ever had. Also seasoned to perfection.
-Black cod: Char-grilled and served over a bed of greens. So delicious and unlike any fish I had ever experienced.
For desert I enjoyed the frozen yogurt with fresh berries and some kind of incredible sauce. Supposedly they made a fresh batch of the yogurt every four hours. I am a hardcore froyo addict, and I had never experienced anything quite like
Excellent tempura and black bean Dover sole
Food was good but Service was not very good
Sushi came out incorrect but they fixed it
One meal came out more than five minutes after the other two meals
I went to Nobu a few months ago for lunch with a friend, and we had a lovely experience. We had a seat by the window overlooking Hyde Park, and it was a nice sunny day.
We had 3 dishes, some sushi/sashimi, dessert, and a couple of drinks each. The 3 dishes we ordered were - shrimp and lobster with spicy lemon sauce, pan fried dover sole with red chilli salsa, seafood toban yaki. We also ordered a selecton of sashimi - yellowtail, salmon, sea bream, mackerel, sweet shrimp. For dessert, we both had the chocolate bento box. I had a couple of mojitos with the meal, and my friend had a raspberry cooler.
Shrimp & lobster with spicy lemon sauce - A salad of fresh leaves and enoki mushrooms, topped with shrimp and chunky lobster pieces, and a tangy lemon sauce. The dish wasn't swimming in sauce, but there was enough to coat everything and it helped to lift the flavours of the shrimp and lobster. This was a perfect way to start the meal, as my tastebuds were now tingling.
Pan fried dover sole with red chilli salsa - this came out next, and I was blown away by the presentation. There were 4 fillets of fish, on a frosted glass plate, swimming in a red chilli salsa, and right in the middle, was the head and backbone of the fish, deep fried and curled up into a "C" shape, with the tail suspended in mid-air. The fish was nice and fresh, and again, the sauce was very tasty. Not overpoweringly spicy, but enough to make my tastebuds tingle. We wiped the plate clean.
Seafood "toban" yaki - this came out last, and I am glad they left it til the end. It was basically a flat claypot with a lid (the "toban"), and when you opened it, the aroma that came out was unbelievable. It had a lovely savoury, vinegary smell, and inside the toban were clams, shrimp, fish, swimming in a lovely soy/vinegar sauce. The seafood was firm and fresh, and the sauce was the best of the 3 dishes. It was so good, for the remainder of the meal, I kept stopping to savour the smell as other tables had their "toban" yaki delivered to them. I really enjoyed this dish.
The sashimi came out next, and by comparison, the "wow" factor wasn't there, compared with the previous 3 dishes. The fish was definitely of good quality, but I suppose there wasn't much difference between Nobu's sashimi and other places I've been to (e.g. Inaho, Yoshino). As before, the fish was firm and fresh, but the sweet shrimp was slightly slimy.
To finish, we had the chocolate bento box, and it was a chocolate fondant with a scoop of green tea ice cream in a bento box. The fondant itself was good, nice and warm with a lovely gooey, liquid centre. The ice cream was the best green tea ice cream I've had, it had a lovely deep smokey green tea flavour. A good way to end the meal.
I also had the vanilla and apple mojito, and the pear and cinnamon mojito. I enjoyed both, and preferred the apple over the pear, as the apple flavour was more distinct, compared with the pear. The glasses were quite generous, and the vodka was nice and strong.
The meal ended up costing over £200, which is quite expensive. I would definitely recommend their special dishes, but wouldn't necessarily go back for the sashimi, as you can get similar quality sashimi at other top japanese restaurants. Worth going to for a treat.
This is home away from home for me. The service is excellent, you're taken care of from the moment you enter the restaurant until you leave. Everything is delicious and made with the freshest and highest quality ingredients. You have to get the yellowtail sashimi with jalepeno, tuna tataki with ponzu, rock shrimp tempura with creamy spicy sauce, black cod with miso, and the chocolate bento box which is flourless chocolate lava cake with green tea ice cream. These items are just a few of my favorites, you can't go wrong with anything you order.
Sure, Nobu has great sushi - super fresh, good variety, but you don't come to Nobu to eat sushi. You go to have his superb Peruvian-Japanese inspired dishes. The famous black cod with miso is famous for a reason - it's really good. Soft, light, flaky cod smothered in salty, earthy miso paste satisfies that part of you that can never get full from eating raw fish. Another stand out dish is the seared kobe steak, seared rare, with some delicious alcohol-based sauce. The fat from the steak is for sure an artery clogger, but it almost melts in your mouth. Very, very tasty.
The decor leaves something to be desired - it's rather plain, but then almost all Nobu restaurants are rather plain. It's perhaps a nod to the zen-like simplicity of Japanese decor, and almost a reminder to focus on your food.
Of the two Nobu's in London I prefer this one for the dining experience.
The bottom line (lets get this out of the way) .....Yes it is pricey... Whooohooo yes sir it is. But I say worth it.
Now unless you are well off enough to eat here on a regular basis without needing to re-mortgage (good luck in this economy) this is ideal for special occasions for the hoi polloi....anniversaries...dates.... celebrations etc
Of the four times I have been the food has been spot on. I have always left sated and glad to have been. You cannot ask for more.
Not a meal for the sustainably minded, that's for sure. Only the popular fish get any attention at this celebrity luncheon spot. And wow this place is expensive! (£60pp for lunch). I will say that the food and drinks were really nice. The bar serves a surprisingly subtle bloody Mary with wasabi and tankatsu sauce. I'll definitely be making this one at home, so thanks for the inspiration!
Sadly I couldn't justify spending £32 for their signature black cod with miso. Instead I had a Latin spiced ribeye over rice, which was a delightfully spicy riff on the Japanese meat over rice dishes like katsudon and unagidon. On the more traditional end, my lady had the prixe-fixe sushi lunch, which featured only the highest quality designer fish (like bluefin and wild salmon). The hand rolled maki (the lady called them Japanese tacos) were particularly delicious.
The low point for me was cultural... while the excellent service made me feel like I was getting my money's worth, it's make me wiggle when all the servers yell "irashaimase" when customers walk in and there's not a Japanese soul in sight.
Back in California i would have a craving for sushi about once a week. funny enough though, at my favorite Japanese places, i would always stray more towards the other dishes, because they would just be amazing.
such was the case with Nobu. yes the sushi was amazing. fresh, tasteful, gorgeous, all that. but it was the other plates that blew me away. they had this deep fried full fish thing.... holy hell. it was filleted, so the meat was sitting directly in the sauce (the sauce.... hmmm... in my world, everything is just a vehicle for the sauce....) and the bones were fried so you could actually eat them like a crunchy snack. i was skeptical, but it was amazing.
funny enough, the food isnt as pricey as it could have been. i'll tell you what gets you: its the cocktails that bump up the bill. amazing drink list. and the servers just know when to show up at your elbow and say "would you like another?" and of course you would, if you *should* or not.
my one issue: the decor and space felt very... lacking? cold? corporate? it needed something. yes i know its in a hotel, but really do we need to be reminded of it? at a place like this, the whole thing should be an experience. a change to get away from the ordinary.
but anywho. still...
sigh.
nobu. till we meet again.
I have been to several branches of Nobu and the Mayfair location is my absolute favo(u)rite.
My mom and I went and sat at the sushi bar. We ordered the chef's sushi dinner and plenty of saketinis. Everything was fabulous. The fish was as fresh as what I ate in Japan and everything was seasoned perfectly. Coincidentally, this was also my first Nobu experience. Maybe the sentimentality is tainting my perception... Haha.
Listed in: Favorite Places to Eat...Ever.
I went to Nobu with a coworker and was looking forward to an excellent dinner. To start with, the restaurant is very posh, everyone looks better than you, but at least its dark so you can't quite be sure. I really do like the vibe and the music playing during dinner.
We decided to get a few sushi dishes (both nigiri and rolls), some cooked dishes (some tempura calamari, some sort of lobster, etc) and overall the food was just ok. I am from San Francisco and believe we have fresher tasting fish in the bay area.
If you plan on going, I would suggest to stick to a variety and ask for waiter recommendations (though ours, to be frank, was not very good at suggestions). Overall, if you remove the ambiance and good looking folks, this place is just mediocre, and I would have to say all hype.
Our experience @ Nobu London was pretty disaster. Don't worry about Nobu London, there are better high end sushi restaurants in London. Just look at the picture I uploaded, the sashimi was pretty unappetite, the toro are fat toro but it wasn't a very nice piece and presentation was just so so. I had been to other Nobu & Matsushiha in Beverly Hills, by comparions Nobu London was a disaster. Services was ok, it was very slow and under attended during our visit but it doesn't bother me too much since I am very busy checking out all the high fashion people. Seen and be seen is the only positive star I can think of. Don't worry about the bill, it's expected you are weathly to dine there, 100 pounds per head minimum, we wasted closed to 300 pounds for 2 there and I wasn't rich, it was a mistake !
BTW, how come only people from the US write about Nobu London, no one from London writes about them. Either they know it's a place to avoid or this place is really a trap for tourist ... especially from the US of A.
:-)
This is the restaurant that changed the landscape forever. Japanese cuisine in London was almost non-existant and inedible 15 years ago and then Nobu came along and set the standard. It's still one of the best - simple, fresh and minimalist - not fussy. It's not 'fun' or particularly 'trendy' but it serves some of the highest quality sushi in the city. Ask them to deep fry the shrimp heads when you order amai ebi.
My experience here was nothing spectacular unfortunately. Being sushi snob myself and having visited other Nobu locations (NY, LA, etc.) many times, I had to say this place did not meet my expectations.
I don't usually order stuff from regular menu and it works just fine at other Nobu locations, but the server here had no idea what I was trying to order. I asked to speak to one of the Japanese chefs and the issue was immediately solved. Still the sushi I had was nothing special.
Considering the price I paid, I had way better experience at Zuma for sure...
Listed in: Sushi Restaurants
While the Nobu (s) in California rock, this pretentious "Overdressed Red Lobster" is awful. From the crappy drink I got at the bar to the snobby, anorexic hostess, I knew I was not in for a fun night. I got sushi and several items I had loved at the Nobu in Malibu only to find that everything smelled "fishy" and the signature Black Cod with Miso was like eating a "Dr. Scholls gel insole with Miso"....
U can't find anything nicer tha Nobu! I have tried a few Nobu in different countries and i am impressed with the one in London. Although the food isn't that surprising, nothing really particular. But the atmosphere of the restaurant is fabulous. I am a big fan of sushi and sashimi, basically a super fan of all sorts of japanese food. i think whoever loves japanese food should visit Nobu one day!!
The sushi was pretty damn fine here. My boys have been eating sushi since they were being potty-trained and they were most impressed. We ate at the sushi bar and were entertained by the mastery of the chefs. I have since eaten at Nobu's in NYC and this London location was much better in sushi quality and taste. This was a great meal to the end of our short trip to London. We'll be back--one day!
Haven't tried Nobu in New York or Hawaii, but boy, did I have a nice meal here. The BF had a business dinner elsewhere (and while usually I can wangle an invite, it wasn't to be, despite my belief that I'm the life of any party) (narcissist), and so I came here. I ate at the sushi bar and met a great French guy eating alone too, so we ended having a very nice dinner and swapping restaurant recommendations in San Francisco, London, and Paris. Just my kind of evening. The food was excellent, and the restaurant was not snobbish at all. (I'm so used to San Francisco low-key, and excess formality always hits me as, well, excessive, so it was very pleasant.) The service was a bit stiff, but the sushi chefs were fantastic and warm. Very enjoyable.
Listed in: London
I love me some Nobu and this location is one of the easier ones to get a reservation at or a walk in for the sushi bar. We ate here twice last week and as such I can say that the service was good, as was most of the food I ordered. The only downside was that they kept taking my menu from me despite my protests and that they also seemed to be impatient when we were ordering and not offering much help. That aside...I know what I like and had no problem finding a number of tasty dishes to satisfy my hunger. While this location is accessible I recommend the one in Mayfair, its a bit nicer and more upscale.
This time they had removed Blue Fin from the menu because of it being endangered. i thought that was very responsible of them. They could just continue raking in a bundle and leave it on the menu- but they are doing the right thing. The new style sashimis are all awesome. Try them all. it's the hamachi and jalapenos that have me coming back for more.
I've been to Nobu in NYC and Vegas and decided on this location, which my wife told me was "less of a scene" than the other London location. I love the food here. Fresh, light, creative and spicy.
We started with some sushi, which is always excellent here. We had spicy tuna and a California roll. It was as good as sushi can be in my book. We then chose a selection of small plates as we always do, instead of going with the larger entree portion. Grilled Asparagus with spicy salsa was an exciting opener. The always delectable rock shrimp in vinegary Ponzu sauce followed and reinforced its claim as the best selection at Nobu. Squid "pasta" with asparagus and shitake mushrooms in an oyster sauce has become another dependable selection that we enjoyed. Our last small dish was Peruvian Spicy Chicken skewers, which brought the heat. The staff was helpful with our wine selection and we went with a nice fruity white that balanced the heat of our dishes nicely. They also kept the wine flow perfectly measured with our meal. and it lasted for our entire dinner. We finished with the Fuji apple, which we enjoyed very much.
Always the scene, this Nobu location did not disappoint either. There were certainly a few very large tables of glitterati and scenesters and I have never seen dresses and skirts like that outside of Vegas. However, my wife and I were able to have a delicious meal and had no problem hearing each other or being too crowded.
The one thing I don't get is what is up with the bar. We arrived on time for our reservation and although the restaurant had just opened and was empty, we were shuffled off to their bar/lounge. I'm here for dinner and am going to put away at least one bottle of wine easy. I guess if cocktails are your thing this probably wouldn't bother you, but I looked at it as a delaying annoyance of padding the bill with overpriced drinks. My wife and I always get a kick out of places that are part club and part restaurant. As the saying goes "a jack of all trades is a master of none."
That said, I was here to eat and it lived up to every great memory I have had of dining at Nobu. Excellent food and impeccable service. Enjoy.
Listed in: London calling, Top Chef Stalker, Goodbye to Romance
Pricy but still my absolutely favourite restaurant in the whole world. My favourite dish is the yellowtail sashimi with jalapenos - YUMS! The sushi's great . . . the tempura with the three dipping sauces is divine. Lovely setting - great service, great food . . . what more could you want?
Good stuff. Yellowtail blew me away. Nice vibe.
I have fond memories of sitting at the sushi bar here. The sushi was fresh as can be and the otoro just melted in my mouth. The sushi chefs were mesmerizing. I was expecting more of a scene but was pleasantly surprised by the casual nature of this locale (even a few families with small children in the mix - aren't those kids lucky!). I look forward to returning on my next trip to London.
If you have the money, and you want some good sushi, go to Nobu. It's nothing particularly special and the atmosphere is casual and relaxed.
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