Superb food but crowded loud room and mediocre service at expensive prices.

To be honest, prior to this visit to London, I hadn’t been a huge fan of Japanese food. I had thought it alright but given a choice for a night out, I would preferably opt for French cuisine. For a change though, on this occasion we headed to Nobu. We had heard great things about it and so expectations were high.

The table for 2 was booked a month in advance and we headed there for 8pm. It is located on the first floor of the Metropolitan hotel, very easy to get to, just opposite Hyde Park. The restaurant was absolutely hopping when we arrived. It was packed. Alot of business suits and I would guestimate that 70% of the customers that night were men. Is there a macho appeal to eating raw fish? It was a Wednesday evening and I would guess plenty of business dinners were happening. The restaurant is bright and modern, but the tables are very close to each other. We were shown to ours which had a bench along oneside and the chair opposite. We had a couple on both sides sitting very close and there was no privacy, all conversations were overheard.

We decided to go for the chef’s tasting menu. Not cheap at £70 each, but we hoped this would represent the chef’s talent and restaurant’s best food. We weren’t disappointed.

First came a salmon tartar with caviar. As you can see, despite the bad quality of my camera phone, it looked beautiful.

It was melt in the mouth delicious. So much flavour packed into each spoonful.

Then followed a white fish dish and after that a tuna dish as far as I recall.

Both again, looked and tasted fabulous. Next a beef dish followed by blackened cod. I loved both. Different textures and tastes. The cod in particular I remember tasting fabulous. Then a plate of sushi.

Miso soup and a dessert of chocolate pudding with a green tea icecream finished the meal. By this stage, I was really too full and didn’t really appreciate either. The green tea icecream didnt really taste of anything, and I do usually so love my icecream.

As we were celebrating, a bottle of champagne accompanied the meal.

Overall, the food tasted wonderful and was beautifully and appetisingly presented. The tasting menu was perhaps, a course or 2 too long,  there was too much food for one sitting for me.  The waiting staff were quite rushed and not particularly friendly or attentive, but not rude either. The tables were too close to each other.

We had a delicious, memorable meal, it has definitely ensured that I am looking forward to eating more Japanese food in the future and the tasting menu has given me a good idea of which type and style of Japanese dishes I prefer.

Rated 4/5 on Oct 14 2007 by ManicMammy
Review Tags: eating out, food, japanese, london, restaurant, sushi
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