Nobu London: Oishii!
Ben and I are in London the next couple of days… Ben has a business conference, while I will visit museums, frolic in the parks and take the credit card out for a walk. Not to mention, eat to our hearts’ content for 4 days!
The first restaurant on our eat-fest is NOBU, named after the star chef cum restaurant owner Nobuyuki (“Nobu”) Matsuhisa. It is located in the Metropolitan Hotel in Mayfair (19 Old Park Lane). Nobu was named “Best chef of the Year” in 1989 for his fresh, modern interpretation of Japanese cuisine. Chef Nobu is synonymous with “fusion-Jap” and the one brought the “chic” to Japanese food.
The setting in Nobu is very chic indeed. We walk up a creamy colored marbled stairway from the cloak room at the entrance, to a stylish bar with florescent blue backlight. We were quickly seated at a table for two, with views over Hyde Park and all the flowers and trees in bloom. All around us are slim waitresses who are smiling and diners who are beaming.
Our first dish is a sweet prawn sashimi, arranged in fan-like circle. The shrimp is lightly coated with slivers of young ginger, toasted sesame seeds and finely chopped spring onions with light soya sauce. At the first bite, the una is creamy and sweet. So lite, so soft, it melts away in our mouths… Very soon we too begin to beam with pleasure. The food at Nobu truly lifts one to a happy place.
Course 2 is waygu beef tataki style. Our waygu was served lightly seared, served cold with a marinade of soy sauce, dashi broth, garlic and green onions… Although we could not see the white fat marbling, we were rewarded with velvety bites. I wished the sauce was a teeny tad less salty.
B had the lunch special of beef katsu donburi. It came with miso soup, with a real fresh chunk of tofu and tuna and salmon sashimi. The presentation was a feast to our eyes and B was somewhat reluctant to break up the presentation.
For my main course, I had three different types of hand-rolled, cut sushi: fatty salmon, spicy tuna and soft shell crab. The fatty salmon sushi roll was to be expected: fresh and fragrant. Spicy tuna was a little disappointing, as it was not as spicy as I had hoped. But no visit to Nobu is complete without the delectable soft shell crab sushi rolls. The soft shell crab sushi rolls are a perfect balance of flavours and textures: from the lightly crunchy white daikon, to the salty paper thin seaweed wrap to the fluffy sushi rice to the popping flying fish roe to the still-warm sweet succulent crab meat… B and I are in heaven. We close our eyes and savour each bite, unwilling that it should end.
I highly recommend Nobu at the Met as a great venue for a power lunch and client meetings. Bookings are definitely recommended. You should also specify clearly for the smoking or non-smoking sections. As soon as someone lit up, we realised we had been seated in the wrong area. The waitress re-seated us quickly, was apologetic and came by to check if we were happy with our seats later on. High points for quick reaction!