Nobu Marbella — Restaurant in Marbella

Do not expect anything close to the NYC Nobu experience if you come to this Nobu in Marbella from either a food quality or service perspective.

I was so excited to stay at the Nobu hotel, because Nobu is one of my favorite restaurants in NYC. What a fking huge disappointment.

I’m not sure if there is any affiliation with the restaurant and Hotel other than the name. Upon arriving to the hotel I asked to make a reservation for the restaurant, the reservation took a couple of hours to get confirmation which is weird in itself, what was even weirder was I had to prepay within 1 hr of making the reservation 100 euros.

I was a solo diner so I’m used to being shunned to the corner but this experience was beyond insulting. I was sat at the end of an empty sushi bar where the servers punched their tickets. One server would bang hard on the bar every time he passed by, about 20 times in the course of the evening.

The music is atrocious and loud, expect club level volumes.

Everything about this meal was insulting. The service and the food… only offering a ridiculously sized bottle of water at 10 euro and a watered down tasteless cocktail for 18 euro.

I did the omakase which I didn’t know was mostly cooked dishes and extremely disappointing. I asked the server 3x how many pieces of sushi it was and it was so loud I couldn’t understand her other than her saying it was 7 courses. Nonetheless I was excited to find out it included black cod until I had a bite…. either it was a lower grade quality or just not good, but it does not taste anything close to the famous black cod in NYC.

Don’t waste a meal here. It’s been one of the most disappointing meals I’ve had, it’s insulting.

They definitely profile their guests as you can tell by where they seat people. I kinda get it but it’s not a fking nightclub, and really? The hotel costs 1300 euro a night, can’t treat a hotel guest any better? Couldn’t wait to get...

We visited Nobu as one of our prime meals of our holiday, having been to and enjoyed high-end Sushi restaurants in London (Roka) and Toronto (Akira Back) - we had high hopes and these were gladly met.

The plaza/square where the restaurant is located inside the Puente Romano resort area is gorgeous and absolutely buzzing of a night time until the early hours. This feeds into the atmosphere at Nobu as many of the tables are outside under canopies of trees etc. One issue this did cause however, is at 30 degrees plus the lack of air con on these tables makes it a rather sweaty affair, with drinks also melting and leaving water all over the table. The staff did clean the table multiple times during the meal to account for this.

As far as service goes, we were hosted by an extremely helpful waitress who guided us through their menu and gave recommendations that were not simply upselling the more expensive items. They allowed us ample time to craft our order - as we were sharing in a group we wanted to get a selection of things everyone would be happy with.

At no point were we rushed or made to feel like they wanted us out of there quickly despite it being very busy.

The food was great, it’s hard to pick out one or two things but would recommend the scallops, mini sliders, wagyu and lobster tacos, black miso cod, rock shrimp, and many of their cut sushi rolls.

They also had a photographer on hand to take group photos, which are actually inexpensive and turned out looking really lovely, something you’d usually expect to be a bit of a gimmick.

Obviously it was expensive as expected, but it didn’t feel like we were overpaying compared to other high end sushi restaurants we’ve visited.

Overall I’d give it a 9/10, very enjoyable and atmosphere to match. Maybe the extra star or score point may have come if we’d sampled even more of the menu or something that really...

Disappointing Experience – Not Worth the Hype or the Price

We booked a reservation at Nobu and specifically requested outdoor seating, noting that it was our anniversary. Upon arrival, we were given the choice between two indoor tables—one awkwardly positioned by the kitchen and bathrooms, and the other uncomfortably close to the exit. Neither option felt remotely appropriate for the occasion or the premium price point.

When I mentioned that we had requested an outdoor table, I was told it was “just a request” and that we had only booked three days in advance. That response was both frustrating and dismissive—it implied that unless we had booked months in advance, our reservation had little value. When I offered to wait for an outdoor table to free up, I was told it was unlikely to happen, without any attempt to accommodate or even follow up.

Frankly, if you’re paying over 400 euros for dinner, the last thing you expect is to be seated like you’re at a mid-scale restaurant, feeling like an afterthought. This is the second time we’ve had a poor experience at this location, and unfortunately, it has only gotten worse.

On top of that, the food quality has noticeably declined—both in taste and presentation. The service was also painfully slow, and it was difficult to even get a waiter’s attention for basic requests. This level of service simply doesn’t align with what one expects from Nobu. It doesn’t come close to the experiences we’ve had at Nobu in Newport or Malibu.

After two disappointing visits, we won’t be returning. With so many excellent restaurants at Puente Romano—like Cipriani—it’s just not worth settling for a subpar...