Nobu London (Old Park Lane) — Restaurant in London

Nobu is a famous global restaurant brand, frequented by famous people. The chef’s memoir sits proudly on the front counter, if you are thinking of going for dinner here, you have probably planned and saved up for dinner for a long time, and potentially even have some ideas and expectations of what you hope to experience when you do.

The menu has a range of amazing sushi, nigiri, sashimi, wagyu – I was keen to go with a degustation option, as it is my favourite thing to do at fancy restaurants if I can, as it gives a chance to try a range of things. They have two degustation options: a £125 ($238 AUD) and a £190 ($362 AUD) option – either way this was going to be the most expensive meal of my life.

The £125 Signature Omakase menu includes some of the most iconic Nobu creations. The more expensive option includes some of the more top end Wagyu, and I’ve never got too into the Wagyu thing. Their website explains that 'omakase' means: "I'll leave it up to you", so, to ensure I could get a comprehensive taste and sense of what the renowned restaurant offers – that’s what I did.

Because I know I might never get to go places like this again, so when I do, I tend to want to ask the wait staff a lot of questions to clarify the things that I want to better understand about what I'm about to eat, or what I just ate. The Nobu wait staff were good at answering my questions and helped me pick wines. I am from Australia, and so find advice and guidance useful, even if most of the advice is often to suggest I go for the most expensive glass. Being from Australia, I am also still getting used to the concept of a “15% optional service charge” – which was £58.80. The cost made me think I should have asked more questions – but that will be the last time I mention the price – let’s get into describing the absolutely amazing meal and dining experience.

I started dinner with a cocktail. The name of the drink was: “Summertime Sadness”. It may link to one of the profoundly tragic events of the creator’s life, but there is nothing about the drink itself that doesn’t bring joy, comfort and bliss. The ingredients are “lavender, buffalo trace bourbon, citrus, cucumber, ginger and maple” – read out that list and try and think of sadness, you won’t be able to. Following on from the name, the description for it is: “that unexplained knot in the soul when everything is fine,” it made me consider not ordering it, but I am very glad I did.

The presentation of the food was simple, elegant, and well considered. The variety of dishes in “omakase” was well considered and included their sushi, famous black cod with miso, and fillet steak with mushrooms. All of these now rank as the best of their kind I've ever eaten. If the food wasn’t so well considered and balanced, the whole review would probably have been about how hurt I was when the bill arrived.

I can see why the style of cuisine pursued passionately by Nobu Matsuhisa, and the chef’s at each of their establishments, are so highly regarded. The food has a sophisticated refinement, an excellence that requires skill, focus and effort to make it seem simple. Unless you’re a Kardashian, this is a place for special occasions, a place to share with someone special, a place to reflect on moments and milestones that matter – and that's what we did.

While the talk on the walk back to our accommodation was mostly about how we probably shouldn't have spent that much on our anniversary dinner – it was also about how when we are older, we will look back one day and reflect with laughter about how one special night in London, we took a chance, called and got a table at Nobu. We spent more on dinner than I did on my first car, but I feel blessed to have eaten there. It was an awesome shared experience. It is worth the price because the combinations of flavours cost a lifetime of focus, experience and...

Came here for my friends birthday , we hadn’t made a booking as I’d phoned half an hour before arrival to see if they’d be able to seat us the lady on the phone said that it was perfectly fine and we weren’t required to make a booking. Upon arrival the doorman questioned us on what we “wanted” to which we replied we had phoned and were told we didn’t need to make a booking . We were then then told that the kitchen was closed and we couldn’t be seated so I asked if instead we come in for a drink as otherwise the commute would have been completely pointless . He then spoke to the lady at the desk and left us outside whilst he did this to come back and say that we were allowed . Which I found rather odd as I’d phones prior and told the kitchen wasn’t closing for another hour an a half . Perhaps it was the fact that we were young and perceived as if we “couldn’t afford” to eat here but the judgement didn’t stop there . I then asked the lady at the front desk if the kitchen was open and I had spoken to someone on the phone and been told it was to which she replied “ yes , would you like a table ?” So the man at the door had blatantly lied to our faces in hopes we would leave . We where then required to give the lady at the front desk a phone number and as I was doing this another member of staff that was standing next to her said “it’s so you don’t leave without paying “ which I found extremely rude and I understand the policy and people do, do things like this but it’s not what she said it was the way she said it . Someone’s financial status and money shouldn’t be an issue for them and most certainly isn’t an issue for us. We should’ve left there and then but decided to turn a blind eye in hopes the serves where well mannered compared to the first 2 interactions with staff . However this also wasn’t the case we waited an hour for food with weird looks from staff the whole time we where there we were not attended to once after our food arrived I had to ask multiple times for the bill and received it half an hour after asking . It was a really upsetting experience as I’ve been to so many different Nobu’s across London and even in American and have never received such poor service from a high end restaurant like this . Do better , this isn’t the first review I’ve seen where your staff are rude and incompetent. Won’t be returning to...

I have to admit that I was and still am hugely disappointed by the quality of the food served up on my visit here. After all the hype there has been over Nobu I expected that the flavours would transport me back to Japan and my wonderful and amazing days living there experiencing food heaven across from across all the different regions and prefectures of Japan. Instead I left Nobu with much left to desire. The green tea at the end was probably the poor finishing touch to the end of my palate’s journey to Nobu. Ceremonial Matcha? I asked the staff and the response was an enthusiastic “YES!” It was too much water and not well brushed / stirred and really speechless poor. On the food spread, ordered a variety of dishes and sushi including the spicy edamame. Total spent was close to 500 pounds for four of us. Aside from the service that was excellent the food was a total letdown. Only the salads, fried rice on the stick and the spicy edamame were of good taste. The rest absolutely forgettable. The rice of the sushi was so hard, almost like it was frozen sticky rice wrapped over the tuna and salmon rolls. The black cod miso didn’t come out to resonate the miso seasoning well; and the miso soup was probably the worst I have had in any Japanese restaurant I have visited anywhere in the world. I am unsure if the experience here(which was consistent across all four of us), is because we were the last lunch booking slot at 2.30 and so the food was not prepared fresh and from the shelf or that the preparation was actually poor. The last course of desserts - ice cream mochi again a massive disappointment. It was terrible. The ice cream was really poor quality and the mochi was hard like just out of the freezer. (FYI - we didn’t eat it after the first bite). In summary I am really disappointed and will not be rushing back to Nobu anytime soon. It is a pity that they do not offer real authentic Japanese fare here and that the quality is really wanting. Perhaps the taste is adjusted to the palates of the busy traffic of visitors from the Middle East. Hard to know but if you are looking for authenticity and quality Japanese fare, definitely better options available in London for...