Nobu Restaurant Portman Square — Restaurant in London

I’ve been to Nobu restaurants all over the world, and unfortunately Nobu Portman Square is by far the poorest experience as a whole I’ve ever had with the brand.

The service was terrible and incredibly pretentious from start to finish. We waited over 30 minutes between dishes, and when food finally did arrive, most of the time the servers just dropped plates at the table with a dismissive “it’s good” instead of the thoughtful explanations every other Nobu is known for. I am not exaggerating, we actually had someone say ‘here is your dish, it’s really good’. Every staff member we met that evening in the restaurant had deplorable communication met w

What really shocked me was how unhelpful, careless, and down right neglectful they were with my sister’s crab allergy. At first they acted as if it was an inconvenience, and although they eventually said they would accommodate it after the chef came out, she still woke up very swollen and terrified of having an anaphylactic reaction in a foreign country. She’s dined at Nobu locations worldwide and NEVER once has she been made to feel like a burden for her allergy, or never once started to swell up from eating there—until now. We’ve always been met with enthusiasm and accommodation with an allergy. This was pure negligence and recklessness from their incompetent staff.

Breakfast was no better. The restaurant was completely empty, yet we were denied entry because we had a single Starbucks iced latte with us—even after I offered to purchase coffee from them. I would like to note, they don’t even sell iced latte’s at the restaurant. Instead, I was told to throw my drink away if I wanted to eat there. I asked if an empty restaurant that clearly could use the business is really going to deny me service over bringing something in they don’t even serve. We had just spent THOUSANDS between our hotel stay and the rubbish dinner the night before. When were being escorted out of the restaurant like criminals we saw the buffet, it was shocking that they charged £30 for little more than sandwich meat and Rice Krispies. We went across the street to La Masseria and they welcome us open arms, including my iced latte. That was one of the best breakfast’s i’ve ever had, with exceptional service.

To top it all off, while getting ready for an event on our last night, the hotel lost hot water right as I was getting in the shower. I had to leave for the event looking and feeling unprepared and disgusting. We had just spent the entire day running out and getting rained on. Nobody on staff seemed to care in the slightest when we expressed our concerns, we asked if there was somewhere else in the hotel we could shower and we were told no.

Save your money. London is full of incredible hotels and restaurants with well-trained staff who actually care about their guests. We flagged our concerns to multiple people and our response was ‘this is policy’ or ‘i don’t agree with that either’. THAT’S IT. I couldn’t get out of that hotel fast enough. I’m still stunned I was kicked out of an empty restaurant for carrying a coffee—and that sums up the whole experience: cold, careless, negligent, and completely unlike any Nobu I’ve ever known. After this I cannot support the brand any more. In return for loyalty I feel abused and not respected. So happy I had to pay full price and not even receive an apology for this dumpster fire of an experience.

I would have been more taken care of at The Savoy where we should have gone. Even a hostile down the street would have been more...

I came here for the second time with my parents who were visiting from abroad. had the classic omakase again and as much as I genuinely want to hype this place as pioneers of Japanese cuisine in London, I literally can not.

Firstly, the service was quite disappointing. the servers forgot orders (water AND our drinks). they were pacing around almost spilling the dishes as they were arriving or leaving the table. More importantly, I am sure the chefs who spent time creating the nigiri platter would be disappointed if they knew the serves did not turn the plates the same/right way. this happened with 2 dishes. Also when we asked for the omakase menu explained, the waiter paced through it in a quite unprofessional and informal manner.

Out of the 6 dishes, 4 of them stood out. the sashimi, tataki, black cod and dessert were all as excellent as I remember from my first visit. the soup was a miss for all of us, as it lacked depth and the shrimp was severely overcooked. the nigiri was quite disappointing. the mackerel was SO fishy and the rice was grainy and fell apart without us even touching it. Quite sad, as I recall the nigiri being excellent during my first trip.

also, the timing off the food seemed odd to us, as we got the first 3 dishes really fast interval, and then the last three arrived considerably later. to some extent it killed the pace of the eating, which for omakase is an important factor.

This is in no way supposed to be a hateful message, and I am sure it was maybe just a busy or unlucky night but our experience was not great, especially not for what is considered high end.

As a native Japanese in London I hold Nobu in high regards but during this service it...

Last Friday my friend and I had unpleasant experience while we were getting Nobu for lunch.

We’ve ordered four dishes: edamame, one taco, crispy rice and a sushi roll. For the roll we’ve waited for 50 minutes and the crispy rice around 35 minutes. Longer wait times could be expected for dinner, but not for a light lunch at these prices. If you pay 38 GBP for a single sushi roll and 15% service charge, you do expect great service with it. Their apology was a bottle of water. Furthermore, as previously stated we’ve ordered one taco. They brought us two tiny tacos, which we assumed is seen as a portion since they were the size of a macaron. They did charge us for two. Upon requesting to take down the service charge, we had to wait again till we got to pay for some time again. A quick bite turned in a very long lunch, that made us late for further plans. I just find it frustrating that such a fine establishment wouldn’t at least put more effort in upholding customer satisfaction.

In comparison, we had a dinner at Inko Nito the next day and had a wonderful experience. We ordered edamame and it came somewhat later than the other dishes. Without us mentioning anything they previously apologized and took the edamame off the bill. Our scampis came a little later than other dishes, but keep in mind we’ve always had food on the table, and for that they gifted us a dessert. That service was above and beyond and this is how it’s done!

Last week at Daphne’s our pasta was too al dente and they offered us to make a new one, but also took it off the bill. Kind and amazing staff!

Other restaurants can provide great service, not sure why...