Nobu Downtown — Restaurant in New York

The WORST dining experience of my life. I made a reservation weeks ago for my best friend to celebrate her birthday - little did we know her birthday would get ruined by the Nobu staff. The only time available was 9pm for a reservation - hint : DO NOT make a reservation at 9 unless you want to be rushed out of there, given dirty looks by the employees, having to listen to the staff yell at each other and curse at each other, and lastly have a male employee follow you into the women's bathroom. Tip for Nobu: do not offer 9pm reservations if you cannot handle it.

First, the table was only my best friend and I and we chose multiple items from each course plus drinks and dessert. Mid dinner the waiter told us the kitchen was closing, we respected that. While continuing to get food, one of the employees pulled another table over because we ran out of room for plates. He then proceeds to ask "do you have more food coming?" we said yes and you can tell by the look on his face he was not happy. Next, while trying to eat our food fast (with no choice), one of the employees SCREAMS across the whole dining room to reprimand another employee, and then followed by using the f word while walking past our table. My best friend and I were shocked by the unprofessionalism! Next, the waiter comes again to tell us we need to order dessert while still having 6 plates at the table, and while chewing on our dinners. So we ordered dessert to respect the waiter.

Throughout the whole dinner we respected every staff member, followed all of their rules and did not cause any problems in the establishment. Dessert came from an unenthusiastic waiter that just wanted to go home, and my espresso was an embarrassment to all Italians. Truly the worst espresso of my life. Do not sell espressos for 6$ if you do not know how to make one. We had one bite of our dessert and had all of the employees staring at us so we decided to pack up our dessert to take home because we felt uncomfortable.

A different employee came to ask if we can pay our check (our waiter never came back, and never said thank you, - why would he care? He knew he was getting paid and his tip taken care of anyways right? Totally wrong mindset) but anyways we paid our 600$ check (between 2 of us) and gathered our belongings. While putting our jackets on the employees were standing not even a foot behind us waiting for us to leave...totally unnecessary because of the concept of being on top of us and also there were 2 water glasses to clean from the table - calm down. The behavior from the employees shows lack of empathy and I would not be proud to work in a place like this. On our way out we went to the ladies room, being in there for a total of 1 minute we hear VERY LOUD banging on the door. A man comes in to tell us they are closing. This was the most disrespectful, unnecessary, and unacceptable gesture. Question for the ladies: would you feel comfortable if a man was banging SO LOUD on the bathroom door then proceeded to step foot into the bathroom and tells you he will LOCK THE DOOR? Truly the biggest waste of 600$, they showed NO...

The experience was wholly disappointing. I’ve had incredible sushi for less than this, and amazing sushi for more than this. I’d been dying to try Nobu for ages and it’d taken some time since I didn’t live near one. While I was in town and staying nearby, I figured I’d give it a go. First off, more tables are booked off for parties of two. I found this out when I accidentally tried to book for a party of two instead of three and nothing was available until 10:45. When I adjusted it for three, tables were immediately available. To me, that says “we don’t want your business unless we get more sales out of you.”

My friends and I were nicely greeted by the hostesses and led downstairs. We were taken to our table and our server greeted us. She left us with our menus for quite some time after drinks arrived though and I’d noticed she had time to walk by our table multiple times and tend to other tables multiple times but did not so much so as glance over at us. Eventually I was able to flag a manager down and she finally came by. We ordered, and she reached over, leaning over the table to rest plates in front of us. She served us with a back hand on the right and did the same clearing.

My friends quietly mentioned they didn’t feel like she wanted to wait on us. Maybe it was because we were dressed more casually. Maybe we weren’t men. Maybe she didn’t think we would tip. Maybe it was our weight. Maybe we weren’t worldly enough. I have no idea what it was, but we all felt independently like we weren’t as welcomed as the other patrons. Sorry I didn’t pack my fanciest clothes on my weekend to NYC and didn’t plan out every minutia, Brenda. I packed very light and wanted to treat my friends out after a less than stellar evening. I don’t see them often and don’t get to take them out much. I wanted them to enjoy something on me and we felt an attitude that soured our evening. Nobu isn’t expensive enough to be this stuck up and dry miso isn’t impressive enough for me to endure Brenda and her Gucci belt.

In terms of food, the shrimp tempura rolls were ok. The cold plates were decent. The baby corn with honey truffle chili? While good, not...

I used come here all the time until I found better and more affordable sushi places nearby. What brought me back? I guess their passive marketing got me aka Nobu, the documentary movie lol.

To be fair, it is a very well made documentary on origin of Nobu restaurant and early life of Chef Matsuhisa. Very informative while being entertaining and funny so much congrats to him and his movie. However, it may be a bit too glorifying and too promotional given those glory days are somewhat gone since his chains are no longer exquisite as his once only Tribeca location. I been there and Miso Black Cod is no longer as amazing as it was at Tribeca location. Now it’s just black cod on an over-sweetened sauce.

Ambiance here has always been nothing short of spectacular since it’s the iconic, old AT&T building with super grand and high ceilings and Greek columns. You feel like eating inside Washington DC Capitol or City Hall though lighting is a bit too bright for my taste. Upstairs lounge is the place to be since dining room is in basement so almost like eating in a closet but very fancy one lol.

Service needs a bit of improvement. You literally have bartender standing there staring at ceiling and I have to wave him to come over which shud not be the case in a fine dining establishment such as this one.

And so, I’m back and yes, I’m afraid to eat black cod here but I tried other dishes and they are amazing as depicted in documentary. Forget their overpriced Omakase, just have their cold and hot main dishes since that’s what Nobu is known for, their Japanese Peruvian fusion and inventive dishes.

Perhaps one day I will try their famous black cod once again and hoping it returns to its glory days but for now, I quite enjoy their other main dishes and will become their regular...