Nobu San Diego — Restaurant in San Diego

Nobu is an upscale Japanese fusion restaurant in Gaslamp's glittery Hard Rock Hotel. Nobu is part of a small global chain that began 20 years ago when Chef Nobu Matsuhisa opened the original Nobu restaurant in NYC.

The dusky interior ambiance of Nobu San Diego is comfortable and stylish. Dark leather seats and benches add hints of opulence to the atmosphere, but the restaurant doesn't over-do it, and retains a level of aesthetic modesty appropriate for a Gaslamp restaurant. The bar features a sparse selection of high-end spirits and sakes presented on thick slabs of wood protruding from a stone wall. On a busy weeknight, expect the lounge area to be crowded with conference-goers who may look slightly out-of-place, but not out-of-their-league.

Nobu's food is consistently excellent. The "Squid Pasta" is fantastic food theater. The squid is scored and cut to resemble ribbed shell pasta, then sautéed with asparagus and shiitake mushrooms in a spicy garlic sauce with sesame seeds and crushed red pepper. It could almost pass for a pasta dish in texture, though the flavor of the squid takes it to another level. Even though the Nobu empire has been serving this for nearly 20 years, I asked myself afterwards if this was the most creative dish I've eaten in San Diego. Maybe. If you eat at Nobu, you must try it.

The "Rock Shrimp Tempura" is another must-try on Nobu's menu. Nobu's shrimp tempura accentuates the sweetness of the rock shrimp by using a very light tempura batter. Despite the light batter, the deep-fried shrimp retains its crunch even after being tossed in the sweet butter ponzu sauce.

The "Wagyu Poppers" contain chopped wagyu beef and cheese stuffed in jalapeño peppers, coated with tempura batter, and deep fried, served with a side of spicy Asian mustard. Yes, it was pretty good. However, I'm not sure if this is the best use of wagyu, as the beef was overpowered by the other heavy flavor elements.

Finally, the "Black Cod Miso" is a sweet fish dish featuring a baked filet of skin-on cod previously marinated in miso, mirin, sake, and sugar, and served with a potent pickled hajikami ginger shoot. As with the squid pasta, this is an utterly delicious and creative example of Nobu's brilliance. This is the dish that put Nobu's original restaurant on the map.

The verdict: the food, service, and experience at Nobu is "5 stars," so why only 4 stars for this review? Nobu's portion sizes are sometimes minuscule and the price is high. I rarely penalize a restaurant on price, but I could eat well at a spot like Addison Del Mar at the same price point for a full meal at Nobu and, to be frank, Nobu doesn't provide an Addison-level dining experience. Because I lived within walking distance for a few years, I found myself going back to Nobu San Diego frequently for its excellent food, even as my wallet...

Nobu is a highly recognized name for sushi. This was my 2nd time at Nobu, my 1st was dining in Mexico City. We did not have reservations but they had space available due to cancellation so we took a table for 4. Originally told it would be patio seating but we ended up asking for indoor seating, and it was available, that was nice.

Unfortunately, we were seated for over 10 minutes before we had to call for a waiter. After scanning and studying the menu we started putting in our orders. Strangely enough, our waiter felt like we already had sufficient items and told us she'll put these in, but then bounced onto the next table to take order. We felt disrespected due to being cut off.

Let me just briefly give some of the better tasting and properly prepped items we tasted. The first item was Tuna tataki, which is sort of like slightly seared tuna that's cut into thin slices, think of carpaccio. It was good, looked nice and properly sized and prepped. The second item that I enjoyed was the Chilean sea bass, which was cooked well, because this meat can be tricky due to the high fat content. The baby bok choy was however, too cooked. I've had better bok choy at dim sum restaurants. The 3rd item I enjoyed was the sea urchin (uni), it was definitely rich, creamy, a hint of sweetness, and very pleasant.

The rest of nigiri and sashimi pieces were almost insulting. They sliced the meat so thin you cannot really enjoy it much for the taste or texture. Once you dab a little bit of sauce, ginger and wasabi, that will completely overtake most of the fish's original flavors. Of all the sashimi pieces, they only one they cut properly for size and taste was the Salmon, it was of the right portion to allow you to taste everything.

Toro tuna sashimi that requires chewing instead of melting in your mouth from slight tongue pressure is an indication of low quality. When a sushi restaurant has almost no Asian diners, something is wrong, and it was. Sashimi sliced so thinly you can't even taste much or enjoy the texture. One particular red snapper sashimi looked like it was the last piece of the fillet. Serving me tail end piece as sashimi is an insult. So weird, for $135 a person I expected so much more. I know $135 is not a lot of money at a fine dining restaurant, and I've paid for way more than that at some places, but they were worth it. Here it was simply expensive. I've had better sushi inside a Japanese airport. Seriously source out better Toro to serve your customers at $18 a piece, or tell your chef to trim out the end cuts of the Toro.

Would I ever come to another Nobu if I had a choice, no I won't. This is simply not Michelin star aspiration. I feel bad for people who made reservations based on the name and praises by Youtubers, endorsements by celebrities or well known...

TL,DR: It's not nearly good enough to justify the price, and I was severely disappointed. The cocktails were great, but I was physically uncomfortable, bathed in noise, and served mediocre food.

I've given this review a great deal of thought. Usually, if the food and service are good, that's enough for a restaurant to earn a good rating from me, but at ~$100 a person before drinks Nobu has placed itself at the low end of an elite echelon of restaurants, and must be judged accordingly. Unfortunately, they have failed, as I will explain in detail, moving from relative strength to relative weakness.

Drinks: 5/5 While not the best I have seen, the cocktail list is modern and creative, and every drink we had was expertly conceived and beautifully crafted. The $15 price tag is a reasonable price considering the menu and quality. They also have an extensive list of other spirits, though I am not competent to judge the wine and sake.

Service: 5/5 The employees were cheerful and attentive. The service was efficient without being overbearing, hitting a perfect balance of attention and privacy. The food and drinks were served promptly, especially considering how busy it was on a Saturday night.

Decor: 3/5 The decor was visually well designed and implemented, with perfect lighting and a cohesive feel. The color palette and visual textures were excellent, and it is a beautiful room to be in. However, the furnishings, namely the table and especially the chairs, were unforgivably cheap. Neither would have been out of place at a college dining hall, and the chairs were hard and fiercely uncomfortable after just a few minutes. The noise level was also not well controlled, with me barely being able to hear my companions. Granted, it was a busy Saturday night, but more could have been done in the design to account for the noise of peak meal times.

Food: 2/5 This is, to me, the most important category, and is where I expected Nobu to excel. I am judging them harshly here, because at this price point the food must be perfect. The menu is excellent, with a wide variety of both creative and classic dishes. I was very excited about each item we ordered, and I was disappointed by each. It's not that the food was bad, it was fresh, delicious, and beautifully prepared, but none of it was excellent. The sauces were acceptable, and the preparation competent, but the quality is of a level I expect, and almost universally find, at Japanese restaurants at a small fraction of the price. I am more than willing to part with $20-40 for an ounce of food, if that food is incredible, but it just wasn't. It might pass in other cities, but excellent seafood is a trademark of San Diego, and Nobu's food just isn't...