Nobu Washington D.C. — Restaurant in Washington

No Noboo, no. A 5* name with a rather less than spectacular establishment- a chain that's a status symbol. Nobu who is now about 70 years old probably has nothing to do with the restaurants themselves.

Our server was a nice guy but overwhelming. He was pushy to the point it got really annoying and unpleasant. We tried several things and everytime we ordered one of each, he would say "Are you sure you don't want 2? It's only 1 piece, are you sure?". Um yeah dude, we're sure. He also didn't know the answers to a lot of my questions and had to run and ask the chef. They tried so hard here that it became intrusive and confusing. But hey, it's opening week- service can and most the time does improve so let's move past all this and onto what's important, the food!

Most wasabi in America is a mixture of ingredients that is designed to replicate the taste of real wasabi. Usually horseradish & food coloring. Tonight it was horseradish & wasabi powder. Awesome. No, really- it was "awesome".

Nigiri is one type of sushi that should be eaten with your hands and not your chopsticks. You should never dip the rice portion into soy sauce so you don't overpower the seasoning of the rice. It's my favorite type. People focus on the quality of the fish in producing sushi- but it's the sushi rice that really matters the most. Sushi rice should be served body temperature, not room temperature or chilled. When you get substandard rice, you're not getting a quality sushi experience. Nobu's rice was a dissapointment. It was a little mushy and a bit sweet. So what did I do that I never do?! Dip it in soy sauce! Because sodium makes everything that doesn't taste good taste better. The mediocre quality of the fish didn't help either. I was sad, like a boy who was so excited to go to a candy store only to not get candy. Because sushi is not what I received.

All the other dishes were all subpar. The tempura had too much batter, the shitake mushroom salad tasted like something I get 3 times a week at Modern Market, lobster ceviche was good but there was 2 bites to it, the tacos- now these bad boys were literally the size of a nacho for $10 (but they were good, my favorite part of the night but surely not worth it), the shrimp tempura roll was great- I enjoyed it, the vegetable roll was utterly tasteless (Wholefoods does it better and that's sad), eggplant was eggplant with sweet sauce on top, and miso soup was salty. Most restaurant can't make a good miso soup anyhow so I didn't expect much.

But hey- go, do it, try it, so you can tell all your friends you went to Nobu. But keep your expectations low and your wallet loaded. For you shall spend what is known as "hard earned money" so you can leave saying...

Sorry to say, I was pretty disappointed... when I heard that Nobu DC was opening in October I was uber excited to celebrate my birthday there. I've dined at Nobu Miami and Nobu Las Vegas and to say the least Nobu D.C. just doesn't compare. To start there is no valet available. After circling the block several times we found a space a block away. When we entered the building how surprised/disappointed was I to find that that restaurant doesn't have the Asian theme that the other locations have. Therefore, ambience just isn't the same.

We had reservations so we were seated very quickly. We had a table for two but the tables were so close that I had to excuse myself to slide between our table and the neighbors not to bump it. We could have just been seated together at a 4 top table. Once seated the first thing I noticed was the disposable wooden chopsticks that needed to be pulled from the paper and snapped apart in order to be used. I have had better chopsticks from a hole in the wall Chinese restaurant at gallery place/China town. Also, the wait staff at this location is dressed more casual than what I remember at the other locations. Although they wear black shirts and pants they didn't have the jackets or ties that the other locations wear. After asking if we had dined at Nobu before the waiter offered us the Nobu traditional ordering style which we agreed to. It's a process where they ask you a few questions to familiarize themselves with your flavor palette and food preferences and they come up with a dining menu for your table. Everything was just fine until he asked the final question... "my final question is, what is your price point for this meal?" "Excuse me??" I asked. He went on to explain that some items are market priced and he didn't want to exceed our budget. Needless to say, I was appalled. I reassured him that we were prepared to pay for all items that are served and then reiterated that this was NOT our first time dining at Nobu.

We ordered Edamame; King Crab Tempura; Miso Chilean Sea bass; 4oz of Wagu beef, and a side of Miso Wild Mushrooms. The food took a while to come out but it was good. Again not the best I've had from Nobu and by the time we got to the food I was so disappointed that I just wanted to eat quickly and move on with our evening to my next birthday festivity. I will not be coming back. I would rather fly 2hrs to Miami have dinner and come back the same day than to dine...

Okay I want to start off and say that I do not belong in this restaurant. Im just not that type of person. Im more of dock bar, nice steakhouse, local pub kinda person.

It was my significant others birthday and they like boujee, so we went here, we live in Annapolis.

Interior in the place is beautiful.

When ordering you go cold dishes first, then hot, and then sushi…that’s the nobu way. Cold dishes were sticky rice and jalepeno tuna. Tuna mid, sticky rice good. Then the hot dishes, dumplings and tacos. Tacos came out quick but those are the tiniest little one bite of taco. There was 4 of us, we each had two bites of an order of 4 tacos, that was a 38 dollar dish. The tacos were also just okay tuna ones were good.The dumplings never came and it took our sever maybe 20-30 min to realize. Our drinks were also empty. They brought the dumplings to a different table and did bring us a fresh order and did not charge us for new ones. That was nice, but even after we ordered drinks it was 20 min until we got them.

After that little long slow experience, I had some of the most mid sushi I have ever tasted. Salmon, spicy tuna, shrimp tempura, and California. Why was the soy sauce the saltiest soy sauce I’ve ever tasted? Not sure. I could even stretch and say it may have been the worst I’ve ever had. Very simple and nothing to them. There are some places in Annapolis on Main Street that have way better sushi.

The check was 370 before tip. They charged us the 5 dollars for a birthday dessert, they didn’t even ask if we wanted it. It was the tiniest piece of ice cream. Ice cream was actually pretty good.

I understand this is a micro food restraunt, but there was a lot of things that made that experience very lack luster. For that money, just really...