Ahh - Nobu. It's surprising that I have never been here despite all my years in NYC and being such a sushi lover. While it's probably one of the most well known sushi places in NYC, there are so many other well regarded sushi places in the city that I just haven't been in a hurry to check out Nobu. I have always wanted to go during Restaurant Week during lunch because it's not too far from my office and while I've never been a huge fan of Restaurant Week for dinner, I do think it's a good option for certain places for lunch - Nobu being one of them. Of course, it's almost impossible to get a lunch reservation here during Restaurant Week but I was lucky this go around and snagged a 12pm reservation the day before Restaurant Week ended.
The Restaurant Week menu is $25 for an appetizer, entree and dessert. On the appetizer side, they offered a sashimi salad, black miso cod or softshell crab. I opted for the black miso cod (it was a tough call between that and the sashimi salad) and Borami got the softshell crab. For entrees, the choices were arctic char, teriyaki chicken or an assortment of sushi. Obviously I was going to get the sushi because how can you come to Nobu and not get sushi (unless you're pregnant - sorry Borami!)?! Borami got the arctic char cooked extra well. For dessert, we both got the lychee coconut panna cotta. Normally, the black cod itself runs $36 and the assorted sushi around $34, so on paper the Restaurant Week deal is great but I'm not sure if they are the same portion sizes or not. I'll say that the Restaurant Week ones are definitely on the small side. The black miso cod was two small pieces served in butter lettuce and while the cod was very flakey and delicious, it was probably at most 4 small bites in total. The softshell crab dish also looked like a similar story - good quality but small portions. As for the star of the show, the assorted sushi, it came with a basic tuna roll and tuna, salmon, crab, yellowtail, mackerel, fluke and one other piece of fish sushi. It was good quality fish and excellent sushi rice and I appreciate sushi that's clean and classic. I just wish that there was more of it and having a very simple tuna roll, while fresh and tasty, seemed a bit underwhelming. Borami also mentioned that her fish portion was on the small side as well. The dessert was incredibly sweet with a sugary fruit jam on top and large whole lychee in the middle but I still devoured the entire thing.
The restaurant was totally packed and I could tell that most were trying to take advantage of the Restaurant Week deal. I can't complain about the quality of my meal or the great service but in true Japanese minimalist style there just wasn't enough food to make us full. In fact, I stopped by a Good Humor truck on the way back to work and got an ice cream bar! Overall, I'm glad that I finally made it to Nobu and am happy to say that I've been there. I'm curious if my meal would have been better/different if I had gone during a non-Restaurant Week time period so that I could do a real apples to apples comparison of it to truly stellar sushi places like Tanoshi, Sushi Nakazawa or Sushi of Gari. Total bill: $30 with tax and tip.
Photo Credit: Yelp
Photo Credit: Yelp
No comments:
Post a Comment