Nobu - A New York-Based, High-End Chain of Sushi and Japanese - 25th and M Street in West End - NOW OPEN!

[pras]

As reported by the Washington Post.

[mtureck]

Wow, 38th location?!?

Time to change the name to McSushi.

[dracisk]

Tom's not impressed.

At the 38th iteration of Nobu, the pretense tastes awful.

[Ericandblueboy]

At whatever number Nobu in Atlantis Bahamas, it was the food that taste awful.

[Simul Parikh]

Fun review, though meaner than Pete Well's negative ones, which are more cheeky/devilish. 

Will likely have the same effect as his review for Founding Farmers did - loads of tourists continuing to go there and ever increasing revenues.

[Destruya]

"Chef Gusteau does...Sushi!"

All joking aside, though - a friend of mine tried Nobu DC and his reaction was less than stellar.

[franch]

it's honestly embarrassing for DC that this is even a thing. it's not 1997, this is the 38th iteration of what's now an overpriced Vegas attraction. i'd much rather go to Sushi Ogawa, Sushi Taro, or Sushi Capitol.

[funkyfood]

Obama went there over the weekend

[DonRocks]

15 minutes ago, franch said:

it's honestly embarrassing for DC that this is even a thing. it's not 1997, this is the 38th iteration of what's now an overpriced Vegas attraction. i'd much rather go to Sushi Ogawa, Sushi Taro, or Sushi Capitol.

Would you say the same if we got a Morton's?

Oh, you would?

Carry on.

[franch]

20 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Would you say the same if we got a Morton's?

Oh, you would?

Carry on.

 

not just if we *got* a Morton's. if we got a Morton's and reservations were hard to get and people were hyping it super hard and the fucking OBAMAS went there? yeah, i would. if Nobu opened and everyone yawned and accepted that it'd be a boring place for edgy 60-year-olds on expense accounts to branch out in their tastes, fine.

[Bart]

Has anyone been here in the last four years?  Have feelings changed or stayed the same?
 

My sushi loving daughter wants to go here for her birthday and I’m not sure if I should just say yes, or try to steer her to a better, and more local place. 

[Marty L.]

2 hours ago, Bart said:

Has anyone been here in the last four years?  Have feelings changed or stayed the same?
 

My sushi loving daughter wants to go here for her birthday and I’m not sure if I should just say yes, or try to steer her to a better, and more local place. 

There are now 49 locations of Nobu.  For some reason I suspect a meal at one of them wouldn't be *quite* as satisfying and exciting as the meal I had at Matsuhisa in the late 1980s.

[Keithstg]

16 hours ago, Bart said:

Has anyone been here in the last four years?  Have feelings changed or stayed the same?
 

My sushi loving daughter wants to go here for her birthday and I’m not sure if I should just say yes, or try to steer her to a better, and more local place. 

I find sushi in DC  underwhelming in general, and in specific relative to any other "major" US city. That said, were my daughter to request Nobu for her birthday, I'd go.

Haven't been to the DC location, but the Miami outpost was fine in September, though I didn't choose the restaurant.

[Ericandblueboy]

Why not be safe and book the chef’s omakase at Sushi Taro?  Nakazawa is even better but you probably don’t want to patronize a place in the Trump hotel.

[DonRocks]

On 11/12/2021 at 12:55 PM, Keithstg said:

Haven't been to the DC location, but the Miami outpost was fine in September, though I didn't choose the restaurant.

Four of us went to Nobu a couple of weeks ago: The service was comically inept; the food was really good, almost across the board. 

[Tweaked]

On 11/12/2021 at 9:55 PM, Ericandblueboy said:

Why not be safe and book the chef’s omakase at Sushi Taro?  Nakazawa is even better but you probably don’t want to patronize a place in the Trump hotel.

According to news reports, the Trump Organization is selling and the hotel will become part of the Waldorf Astoria brand.   

[Bart]

Thanks fellas!  

Eric - we did Sushi Taro last year, although they weren't offering the omakase menu then.  It's $250 at Sushi Taro and between $140 (Signature Omakase) and $190 (DC Specialty Omakase), so maybe I'll do what she wants and same some money.   🤣

 

And possibly related to the lack of traffic in this thread and lack of general chatter about this place, I was talking to someone with lots of high end restaurant experience all over the place, not just DC, and told her that my daughter wanted to go here for her birthday, and her immediate response was, "There's a Nobu in DC?"  

21 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Four of us went to Nobu a couple of weeks ago: The service was comically inept; the food was really good, almost across the board. 

Thanks Don!  Did you order off the menu or do one of the omakase options?  If it's the former, were there dishes that I should order if we go here?

Full disclosure:  I don't know anything about Nobu other than the name, so I have no idea if they have a signature dish like the Palak Chaat at Raskia. 

[DonRocks]

2 hours ago, Bart said:

Thanks Don!  Did you order off the menu or do one of the omakase options?  If it's the former, were there dishes that I should order if we go here?

Full disclosure:  I don't know anything about Nobu other than the name, so I have no idea if they have a signature dish like the Palak Chaat at Raskia. 

Bart, it’s complicated (which is why I didn’t go into it).

Four of us had 6:30 reservations on Thu, Nov 4. We were going to get four of the high-end omakase. 

The other two (sorry for the cheesy plug, but his book has come out TODAY!) were going to be ten minutes late, so we ordered two glasses of Cremant. Then, our friends showed up, and at 6:50, the Cremant still hadn’t come. So we canceled that, and asked for a couple beers and cocktails … about ten minutes later, we were told they were out of beers. So we basically said, ‘Just please go get four drinks and put them in front of us.’ Then they found the beers we initially ordered. Almost 50 minutes after I sat down, I had a beer in front of me.

When our friends walked in at 6:40, our server had already given two of us “The Endless Spiel,” and I warned my friends to “order the omakase quickly, and avoid eye contact.” At 7:30 we had ordered four omakase and that’s around the time a bottle of really awful House Junmai Ginjo sake arrived (I don’t recommend it; stick with the Echigo Rice Lager which is really good).

And of course, around this time, I have a pain flare. Excuse me, I had a PAIN FLARE. The kind where I realized there was no way I could sit there two more hours, fighting off our server, trying to get some scraps, so I had to just tell my friends the truth, and they told our server (who got really, truly NICE when he saw there were tears in my eyes from the pain), to just start bringing us beers and appetizers, as quickly as the kitchen could make them. 

And you know what? Every single thing that came out of the kitchen - and things came like tapas usually come - was very good to excellent. The only non-repeat was a yellowtail ceviche which had ferocious heat; a tuna ceviche was not nearly as fiery. They were out of Wagyu dumplings which my friends say are fantastic, but the cubes of panko-crusted, sticky rice on toothpicks with dipping sauce and something resembling spicy tuna were great, and even a rock shrimp tempura salad with Mayo (which sounds bad) was really good. Black Cod with Miso was also wonderful (we were plowing in at this point). And all sushi and sashimi courses (there were three, I think) were very well-executed.

I also want to give extra thanks to our server for being so empathetic when he found out I was having a rough go of things - he was a really nice person.

So, the initial service (and supply problems) were train wrecks, but the evening did a 180 at around 7:30, and while the high-end omakase would have been $175 each, just for the food, our total bill for everything including drinks and tax was just under $500 which is about half of what we expected to spend (these two folks had been here before, and loved the high-end omakase).

Even with the mixed evening, I would come here again in a heartbeat - for happy hour and bar snacks (I hear it’s quite a scene), or to try the omakase (maybe at the sushi bar).

[Bart]

Thanks Don!!   

It really sucks that your pain flare happened but you seemed to make the best of it.  I think I mentioned this book to you years ago but there was just an article about it in the NYT:  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/09/well/mind/john-sarno-chronic-pain-relief.html    Maybe it will bring you some relief 🙏

If anyone can't get past the NYT paywall, the book in question is:  Healing Back Pain, by John Sarno https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/healing-back-pain-the-mind-body-connection-by-john-e-sarno/254231/item/4273658/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMItOa-pd6d9AIVFa7ICh30_An9EAQYASABEgLuBfD_BwE#idiq=4273658&edition=5660547

[Bart]

The birthday dinner was a great success.  A very expensive success, but a success nonetheless.  

We did the DC Specialty Omakase for $190 for six courses, including dessert.  Their Signature Omakase is $140 for six courses, with the only difference being higher end ingredients (waygu, toro) swapped out (swapped in?) on the more expensive version.  At first I thought six courses seemed a little light, but it ended up being the perfect amount of food, although I could have used maybe one more bite!  ;-).  Some courses were a single bite, some had three bites of the same item, and some had three bites of different items.  The only thing I didn't love was the dessert.  It was fine, but it didn't live up to the meal before it.

We had no real issues with the staff or service other than them asking how each course was when I had a mouthful.  It seemed to happen on every course too!  They presented each course and described the dish, but I sort of felt that they were just reciting a script rather than really knowing the intricate details.  But in all honesty, at those prices, I was expecting impeccable service to match.  (I know there's a labor shortage but plenty of places still have amazing service, see Kinship)

The biggest difference from Sushi Taro (where we went last year) was in the vibe of the place.  Sushi Taro is much more serene and sublime and to me, a more authentic and pleasant experience.  At Nobu it was a bit more of a party scene with dance music with a heavy bass pumping through the place and lots of young people decked out to the nines.

[Ericandblueboy]

9 hours ago, Bart said:

The biggest difference from Sushi Taro (where we went last year) was in the vibe of the place.  Sushi Taro is much more serene and sublime and to me, a more authentic and pleasant experience.  At Nobu it was a bit more of a party scene with dance music with a heavy bass pumping through the place and lots of young people decked out to the nines.

This is immensely helpful.  I have no desire to eat Japanese food while listening to dance music.

[DonRocks]

1 hour ago, Ericandblueboy said:

This is immensely helpful.  I have no desire to eat Japanese food while listening to dance music.

I've only been that one time, and the bar area was relatively uncrowded, but our friends assured us that the bar at Nobu is usually a "scene" - it sounds to me like it's this decade's version of Mie & Yu (2005 Rammy winner for "Best Restaurant," btw), except with really good food. If you get a reservation in the dining room, I guess it's like going to the roped-off Baccarat area in a crowded casino where everyone outside the ropes is playing slot machines, or jostling for a spot at the $10 blackjack tables.

[Bart]

11 hours ago, Ericandblueboy said:

This is immensely helpful.  I have no desire to eat Japanese food while listening to dance music.

Just to be clear, the music wasn't super loud or horribly intrusive.  It was easy to have a conversation in normal tones of voice.  From reading Tom's chat, it seems like plenty of places are much louder, making conversation difficult.  That wasn't the case here, but the music seemed out of place to little old me.