Nobu Restaurant Critique

After a long week of hard work, my parents and I made a reservation at Nobu, I have been to the one in Japan, but this is my first time going to one is the U.S. So, I was pretty excited to try it. When we arrived, they weren’t seating people yet, so we had to sit at the bar for about 20 minutes, but after that, we were seated in what I would classify as the perfect spot, with the perfect view and nice table size, and decor.

Nobu is a family style restaurant so we ordered a Field greens salad with paper thin vegetables, Bigeye and bluefin tuna tartar, Shishito Peppers, Rock shrimp tempura, fried Brussel sprouts, Lobster baked in a truffle sauce, and warm mushroom salad.

The first round of dishes to come was, the field greens with paper-thin vegetables, the Bigeye and Bluefin tuna tartar, as well as the Shishito Peppers. The first thing I dug into was the Tuna tartar, which included caviar and a wasabi miso sauce surrounding it, which added a nice tang at the end of the experience. One other thing that I found very interesting was that the tartare itself was unseasoned and left solely by itself which featured a variety of natural flavors, that usually are overpowered in other tartare. The next dish that caught my eye was the Field greens with paper-thin vegetables. The first thing I noticed after all the flavors sunk-in, was the dressing and how tart and sweet it was. I thought that the dressing really fit the salad because, in my opinion, raw vegetables are paired best with acidity and a bit of sweet, which is exactly what I was looking for. The vegetables also added a nice crunch and earthiness. But one bad thing about the salad was that the vegetables didn’t have much flavor, themselves. The vegetables included on the top were, carrots, turnips, beets, and rutabaga.  So for a starter or a light lunch for one serving, I thought this would be great, but for a whole dinner, or a hearty meal, this dish wasn’t made for that purpose.

So after that, the only thing left on the table was the shishito peppers. In my mind, I was thinking these were going to be spicy and burn my tongue off, but I was totally wrong. Right, when you bit into it you could feel the crunch of the fried peppers hitting your taste buds, exploding with flavor. Instead of spicy, they were sweet, because of the sauce the chef had put on them. But, not all of my predictions were wrong, they were still a little spicy, but in my opinion, even someone who can’t stand spice could possibly enjoy this dish. In the end,  this was my favorite dish out of the whole meal.

The next round of dishes was the rock shrimp tempura, the fried Brussel sprouts, and the Lobster with truffle sauce. The first one I tried was the fried Brussel sprouts, which brought a nice crunch to the table. The flavor of the Brussel sprouts had a nice contrast with the acidic lemon incorporated in the seasonings used to create this dish.

Compared to other fried Brussel sprouts I’ve had, this time they were extra crispy on the outside, creating a crunchy shell around the soft, but not mushy center, which resulted in a very good batch of Brussels.  The next dish I tried was the rock shrimp, which in my opinion were one of the best shrimp tempura’s I’ve ever had. They were crispy, crunchy, and best of all, well seasoned. It was as if you were in one of those ads in which showed off these very crispy and perfect shrimp when in real life, those restaurant’s version of that is way less tasty and photogenic. They might have been a little spicy but I didn’t notice. And the final dish from this round  I tried was the lobster with truffle sauce. I usually like lobster with a simple drizzle of butter on it, but I try to stay open-minded when trying new things. But unfortunately, I felt the truffle sauce was just too rich for me, which considering the amount of food we ordered, this was highly likely to happen. But sadly I didn’t enjoy it as much as I wish I had. I feel one thing that could have made it better and more to my liking was to take out the truffle and really let the lobster shine as the main attraction, as it should be. Instead maybe add some Japanese spices to really highlight the juiciness of the lobster, and the deep culture from were Nobu was originally based.

Now for the final dish, you guessed it, warm mushroom salad. Now that might sound weird to you, but let me tell you that it consists of a variety of sauteed mushrooms seasoned mainly with lime served on the same plate. I had wished this came earlier into the meal, just based on the heartiness. In fact, I almost wish the order in which the dishes had come in had been reversed.

In conclusion, going to Nobu was a successful, and enjoyable night, with some hights and some lows, in the end, it was a nice experience.

So, I am going to give it ⅘ french Fries.