Nobu NYC

I'm in New York. A former business associate and friend of mine decided that he wanted to get together for dinner and suggested that we go eat Japanese. Originally, he had intended for us to go to Masa (hey, big spender), the new location of Masa Takayama, formerly of Ginza Sushi-ko in Beverly Hills. Since he got confused with my travel dates, he had to give up the reservation that he had there. Damn.

As a second best choice, we ended up at Nobu in TriBeCa. Now, any foodie worth anything has heard of Nobu Matsuhisa, the pioneer of nouvelle Japanese cuisine, who marries Peruvian accents into an otherwise truly Japanese meal. I walked in with my buddy with the orders to "do damage" and that "money wasn't an issue." A guy very much after my own heart when it comes to food!

We ordered cocktails (Citron rocks, lemon, for me), and the slaughter starts. We ordered three appetizers to start with and told the waitress to leave the menu since we had every intention of continuing to order as much as we could gorge ourselves on. Remember, money wasn't an issue?

First up, Kumamoto Oysters with two sauces. One is a ponzu type soy citrus number, while the other is a Maui onion salsa. The oysters are screaming fresh and go down so easy, it's almost sinful. Of the two sauces, I actually prefered the Maui onion salsa -- you could get the taste of the oyster better.

Next, Monkfish Liver Pate with Caviar. Talk about sinful. It's rich, sweet, and just melts in your mouth like... foie gras... wait, it might be better than foie gras. I must say, as much it was nice to see the caviar topping, it was completely unnecessary. My friend and I actually decided that the dish tasted better without the caviar. We actually wasted the caviar. I felt kinda guilty. But money wasn't an issue, right?

Third up, Toro Tartar. Unctuous, melty... great... wonderful fish, but nothing you couldn't get at any other high-caliber restaurant.

Well, we're off to a good start.

In the course of the next several hours (4 and a half to be exact), we ordered several of the cold dishes, a few of the hot entrees, and finished off with a variety of sushi.

There were amazing high notes such as the monkfish liver pate, and the New Style Sashimi of Copper River Sockeye Salmon, to which my friend said, "I think I may have wet myself a little bit," and the O-Toro Sushi that were truly transcendent. However, there were some other dishes that while not bad, just felt like "eh?"

Examples of these... The Lobster Salad. For one, I hate to admit, the only reason that either of us continued eating it after the first couple bites was the fact that we didn't feel comfortable wasting the lobster. There was just too much on the plate. And given that it was badly dressed (i.e. flavorless)and unbalanced (too much oil and hot spice without any acid)the dominant flavor was of the char-grilled shiitake mushrooms.

Another dish that was shiitake dominant was the Squid Pasta. Side note: ok, does Nobu use any other mushroom? I mean, there are plenty of great Japanese mushrooms like enoki, shimeji, ehringii, matsutake, nameko... the list goes on. Back to the squid, it was well cooked, just that the sauce was really dominating, and you really couldn't taste the squid in it.

The Hamachi Cheeks were really cooked the wrong way in my opinion. The whole head of the fish is served in this presentation, and while it was well flavored and well cooked in terms of doneness, it was cooked in the wrong medium. I could immediately tell that it was broiled over a gas flame. For something like this where the texture is important, you can't do that. Gas flame create water vapor as a byproduct which in essence steams the meat, giving it a mushy texture. Ask any Japanese connoisseur of Unagi, and they will tell you that they won't eat it somewhere that doesn't deal with charcoal. For a restaurant of the caliber of Nobu, this lack of attention to detail was disappointing, to say the least.

All in all though, it was a great meal. I just wish that it was consistently awe-inspiring like the few great dishes I mentioned above. Would I go back? Definitely, since I now know what not to order. Would I recommend it? Absolutely.

So wanna know how much we ended up spending? :D Let's just say it was really expensive.

Nobu NYC

105 Hudson St.
New York, NY
Tel: 212.219.0500
http://www.noburestaurants.com/newyork/index.html

Happy Eating!