Nobu Beijing: A Soft-Opening Preview

Highly-anticipated, world-famous restaurant chain Nobu (created by Japanese celebrity chef Nobu Matsuhisa) is currently in it’s soft-opening stages with an invite-only guest list.

I was lucky enough to tag along with Hatsune Restaurant Group owner Alan Wong and his lovely wife Hannah for a full-on Nobu experience inclusive of an 8 dish menu by the chef followed by a private kitchen tour by Head Nobu Chef from Norway Øyvind Naesheim.

I had not previously dined at one of the Nobu restaurants so I was not quite sure what to expect, but I was beyond excited to find out.  The restaurant design is absolutely stunning and as soon as you step foot in, you are quickly made aware that this is a high-end restaurant.  Most diners were dressed smart in suits and cocktail dresses and combine that with very formal service, it made for a very posh restaurant atmosphere.

Despite mixed reviews about their service, we found it to be very professional.

The food is obviously very different from traditional Japanese cuisine but it’s also very different from the Japanese fusion restaurants in Beijing like the California-style Japanese fusion at Hatsune and Northern Asian fusion at Bei.  I would definitely consider Nobu to be classified as Japanese fusion, but a Japanese and Chinese fusion.  The majority of the dishes were cooked, many were fried and very saucy (creamy rock shrimp and eggplant miso) and some were quite sour in taste (Toro Toban Yaki).  Highlights were the black cod and selection of sushi platter.

A few of Nobu’s Signature Dishes we tasted:

*photos courtesy of Øyvind’s website

Spicy Tuna Salad / Black Cod Saikyo Yaki

Toro Toban Yaki / Creamy Rock Shrimp / Selection of Sushi

According to Øyvind, Nobu will open with an a la carte menu on Tuesday, March 1 and there are rumors of a grand opening party sometime in April with restaurant chain co-owner Robert de Niro possibly making an appearance.