Friday night, went out on a raining night to the original downtown location (I try to generally avoid midtown when not at work or in the park). I wanted to go to Nobu for a long time. It was on the list. I felt that as a good New Yorker, I needed to experience the restaurant that everyone has been to; I’m just a jealous person.
Happily, I came across a promotion that Continental (my new airline of choice) was running called International Restaurant Week. I am going to Barcelona in a couple weeks, so I wanted to check it out in case they were running some special at a restaurant there. Unfortunately (and fortunately?), the restaurant week was actually for internationally themed restaurants in NYC. Does that not encompass every restaurant?
Well, it did have Nobu, and for every $100 you spend there, you get $50 in Continental money. So, we figured, we were eating for ½ off! Nice recession thinking….
Speaking of recessions, wow… Nobu was getting hit pretty hard on that front. We walked in for an 8:45 reservation and the place looked like it was 4:30pm. I think there were about 5 tables full of people. Granted, by the time were were ½ way done with our meal, it had filled up. Yet, there is no bar scene, there were no people waiting for tables. Is this because I’m the only one left in NYC that hasn’t been to Nobu? Is this because it was raining? (We all know that this sadly deters people in the city from going out and people outside from coming in.) Is it because Nobu is overplayed and overpriced? It could be any number of those reasons.
We originally thought about ordering the Omakase. But, when hearing what it was (just a parade of the signature dishes, nothing off the menu or special), we decided to take a little cheaper route and order the dishes we actually wanted. Granted, some of those were the signature dishes, although after eating them, I can’t really understand why…
We started out with the Bigeye and Bluefin Toro tartar. The dish was very small and the poor presentation made it look even smaller. The toro itself was good, but that’s what you pay a heafty price for it. Our next dish was the Yellowtail Sashimi with jalapeno (pictured). I was told I needed to try this by a co-worker. While it was good sashimi in a nice sauce, the jalapeno was extraordinarily hot. No one's fault here but my own. I just can’t handle the heat! Next, I think because of the continental special, we were given a free appetizer by the chef. It was a lobster salad and was the worst dish we had the entire meal. It was lobsert claw meat (which isn’t the tastiest part, or the meatiest) in no sauce and served on random pieces of butter lettuce. Thanks? We were then partly saved by the Black pepper crusted Ahi Tuna salad. The tuna was good, but the sauce/dressing overwhelmed the dish. The lettuce on top was dry and the lettuce in the bottom was sopping. Granted, the 
dressing wasn’t bad, I just didn’t like how it was used. To end our foray into the cold apps, we had the squid pasta. I thought this was going to be pasta with squid. I probably wasn’t listening to the explanation… ok, I know I wasn’t, because we got a bowl of squid. It wasn’t like sautéed calamari. It was different. These were huge pieces of squid tenticles. If it sounds gross. That is because it was.Our first signature dish, the Rock Shrimp Tempura (pictured) with creamy spicy sauce was decent. It was not spicy at all (good for me and explained as such by our waiter when we ordered). But, everyone makes rock shrimp tempura nowadays. If you are going to eat this, go to Lure Fishbar. Its amazing. Also, try the calamari there while you are at it. That dish was followed by the Black Miso Cod (pictured). I didn’t like this at all. All restaurants serve a version of this now, and Nobu’s was probably the worst I have tasted. The miso sauce was excellent. Yet, the fish was dry and tasteless. Cod isn’t the most tasty fish out there, actually I think its pretty bland. But, restautants have been able to transform this boring poor mans fish to a culinary hit. Nobu just failed me. Yes… there is more… We had to try the sushi. We ordered the house special roll (all of the
other rolls sounded incredibly boring) and some extra pieces of Spanish mackerel, Red Snapper, Eel. The sushi was decent. But, I guess there is no point in expecting good sushi from a restaurant not known for its sushi. You are better off going to Yama, Blue Ribbon, Sushi Yasuda or Sasabune.Since its also the week of the Tribeca Film Festival, there were interesting characters in the restaurant. Next to us was a table of complete randoms. Maybe a film crew? Maybe the mob? The table was filled with about 12 people that had very heavy accents and were abnormally tan (considering we have only seen 2 days of sun this spring). It was someone’s birthday. They got him really odd gifts and probably thought I was a freak by starring at them. Whatever, I love people watching.
Maybe I should have gone to Nobu when people actually cared about it. There are so many new and better restaurants. Nobu was acclaimed for its innovation years ago, but now that all restaurants with the same theme make the same dishes, but better. There is no reason to return. I feel bad for myself and my boyfriend that we dragged ourselves there with high expectations.
