Given the relative difficulty in getting a booking at the London restaurants, I figured we would be in strife trying to get a table for 6 with four days notice. But no, nothing of the sort! I guess that's what happens when you live in a city that is about 1/3 of the size of London and not full of celebrities and wannabes.
I'm gonna cut to the chase. After all the hyping to friends and family in Oz about Nobu and how cheap it was relative to London, I was left disappointed (and still kinda hungry). Admittedly, I've never been to the Park Lane or Berkeley St restaurants but if the Melbourne restaurant is meant to be a replica, it doesn't really feel or look like a top class restaurant. But I guess that could be, you know, us Aussies and the casual attitude we have. When in Rome, live as a Roman or in this case, decorate the restaurant for the Melburnians.
While Mooey nit-picked their service, I'll look past that given that as a sextuplet we looked like a bunch of second year uni students instead of professionals. By all means, that is not justifcation for poor service and like Mooey said, no one was blatantly rude, however I do wonder how the vibe from the staff may have changed if we were all wearing suits and maybe had a stethoscope around (some) of our necks. Hmmmm......
Everyone ex Mischka who was camera man.
We ordered several dishes, which if my memory serves me correctly were roughly the same size as the London versions. One of the dishes included the signature Black Cod with Miso which is served up for £26 (~ $60) but we got it for the bargain basement price of $42.
I never had this dish in London, so I can't do a direct comparison, but I do have to say it was delicate and nice but.......not $42 worth and certainly not £26 worth. And um, this could insult a heap of people but really it just tasted like fish with a honey-soy marinade. Maybe they put in a lot of effort to make it taste so simple.... maybe... or maybe not! Is it expensive because the fish is shipped in from Japan? Is it a producct from a non-sustainable source? Who knows.
It ended up being about $90 a head, which is a little less than what I expected. That equates to about £40 which is something I wouldn't bat too big an eyelid over in London - in fact at Nobu, I would think it's cheap. Not that I'm loaded, but your state of mind becomes quite skewed when you live in London - £20-25 per head would be considered normal (if not in Chinatown).
I'll assume a native Melburnian's opinion and I would be aghast at a $90 bill, especially since I was still a bit hungry. We ain't a bunch of tightasses but we haven't bought into to the "Be There To Be Seen" culture yet!
This all brings me back to my original opinion of Nobu and the general raves I had for it. If the Melbourne restaurant is the antipodean replica of it's London counterpart, then sorry, I will have to retract my praise. Maybe I was so impressed because decent, cheap Japanese food is hard to come by in London and maybe I was just really really starving that day in Ubon.
All the above being said, I might have to pop into London Nobu again and confirm my opinion. I might eat at Nobu Melbourne again too. Don't get wrong, it wasn't bad, just not fantastic and I do have an inkling that it won't become a permanent fixture on the Melbourne restaurant scene.
I never had this dish in London, so I can't do a direct comparison, but I do have to say it was delicate and nice but.......not $42 worth and certainly not £26 worth. And um, this could insult a heap of people but really it just tasted like fish with a honey-soy marinade. Maybe they put in a lot of effort to make it taste so simple.... maybe... or maybe not! Is it expensive because the fish is shipped in from Japan? Is it a producct from a non-sustainable source? Who knows.
It ended up being about $90 a head, which is a little less than what I expected. That equates to about £40 which is something I wouldn't bat too big an eyelid over in London - in fact at Nobu, I would think it's cheap. Not that I'm loaded, but your state of mind becomes quite skewed when you live in London - £20-25 per head would be considered normal (if not in Chinatown).
I'll assume a native Melburnian's opinion and I would be aghast at a $90 bill, especially since I was still a bit hungry. We ain't a bunch of tightasses but we haven't bought into to the "Be There To Be Seen" culture yet!
This all brings me back to my original opinion of Nobu and the general raves I had for it. If the Melbourne restaurant is the antipodean replica of it's London counterpart, then sorry, I will have to retract my praise. Maybe I was so impressed because decent, cheap Japanese food is hard to come by in London and maybe I was just really really starving that day in Ubon.
All the above being said, I might have to pop into London Nobu again and confirm my opinion. I might eat at Nobu Melbourne again too. Don't get wrong, it wasn't bad, just not fantastic and I do have an inkling that it won't become a permanent fixture on the Melbourne restaurant scene.
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