One of my rules for booking restaurants abroad is never book somewhere that I can also visit in London. Of course, rules are made to be broken and I never apply it to one of my absolute favourites: Nobu. One of the great things about Nobu is, unlike some other international brands, the interiors are really varied and the menu is always different making use of local produce.
London is lucky enough to have two restaurants from world’s most famous luxury Japanese / Peruvian fusion restaurant. There’s Nobu Old Park Lane and Nobu Berkeley St, the latter being my favourite owing to it’s cool bar and more relaxed vibe.
Mr S had rather spontaneously suggest lunch at Nobu Berkeley Street one weekend and we were lucky enough to get a table at the minimalist chic restaurant on a walk-in basis. I went into the background and history of Nobu in my recent post on Nobu Old Park Lane so I’ll keep this one fairly brief and just tell you about the fab food that we had. 
Yellow tail tuna with jalapeno is one of our favourites and we loved the clean but spicy flavours of the dish at Nobu. 
Little lobster tacos with a spicy sauce are perfectly executed with plump and deliciously slightly sweet seafood. 
It may sound a little boring but actually the sashimi salad is a must order for me as I love the Matsuhisa dressing, simply made from soy, vinegar and seasonings, the dressing has the most incredible flavour without being too heavy or masking the subtle flavours of the raw fish.
Spicy tuna maki and soft shell crab rolls were our sushi of choice, both perfectly made and incredibly delicious. I’ve certainly never had bad sushi at Nobu.
With it being so cold outside, a hot dish felt necessary too and we chose chicken toban yaki – a sort of sizzling chicken hot plate made up of the most tender chicken, a light tangy sauce and accompanied by asparagus that still retained a perfect bite.
For dessert Mr S chose a Fuji apple crumble with sesame oil, wasabi toffee, peanut ice cream and coconut crumble. A rather random mix of ingredients with I really enjoyed despite not liking coconut or peanut – but I loved the salty and smoky flavour coming through from the sesame oil.
I chose the sub-zero yogurt with fresh berries, blueberry and cider coulis which was lovely, light and palate cleansing.
A couple of years ago both of the Nobu restaurants in London lost their Michelin stars and though there are restaurants in London that I prefer in terms of food and atmosphere (Roka or Zuma for sushi), the Nobu star will still shine brightly for me and the quality is always top-notch.
Nobu Berkley Street
15 Berkeley Street
London
W1J 8DY
020 7 290 9222
