Meals to Remember - 500 Places for Food and Wine Lovers - page 125

get reservation after it opened in 1994.
Frankly, the opening of the more casual
Nobu Next Door ( & 212/334-4445 )
didn't make it much easier. But things
are even more exclusive at this uptown
version, which opened in 2005 in the
Time-Warner Center alongside such other
star restaurants as Thomas Keller's Per Se
and Gray Kunz's Café Gray (which may
make 57th St. the world's most concen-
trated block of culinary fabulousness). The
multicourse omakase, or chef's choice,
menus are like a joyride through chef
Nobu's “new-style Japanese” cuisine, where
the sushi tradition in which he was first
trained meets and marries with the foods of
Peru and Argentina, where he worked in
his 20s.
Nobu's classic dishes include Tiradito
Nobu-style, miso-glazed black cod, a
golden-battered rock shrimp tempura,
and a lobster ceviche spiked with cilantro;
this disciplined kitchen executes the sim-
plest dish with flair. But the place out-
shines its many imitators with its creative
pairing of flavors—yellowtail sashimi may
come with jalapeño pepper, halibut cheeks
with wasabi pepper sauce, or Kumamoto
oysters with a Maui onion salsa. And who
ever tried avocado or pumpkin tempura
before Nobu?
The heart of his cuisine is not just the
raw fish bar but the wood-burning oven
and the hibachi table, which call out
deeper savory notes in the food. In fact, if
you just want to focus on hibachi dining,
there's an entire hibachi section on the
menu, where instead of the full tasting
menu you can choose a sampling of hiba-
chi-grilled seafood. Another smart way to
sample Nobu's cuisine for less is to eat in
the lounge, where you can order most of
the regular menu's hot and cold appetiz-
ers as bar food.
The design of this two-story restaurant
definitely telegraphs Big Deal Restaurant,
with sinuous curving walls, abalone-shell

The name Nobu is synonymous with superlative
sushi.

chandeliers, sliced bamboo stalks in ter-
razzo tiles, scorched ash tables, Japanese
quilt fabric, and a backdrop of stacked
sake barrels over the ground-floor bar.
You worked hard to get that reservation;
you should feel the place is worth it from
the minute you walk in—and you do. But
just wait until the food arrives.

40 W. 57th St. ( & 212/757-3000; www.
noburestaurants.com/fiftyseven).
( John F. Kennedy International (24km/
15 miles); Newark Liberty International
(27km/16 miles); LaGuardia (13km/8 miles).
L $$$ Carlton Hotel on Madison

Avenue, 88 Madison Ave. ( & 212/532-
4100; www.carltonhotelny.com). $$ Wash-
ington Square Hotel, 103 Waverly Place
( & 800/222-0418 or 212/777-9515; www.
washingtonsquarehotel.com).