Nobu - Dubai

Nobu Nobu Nobu.  After hearing about Nobu for years, I finally went to Nobu in Dubai.  I wanted to get the deluxe omakase because I doubted I would be back anytime soon.  The waiter, however, talked me out of Omakase Deluxe for Omakase (regular), reasoning that if this was my first Nobu experience the regular Omakase meal would provide a great overview of the restaurant.  I'm never opposed to saving a few dollars, and I appreciate waiters that do not recommend the most expensive thing on a menu, so I went with it.  I was a little disappointed in the end, but more to come...

Take a gander at that giant lobster!

I always feel like I'm in a pretentious place when I have to pay for still water.  Nobu was no exception - they brought me out Fiji - at least it's a personal favorite.  Water is water, after all, but Acqua Panna and Fiji are the two best bottled waters out there.  I digress.


First course. Yellowtail, salsa, cucumber, fried seaweed. The fried seaweed looked cool and tasted good.  Very tasty bites, but a bit unremarkable. Fresh, clean, but I will forget about that dish. (Being a little behind on blog posts, I can tell you I did actually forget about this dish... even if it does look like art.)

Second course. Salmon roll, salad roll, ginger roll, and miso dressing. Note the lack of rice in the salmon roll.  I love riceless sushi - like this, or wrapped with cucumber.  I'm a sucker for it.  The Miso "dressing" was light and sweet and delicious. Then Anchovies were a burst of flavor and nice texture contrast (see them fused together - they were like a cracker). The micro greens were flavorful, and the salmon roll was delicate and delicious too. (I did remember this dish, and I can still taste that pickled veg in my mouth today.)

Third course. Wood roasted oven Sole with Jalepeno sauce. Perfect crispy skin on the sole. Yum.  The sauce was good, light and fulfilling (though it didn't have much zip), and the flecks of flower on the top were a nice touch. It was the best Sole I've eaten, but not the best rendition of dishes of this type.

Fourth course. Alaskan black cod, with miso marinade. This is a Nobu house specialty. The sweet miso sauce very similar to the sauce on the second plate. This dish was very good, but I've had better marinated black cod cheeks at Maneki, a 100 year old Japanese restaurant in Seattle.  Maybe I am being a bit picky, but I was expecting real magic.  (It does look good, huh?)

Fifth course. Sizzling Beef Teppanyaki (on a personal stone plate) with mixed mushrooms. I was told this would be a Wagyu course on the Deluxe Omakase. I wish I'd ordered that now. The ju was so delicious that I could have poured it on a bowl of rice and eaten it like a porridge. A super rich, heart attack portage. Mmmm.  This was the first truly remarkable dish of the evening, and it would have been all the more spectacular with Wagyu. A word to the wise, order one shade under what you want, the beef continues to cook on the plate and Middle Easterners always overcook their meats. I ordered mine rare, and it ended up being a perfect mid-rare.

Sixth course. Sushi and miso. To say this was an incredibly sparing portion may do injustice to other sparing portions out there. Spicy tuna, salmon, seabass, and sweet shrimp were served. The Rice was perfectly cooked - not a trivial accomplishment. The spicy tuna, a scallion, Jalapeno, tuna roll was a tasty riff on the classic, but needed more spice for me. The miso soup had a hidden surprise, two pieces of clam at the bottom. While that was nice, this was by no means the best miso soup I've ever eaten. Again, nice, but not memorable. (Again, I'd literally forgotten about it.)

Seventh course.  "Pre-dessert" Tiramisu mochi. Shockingly delicious (since I don't generally like tiramisu and hate the flavor of coffee).  It was much more subtle than I expected with almost fruity notes. The consistency was not the best, but the ratio of mochi to ice cream was on the mark.

Eighth course. The finale was a warm chocolate souffle, a la a molten chocolate cake. The sorbet, a banana one, WAS one of the best I'd had and the dessert was a very successful end to the meal.  A real high note.  

Overall.  The wait staff was attentive and excellent.  Without a doubt they raised the quality of my experience.  Watching on during the preparation of dozens of sushi pieces and rolls was great fun while I sat at the sushi bar.  The ingredients looked fresh and of excellent quality, but the portions were stingy, small, and the price tag was high. I'd recommend the restaurant for impressing someone, like a prospective client, or for a trendy, modern Japanese atmosphere and special occasion. You can get numerous hard-to-find (in Dubai) luxurious ingredients like Otoro, Wagyu, etc.  This said, if you are not willing to shell out the money for specialty Japanese fare (and by specialty, I mean said hard to find items), you should probably go to somewhere more reasonably priced.


Nobu - Dubai
Atlantis (Hotel)
The Palm (Jumeirah)
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
971.4.426.2626
4 of 5 (only 3 in its class - aka fine dining or fancy Japanese)

Hanare at the Intermark

Located within the same building as the Hilton Doubletree in Kuala Lumpur is the new Japanese restaurant of choice, Hanare.  After my go-to sushi restaurant in KL closed sometime last summer, I found this review by CC Food Travel.  It set my expectations pretty high.  In the end, this restaurant has the distinction of at once giving me the some of the single best bites of sushi and steak I have ever had, and still being disappointing.

So, the Evian bottle is near the smallest I had ever seen, at .33 liter. In other words, my bottled water was disgustingly small, and for another 10 or 20 RMD, you expect a liter bottle.  Boo.

The Appetizer:  The Tofu was exceptionally creamy and the corn had a pleasant miso flavor with excellent char.  The solitary piece of fish was only ok, and remember things are not better just because they have caviar.  I am a sucker for shiso (the green leaf), so overall it was a nice way to start.

2nd Course - Sashimi:  I do believe they provide real wasabi, and the tasty little abalone/clam were nice.   The tuna was very fresh, and buttery.  The katsuo (bonito) had a surprising little taste explosion. Obviously, the real winner was the absolutely delicious little piece of tuna belly they provided, which was one of the best single pieces of sashimi I have eaten.

3rd Course - Crab Soup:  The broth by itself had the flavor of inexpensive, dried squid with a bit of crab sprinkled in (in other words, eh).  The ground prawn ball with ginger, however, was quite remarkable, and when all combined, it was a good few bites.  To really elevate the dish, however, the broth needs improvement.

4th Course - Wagyu on Eggplant:  The dish also seemed to be served with a bit of "oyster sauce" on it. The question that you have to ask yourself is, what is not to like about wagyu beef?  Nothing.  It is tender, melts in your mouth, and once you have a bite you never want to eat anything else.  In sum, however, the course was a little uninspired.

5th Course  - More Wagyu?:  Yes!  It's a little sad when the waiter does not speak much English and he makes no real effort to explain what you are eating.  For a meal that costs somewhere around 50 times the national average, this is disappointing.  So, there was some sort of homemade delicate green chili and oil mixture which, placed carefully atop the wagyu, made for the most delicious beef dish I have ever eaten.  It was nothing short of phenomenal.

6th course - Fried Fish:  Again, the lack of description made for a rather disappointing experience.  The little fried fish with breading, they were probably something in the sardine family, were full of flavor.  I was sad to not be familiar with the other fish, a small, light, sweet white fish carefully pan fried without breading.  It was super tasty.  I think the small piece at the bottom was a cod cheek, based off the flavor and size, but I can't be sure.  The non-breaded small fish, and "cod" were so delicious they stood up to the previous plate of wagyu.

7th Course - Sushi:  This course contained 5 pieces of premium sushi, and clam miso soup.  The miso had a delicate smokey flavor, and was memorable with the small clams, and the tuna belly, cuddlefish, katsuo, yellowtail, and some type of hikari mono - I think sanma were yum morsels.  Pictures are worth a 1,000 words.

8th course - Dessert:  Peaches and ice cream are very good, but peaches are less a novelty to me than they are the Malaysians.

At one point, as I was eating wagyu beef I looked over and became jealous of my neighbors' trio of mushrooms.  It's ok (nom nom nom) I consoled myself on beef so fatty it's probably illegal in many countries (besides India).  It just went to show that the restaurant has more to offer than what I ate.  I was very jealous, however, of CC Travel Food's Omakase experience.  Mine was excellent, but missing some of the more exotic delicacies that were offered to them.  It is my opinion that they outted themselves as food bloggers and got the VIP treatment.

So, all this delicious food discussed, let's have a hard talk for a second.  

The service was so bad!  There were faux pas, such as not brining a spoon with the soup dish, never clearing the towel, me asking for accommodations which were not made.  Lack of descriptions of meals, etc., they tried so hard, but the waitstaff were just not good at all.  For her part, the proprietess realized this and commented privately later that evening that they are struggling with service.  Well, struggle they do.  I hope they get better, because it is a serious miss at such a nice restaurant.

Next time I'll try the Champagne Brunch (reviewed by Eat Your Heart Out) and then my meal won't be distracted by the poor service.

Hanare Japanese Restaurant
Ground Floor, The Intermark,
Jalan Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur
03-2164-2133/ 2164-2633
4 of 5

Nishino

Nishino has the distinction of being my wife's favorite sushi restaurant in the Seattle area.  I think this owes to the fact that her first experience here was a very enjoyable omasake tasting menu that featured excellent, fresh ingredients.

Quality sushi restaurants must have two elements, in my opinion, a quality chef and quality ingredients.  I think that talented chefs in standard, savory restaurants, can turn relatively average food into great food.  For example, the snout to tail movement, fantastic chefs turn unloved parts of an animal into tasty morsels.  Also, a good recipe can go a long way, with a little spice.  You cannot tell me that my favorite Chinese, Middle Eastern, or Mexican places are using the best cuts of meat or getting stocked by Mr. Local Farmer who believes in Grass Fed (and notes the distinction between Grass Fed and Grass Finished) meat.  I feel that would be the equivalent to what is necessary for good sushi.

Now, a truly high quality ingredient will make the difference most of the time between a 4 and 5 in pretty much all circumstances, but I don't even think a sushi restaurant could get a 4 without high quality fresh ingredients.  And I don't think a Mexican place can get a 4 if they don't make their own tortillas.

In the end, how can a premium on quality ingredients be surprising with sushi?  You're eating something raw.

Our first omasake experience was a two hour food extravaganza, and featured thinly sliced hamache with jalapeño, spot prawn ceviche, nice nigiri fish, two maki rolls, and other delicacies.  That experience actually caused me to decide to start this blog.  This experience, a modified omasake (if you will), was just as good.  We didn't have a full two hours, we actually only had 45 minutes for dinner, and we sat at the bar, saw the same talented chef (who is not the head chef) as last time, and told him we'd like what was fresh.

The amberjack, scallop, and spanish mackerel (haji) came nigiri style.  They were fresh and delicious (so fresh, and so delicious we devoured them before taking a picture).  We ordered the tempura style anaheim chili with stuffed oysters and foie gras with seared tuna and mushroom off the kitchen menu.  The chilis were fried to a perfect golden brown and had the exact style of battered breading that I prefer (when it's not a panko style breading, I like my breading thin with minimal greasiness).  The contrast between the texture of the breading, slight texture of pepper, and soft oyster in the middle was a pleasing bite.  I would have liked a more spicy element somewhere in the center because these Anaheims were a little weak, but you never do know what you're going to get with them.

The foie dish was my wife's first bite of foie gras ever.  She said "Why have I not eaten this before?  Why don't places all over have this?"  It was very nice.  I would have preferred the temperature to be a little hotter overall (it was served room temp), but you have to be careful not to damage the foie.  Overall, I would give the dish a solid B+.

Finally, we received a salmon tartar order (a sushi/kitchen hybrid), arboretum roll, and Madison Park roll.  The salmon tartar was a hit.  The rice was made so crispy and delicious that I would go and buy it to take with me in a lunchbox if I could.  The tartar was good, salmon generally being fresh in Seattle, however I thought it again lacked a little capsicum.  I think some thinly sliced jalapeno worked in, along with thinly sliced lemon on the top (my wife's thought) would make this dish an A+.  As it was, again, I'd say a strong B+.

The arboretum and Madison Park rolls were good.  The arboretum roll looked a little scant, but tasted nice.  The Madison Park roll was served in a crepe, and was the chef's pick when we asked him to surprise us with our last dish.  Unfortunately, I think he was a little harried with the volume of people at the bar and in the restaurant that he was prepared sushi for, and while we both enjoyed the Madison Park roll - we were sad by the lack of creativity.  Without much in the way of daily fresh roll specials, this nice end to our meal was a period and not an exclamation point.

My wife then insisted on mochi balls, white chocolate with raspberry, which she loves.  They are a step up from the ice cream mochi balls you can find at Uwajimaya, but a little spendy for what you get.  That said, these mochi balls are her favorite and are tasty.

What is a solid B+ worth in stars, for another very enjoyable performance from the crew at Nishino (including the best sort of wait staff, attentive but not intrusive)?

Nishino
3130 East Madison
Seattle, WA 98112
206.322.5800
4 of 5