Nobu Restaurant has at least 22 locations worldwide, but the one inside the One&Only Cape Town hotel is Africa’s one and only Nobu.
Nobuyuki “Nobu” Matsuhisa’s first African restaurant offers Japanese cuisine with a contemporary twist, according to its website.
Local Cape Town ingredients that are plentiful contribute to such dishes as lobster ceviche (125 rand), nobu tacos with lobster and scallop (150 rand) and octopus tiradito (115 rand).
The restaurant occupies a cavernous space in the One&Only, with upper and lower levels.
You can see down to the lower level from the upper, and some people said this gave an
impersonal feel to the place — that it lacked intimacy.
I found the restaurant surprisingly unpretentious, given the reputation of the place.
My baby spinach salad with dried miso and truffle oil was one of my favorite parts of the
meal. I sipped on Vergelegen merlot while enjoying the smell and taste of truffle.
Before coming to dine here — my first visit to a Nobu restaurant — I asked friends who had dined at other Nobu locations to make suggestions about what I should order.
Several people said that if I got the multi-course meal, the chef would decide what I ate
and I might not like it. One friend said he got sea urchin and didn’t like it.
I have watched TV personality Anthony Bordain’s eyes roll to the back of his head when he
eats sea urchin.
I opted for the tempura dinner. This came with three slim strips of shrimp, tails still attached, that looked like they’d been trimmed and their better halves used for sushi rolls.
I enjoyed the tempura eggplant, sweet potato, onion, broccoli and what looked like snow
peas.
But hands down, the desserts were the most memorable part of the meal.
Three of us at my table each ordered a different dessert and we shared. For me, the
winner was Nobu chocolate tart with vanilla ice cream and hot chocolate sauce (90 rand).
This dessert was a spectacle to behold. The waitress poured hot chocolate over what
appeared to be a hard chocolate ball, melting it to expose a molten interior that
overflowed and melted the ice cream.
The next fabulous dessert was passion fruit brulee with sake jelly, coconut sorbet and tuile — a thin, crispy wafer. At 70 rand, it was another sensational treat that offered up new flavors and textures I’d never experienced in a dessert.
For our third dessert, everyone told me to try the chocolate bento box and I did. It included a chocolate fondant with green tea ice cream for 75 rand. While I love the name of this dessert, the other two beat it out for sheer surprise value.
Expert Review
Nobu Restaurant has at least 22 locations worldwide, but the one inside the One&Only Cape Town hotel is Africa's one and...
Nobu Restaurant has at least 22 locations worldwide, but the one inside the One&Only Cape Town hotel is Africa’s one and only Nobu.
Nobuyuki “Nobu” Matsuhisa’s first African restaurant offers Japanese cuisine with a contemporary twist, according to its website.
Local Cape Town ingredients that are plentiful contribute to such dishes as lobster ceviche (125 rand), nobu tacos with lobster and scallop (150 rand) and octopus tiradito (115 rand).
The restaurant occupies a cavernous space in the One&Only, with upper and lower levels.
You can see down to the lower level from the upper, and some people said this gave an
impersonal feel to the place — that it lacked intimacy.
I found the restaurant surprisingly unpretentious, given the reputation of the place.
My baby spinach salad with dried miso and truffle oil was one of my favorite parts of the
meal. I sipped on Vergelegen merlot while enjoying the smell and taste of truffle.
Before coming to dine here — my first visit to a Nobu restaurant — I asked friends who had dined at other Nobu locations to make suggestions about what I should order.
Several people said that if I got the multi-course meal, the chef would decide what I ate
and I might not like it. One friend said he got sea urchin and didn’t like it.
I have watched TV personality Anthony Bordain’s eyes roll to the back of his head when he
eats sea urchin.
I opted for the tempura dinner. This came with three slim strips of shrimp, tails still attached, that looked like they’d been trimmed and their better halves used for sushi rolls.
I enjoyed the tempura eggplant, sweet potato, onion, broccoli and what looked like snow
peas.
But hands down, the desserts were the most memorable part of the meal.
Three of us at my table each ordered a different dessert and we shared. For me, the
winner was Nobu chocolate tart with vanilla ice cream and hot chocolate sauce (90 rand).
This dessert was a spectacle to behold. The waitress poured hot chocolate over what
appeared to be a hard chocolate ball, melting it to expose a molten interior that
overflowed and melted the ice cream.
The next fabulous dessert was passion fruit brulee with sake jelly, coconut sorbet and tuile — a thin, crispy wafer. At 70 rand, it was another sensational treat that offered up new flavors and textures I’d never experienced in a dessert.
For our third dessert, everyone told me to try the chocolate bento box and I did. It included a chocolate fondant with green tea ice cream for 75 rand. While I love the name of this dessert, the other two beat it out for sheer surprise value.