I visited Nobu Hong Kong for the first time a couple of months ago. Yes I have been to Chef Nobu Matsuhisa’s restaurants quite a few times but somehow this branch right at home eluded me for so long. Anyway, happy to make amend for this when the restaurant reopened at now The Regent at almost the exact same spot in the building when it was still called The Intercontinental.
Obviously the restaurant and the hotel were given quite a facelift with a more trendy interior and the long showcase sushi bar stretching the full length of the restaurant with harbor-facing window on the other side. I felt the menu didn’t change much all these years with many of his “innovative” dishes that have since became classic and have been copied and reinvented by many over and over again around the world.
Sometimes we forgot it’s Nobu-san who first made Shishito Pepper poppers a popular bar snacks – blistered on hot pan and glazed with miso and seasoned with a gentle sprinkle of salt. I can totally imagine Spicy Salmon Tacos has been on chef’s repertoire since Day One at his first restaurant in US Matsuhisa, blending in local SoCal fare with quasi Japanese style cooking into something uniquely Nobu style. A couple timeless dishes inspired by Peruvian ceviche followed, first the yellowtail sashimi with jalapeno and ponzu, followed by tiradito cured with yuzu and lemon juices and seasoned with rocoto (a Peruvian chili paste) – can’t beat that winning combination of sharp acidity with fatty slices of fish and a spicy kick too.
We were taken aback by the sheer size of the sushi platter with four different kinds. I love the yellowtail nigiri with the fatty piece of fish on top, but nothing beats the small bowl of sea urchins and salmon roes with a dab of vinegared rice underneath for the freshest bite of ocean flavor. The king crab tempura was decent, but what I liked most was the cubes of watermelon underneath that went very well with the amazu ponzu dipping sauce underneath. Of course one couldn’t do without the Miso Black Cod and it’s just as good as I remembered. Slices of wagyu beef was flambeed in front of us at the table with much fanfare, and at the end, it was the simple dessert platter with the fancy dry ice show to bring a theatrical end to our evening of tasting menu.
Washoku purist may try to compare Chef Nobu-san’s food to traditional Japanese cuisine and call this “un-authentic” but I am proud to say I grew up eating this style of adopted Japanese dishes and enjoyed every bit of it, still. And this dinner brought back the nostalgic feeling in me, and it's like a reunion with an old friend at a new place after all these years.
(Meal was by invitation)
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