Evening Standard from London, Greater London, England • 178

26 TUESDAY 25 FEBRUARY 1997 Food Drink EVENING STANDARD 'J2 Fay Maschler -i -Vv 1 rt 2 4- I i YOU WILL be wanting to know about NOBU My dear le tout Londres has been talking about it Before it opened exactly a week ago on the first floor of the new Metropolitan Hotel (previously The Londonderry) owned by the fabulously rich Singaporean Mr and Mrs Ong (a story in their own right) articles in the press alerted us to the restaurant's glamorous backers one of whom is Robert De Niro its illustrious antecedents successful restaurants in LA and New York its designer uniforms by Issy Miyake its contemporary look (formulated by the people who gave you Vong) its absolutely here-and-nowness and thus of course the sheer thrilling impossibility of getting a table I got a table on second evening of trading via a route I like to take asking the PR company to book me in Even so I thought it was a bit over the top when as we arrived the dapper little American manager in his rooty-toot zoot suit shouted in a loud and carrying tone Startled and rather embarrassed I suggested to my friends that we should hurry over to our table As we left the bar area and entered the main restaurant the manager screeched the phrase again Puzzlement set in as he continued in this vein for each new arrival and so when he passed by I asked him what it was he kept shouting He said that he was giving a traditional Japanese greeting which combined an expression of welcome with a warning to the staff that customers were needing attention I later discovered that this utterance is actually transliterated as So much for recognition However in that exchange' I had learned something new The management and waiting staff were clearly under the impression that absolutely everything about this hot-ticket Japanesey restaurant would be a revelation to British customers Given that according to the American magazines Newsweek and Vanity Fair London is now the coolest city on the planet it seems strange that an American restaurant company feels the need to train its staff to tell Londoners what miso is or how sushi is made or that there is such a fruit as a lychee Being served by our utterly sincere gentle loquacious waiter pretty in his black outfit with white surplice-style pleated shirt was like being in intensive care with a nurse committed to telling you much much more than you want to hear about the drugs and the procedures which are proposed 0 time-consuming were his descriptions testimonials benedictions alleluias warnings mild chidings and exhortations to enjoy and so swift the arrival and departure of different dishes that we barely had a moment to talk The food though is for the most part as innovative and delectable as the reports coming out of New York and Beverly Hills from those fortunate or gifted enough to secure tables at Nobu and Matsuhisa respectively have suggested Chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa who trained in Japan as a sushi chef subsequently travelled and worked in South America setting up a restaurant in Lima how the Japanese hostages in the mansion who are apparently having sushi sent in must wish he was still there He then took a route via Japan and Alaska to his Californian restaurant Matsuhisa and thence to Nobu in New York Letting his imagination wander: Nobuyuld Matsuhisa chef at Nobu Pictures by Danny Owes over a period of about three days before being grilled The piece of fish was presented in a banana leaf pinned at the top by a sort of Kerbigrip of bamboo alongside some Cuisine: New style Japanese Price: A meal for two with green bowl was a poem of presentation Rice pudding served with a sesame ana pepper-studded brandy snap and a sabayon made with sake was a valiant try Some American relative of His style of cuisine remains essentially Japanese but he has let his eyes and imagination wander so that for example the use of a wide range of chillies adds vitality a teaspoon of oscietra caviar is a particularly luxurious manifestation of salt slices of black truffle are steamed with scallops to produce the gastronomic equivalent of black pearls olive oil is mixed with yuza a Japanese citrus fruit to effect a singular sauce (used perhaps rather too often) and with the use of the oil heated a means of taming rawness in what the menu calls Hnew style Nobu menu does not waste much space with explanations Various sections encompass lists of appetisers sashimi salads special dishes sushi and sushi roll tempura and main dishes from which the customer must try to compose a fulfilling meal One way round this the way we took is to opt for the chefs choice expressed as omakase a word implying trust in the abandonment of the decision-making process The price is £45 per person but as the many-coursed meal unfolds it proves relatively good value not least in the quality of ingredients Appetisers were an oyster with a sharp salsa eubes of monkfish pate (ankimo) made from the kidneys of monkfish with its nicely flavour somewhere foie gras and soft ripe cheese and a fish tartare made from tuna belly (toro) mixed with garlic and green horseradish (wasabi) topped with caviar which was sensational Alongside the dishes presented on crushed ice was a purple pansy which the waiter said we could eat Rebelliously we Following these was a South American-inspired dish a kind of ceviche made we were told with live fluke Live fluke is what the waiter said Beautifully arranged in bands down the plate each flimsy strip of white fish had at its centre a small crinkle-edged green leaf on which was a dot of red chilli A citrus dressing coated the plate and a yellow flower floated in it The flavour and the slightly rough dry texture of the fish the fragrance of the leaf and the burst of hot chilli combined brilliantly It was also startlingly fresh Then in a scallop shell came the interleaved scallop and black truffle mentioned above garnished with ginger and Japanese scallions The next item was we were told the chefs signature dish It was tara saikyo yaki a fillet of black cod marinated in a sweet miso paste Jilly Goolden has written the wine list One section of the list of reds is headed Complex and Well Structured: strawberries and cream wild mushrooms farm-yardy mulch mineral cedar wood cigar box worn leather dark chocolate spices liquorice roasted coffee It is as silly as it is pretentious a charge that could be levelled at various aspects of the Nobu operation in London But chef food is well worth trying and you can drink with it chilled sake in a chilled bamboo jug which comes complete with chilled bamboo sake cups Fashion note: In the run-up to swinging London's fashion week every single female customer (including myself) nearly every male customer and the entire waiting staff were wearing black sake about £100 Hours: Dinner only Mon-Sat 6pm-1030pm Credit cards: The major cards in some of its compositions adapted to American tastes For example the shrimp tempura hand-roll wrapped in a comet of nori contained an asparagus spear and a dribble of pink mayo or as we would say sauce Marie Rose Desserts were exotic Even the fresh fruit was exotic Luckily there was an American waitress at hand to tell me what each fruit was She got the rambutan wrong but managed to identify a strawberry Coming from a country where the latest survey shows that half the population believes the Book of Genesis to be literal feet this seems not a bad score Green tea ice cream in pineal soup presented in a ginger and what looked like tiny purple bean sprouts but a surprisingly spicy punch The fish was sublime The skin was very much part of the pleasure Our waiter had said we should try the skin but that if we like it we have to finish it I think the last time someone said that to me I was five years old HE cod was indeed the high point After it came tem-pura which although it included a dramatically explosive variety fashioned around sea urchin roe rolled in shiso leaf and nori (dried seaweed) before being coated and fried featured a lacklustre batter cooked in insufficiently hot oil Also green pepper one of the three pieces is not the best ingredient for tempura An incredibly hot plate of sauteedsteamed seafood included lobster scallop baby octopus and two kinds of mushrooms one round disc pulsating with the heat and a bunch of the delicate tendrils of enokL Sushi presented in a lovely red lacquer dish seemed heavy-handed and His am ffltnnha SrmflBtedMi Restaurant aharani Ltd OEbdOtog (HtzCb Indian Restaurant Est 1958 i In South London Highly recommended by the RAC Time Out Capital Radio What' On Curry Club South London Prea and may well lmown celebrities including member of Parliament SUNDAY BUFFET UNTIL 430PM £695 PER HEAD There is a wide variety of exotic deUcaciea on a buffet tar you to select You may help yourself a often and a much a you Uke The buffet include a pardon of sweet TAKE AWAY SERVICE AVAILABLE 117 CLAPHAM HIGH STREET LONDON SW4 TEL: 0171-622 2530 FUNCTION ROOM AVAILABLE Indian Restaurant Est 191 Jffow Mrvtna the finest Baltl dishes In Soutl ded by the RAC Time Out Capital Radio What' idon Prea and may well lmown celebrities Ratings: among the best to be found in London notable good no star adequate Poor.