The staff of Nobu Waikiki finished one last shift Thursday night in the Waikiki Parc Hotel. They report for work today at the new Nobu Honolulu in the Ward Village master-planned community.
“We’ll just get comfortable and then go live,” General Manager Yuka Hinoda Raso said Thursday. She moves from Waikiki to the new location along with chef Matt Raso and sushi chef Yoshio Ono.
Chef Nobu Matsuhisa’s newest restaurant, on the ground floor of the Waiea luxury condominium tower, is the 32nd in the restaurant group owned by Matsuhisa, actor Robert DeNiro and film producer Meir Teper.
The 11,000-square-foot space includes an outdoor bar, open kitchen and teppanyaki room, one of the few in the Nobu chain. Raso said the larger Ward Village space accommodates
291 seats, compared with Waikiki’s 160.
She said the targeted opening date was Dec. 1, but the delay provided time to gradually make the move. Only some smaller items such as dishes were left to be moved overnight. “We’re a little sad. That was our home for almost the last
10 years,” Raso said of the Waikiki Parc site, which opened in 2007.
The restaurant managers wanted no delay in reopening so they could accommodate holiday reservations, she said.
Matsuhisa will not visit the new restaurant until April. In a statement he called Ward Village, developed by the Howard Hughes Corp., “the perfect place for Nobu.”
Raso said at least two more Nobu restaurants are planned for 2017, in Newport Beach and Palo Alto, Calif. In addition, the original Nobu in New York will move from its Tribeca home of 23 years to the Financial District.
The menu preserves such signature dishes as Black Cod Miso and Yellowtail Jalapeno and introduces several exclusive to the location: spicy lomi salmon with taro chips, oven-
roasted local shrimp with ginger shiso salsa, and Ribeye Umamiyaki, served with root vegetables from local Ma‘o Farms.
For reservations, call 237-6999.
