Nobu Honolulu brings swank to Kakaako

As if the holiday season was not busy enough for businesses, the close of 2016 saw a game of musical chairs in the restaurant world, timed for new beginnings in 2017.

Morimoto moved out of The Modern Honolulu while preparing to launch two restaurants in the Pacific Beach Hotel (soon to be ‘Alohilani Resort at Waikiki Beach). This made way for Ravish to open in the former Morimoto spot, pairing executive chef Fred DeAngelo and The Modern executive chef Keith Pajinag for a Pacific Asian-meets-South American experience.

And Nobu moved out of the Waikiki Parc Hotel, into luxurious new digs in the Waiea residential tower at Ward Village.

The new Nobu Honolulu made news around the world over the holidays when President Barack Obama become one of the first to dine there, bringing even more cachet to the culinary hot spot. Maybe it’s residual celebration or a matter of diners trying to start the new year in style, but the place is packed, and given its size, that’s no small feat.

Due to the economics of the past two decades, diners have grown accustomed to cramped restaurants-in-a-box. Not for Nobu, which covers the width of the parking lot that stood before it — a mind-boggling 11,000 square feet, a scale rarely seen here since the affluent ’80s.

The space is all new. The main dining room sports dark columns and light-colored wood panels, with dramatic, curvaceous ceiling details that give the restaurant a polished finish. The Diamond Head end houses an outdoor bar and lounge, a lush and stylish miniature oasis that beckons to all wandering over from the Ward Centre or South Shore Market complexes.

Nobu Honolulu is also now among only a few Nobu restaurants around the world to have a private teppan room, this one seating eight, with menus customized for each party.

With so many options, the crowd is an eclectic mix of sophisticates in suits and Chanel, Malibu hippies in shorts and T-shirts, and moviegoers cocooned in hoodies. In other words, dressing up is nice, but you’re welcome to come as you are.

Nobu regulars will be happy to see a mix of the familiar and the new on the menu. Of course, signature dishes of black cod miso ($36), yellowtail carpaccio with jalapeno ($25) and rock shrimp tempura ($22) remain on the “Nobu Classic” menu. They continue to be the best starting points for newbies.

New on the “Nobu Now” menu are some exclusive Hawaii-inspired dishes that reflect the progress of our agricultural scene since Nobu first opened here a decade ago. These include spicy lomilomi salmon with taro chips, oven-roasted amaebi with ginger-shiso salsa and ponzu available in the lounge, and 28-ounce prime bone-in rib-eye umamiyaki ($135) with Ma‘o Organic Farms root vegetables in the main dining room.

For such money, one expects perfection, and for the most part that’s what you get. Ingredients are treated respectfully so diners never have to decipher a pile of nonsensical ingredients.

Nobu’s menu does contain a lot of what my foodie friends and I refer to as “cheats,” the ingredients that make everything taste better, like yuzu and truffle oil. Even so, chef Matt Raso still manages to surprise with a cold dish of ahi carpaccio ($36) topped with uni, white truffle dust and a dab of miso. Rather than overwhelming you all at once, the flavors arrive in a series of pleasant waves as they hit various taste receptors, finishing with the sweetness of miso.

A cold dish of lobster inaniwa ($52) was a summery treat, with the refreshing brightness of yuzu on thin-cut udon, topped by claw meat in bite-size pieces. I do appreciate the effort to make shellfish a no-fuss, no-mess, date-worthy option. Another case in point is the king crab leg with black truffle crust ($90). Though presented in its shell, pieces are cut for easy retrieval with a fork.

I did question the logic behind some dishes, such as the king salmon-wrapped oysters ($28), a trio of inch-long Kumamotos when I visited. The briny cured salmon overwhelmed the delicate oyster, but they were a velvety match texturally, and this could turn out to be a gateway appetizer for those who don’t usually like oysters.

One dish that did not go so well was Chinese-style scallops with a stream of sesame and olive oils that in the heating process developed a rancid taste. A better choice came off the tapas menu, cold smoked scallops ($24) paired with their visual twins, slices of lychee. My favorite dish was sea bass umamiyaki ($36), cured in vegetable broth so the flavors seeped into the fish, indeed bringing umami richness to every bite.

Exploring the lounge’s small plates is one way of easing into the Nobu experience before graduating to the main room, where even the seasoned diner might experience some sticker shock. Nobu has essentially brought Waikiki prices to Kakaako, where restaurants typically cater to a casual shopping or moviegoing crowd. The restaurant and the prices reflect the area’s shift from a blue-collar working district full of auto shops and warehouses to a luxury condo mecca.

Some standouts on the bar menu are dishes of decadent roasted lamb rib with rosemary and miso ($28), with a layer of melt-in-your-mouth fat, and tako poke ($8), about six slices blanketed with green onions and crisp quinoa, which lends a welcome crunch to the dish. Think of the quinoa as a substitute for tempura flakes.

The lounge menu is a work in progress, and given the neighborhood demographics, Raso said he’s working on adding more approachable items such as sliders within the next few months, with lunch also coming soon.

Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.