11/25/17
Only a certain kind of restaurant is bound to get name-dropped in a Kanye West song, so I had pretty high hopes going into a meal at famously trendy Nobu, even if it was just the downtown New York iteration of the high-priced chain. The drinks and desserts were quite good, and despite being forewarned that Nobu wasn't particularly known for its sushi, so were the rainbow and soft shell crab rolls (though neither evoked a strong enough reaction to be reviewed on their own). However, the one dish that was pitched as a must-try was the rock shrimp tempura, which I did indeed try, and the results were... fine enough, I guess. The "creamy spicy" sauce was fairly thick and, though tasty, didn't seem like it would be out of place as a fast food buffalo sauce. The tempura was soft and fairly delicate, while the shrimp itself was definitely of high quality. Splitting the dish was probably the right decision, as a whole plate's worth of the tempura dipped in sauce would have probably been too much of that particular flavor, but it did leave it feeling like I was getting less bang for my buck (even though the buck I was spending was also being split in half). Ultimately, it was a dish I would feel comfortable recommending on merit as something to split should you find yourself at Nobu, but I didn't think it necessarily warranted all the hype, nor its gaudy price tag. Good — but more expensive than good, think of it as Hawks-era max contract Joe Johnson.