It was our last night in Waikiki and two choices presented themselves; to join the Spam Jam annual street party or dine at Nobu. Let me paint the picture.
The annual street party.
The main road is closed. It’s transformed with food tents, speakers and stages for the annual street party – which happens a few times a year. There’s several stages with music blaring from latin to rock n’ roll to relaxed island music that sounds a lot like Jack Johnson. There are street-side tacos with pulled pork, burgers on the grill, wood fired pizzas cooking amongst a sea of thousands of people.
Or Nobu.
A fine dining restaurant chain, owned by Hollywood’s Robert De Niro with two differing dining experiences. A casual dining experience at the bar called Nobu Tapas, quaintly described on the menu as ‘The Nobu Threesome’ – any three food items and a choice of dessert for only $32. Or, do the full hob – wine n’ dine in the restaurant where signature dishes go along the lines of; black cod saikyo miso or king crab leg amazu ponzu.
Usually, we would have been all for the street party but it was our last night and I wasn’t trading it in for a street-side dinner (even though pulled pork sounded very appealing).
Last holiday night = a special dinner + a few drinks
We put on our tunnel vision glasses and set straight for Nobu. Our hotel was a bit of a walk. So dodging, side stepping and a few Benji Marshall moves were involved to get us to Nobu – on time. These street shenanigins couldn’t detract us from our booking.
To keep with the relaxed resort feel of the trip, we opted to dine at the bar for ‘The Nobu Threesome’. We just didn’t feel like having an over-the-top fancy schmancy meal (plus, I wanted to sample a whole heap of dishes). We wanted to end the trip with some great food and a few drinks. Have a casual night out – cause deep down, we are a casual couple. So it seemed fitting.
Nobu shined in all it’s glory. The food; was bite-size but delicious. The service; prompt but not over the top. The environment; casual and dimly lit (very romantic). We definitely ended our holiday on a really great note and promised ourselves that we’d be back soon and hit the annual street party next time round.
Japanese Cucumber & White Peach Sangria, cause every meal should start with a cocktail
Round Eye made me take a photo – note the blurriness!
Nobu Salmon Tacos, so good and I loved all three sauces that accompanied the tacos
Round Eye went for the Nobu Style Wagyu Tacos and gave them the BIG thumbs up
Cute, crunchy and mouthfuls of joy. I could have eaten ten of these.
Seabass Tempura with Spicy Shiso Ponzu, this was probably my favourite dish because of it’s simplicity
Crisp and fresh, these small fish mouthfuls were delightful
This pork belly kushiyaki is something that I’ll definitely recreate at home, it was the perfect mix of sweet n’ salty the shallots in between were a gorgeous contrast
Round Eye’s white chocolate epiphany, was nice but lacked the flavour and texture punch it needed
My mini bento box was teeny-tiny but I loved every mouthful
This sesame praline trail was divine, it needed a bigger trail of the stuff
Gooey-chocolately-yumness
THE DEETS YOU WANT TO KNOW
NOBU WAIKIKI
2233 Helumoa Rd
Waikiki Hawaii
P +1.808.237.6999
www.noburestaurants.com/waikiki
