Nobu

Nobu in Downtown never fails. I’ve never had a bad experience. I’ve been coming here the last 3 years for birthday/​anniversary dinners. The service is always up to par, drinks are great, food is amazing. I always tell friends to check it out. Black Cod Miso, Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalapeño, Jalapeño Cauliflower, Rock Shrimp Tempura, Banana Tobanyaki for dessert and a Mia Margarita are a must!

I love Nobu. Maybe I’m a little biased because it was my first fine dining experience about 5 years ago in New York City but I was here a few weeks ago and it still lived up to my expectations. Now that I’m gluten free, we did have a few restrictions on the menu, but our server was excellent and was more than willing to accommodate and explain what I could and couldn’t eat. They also have gluten free soy sauce, which is always a plus.
I stuck with white wine throughout the meal– my favorite with seafood. For dinner we ordered a variety of dishes, with a fried crab & watermelon dish, yellowtail & jalapeño sashimi, lobster hand-​roll, and more sashimi of scallop and king salmon. Everything was delicious and we marveled at how fresh the fish was, something you can always count on Nobu for. I think my biggest surprise was the snow crab & watermelon dish because 1. I’ve never had fried crab and 2. I hate watermelon. A surprising order then but it was one of their specials and it was gluten free. Also, it was excellent! The watermelon paired well with the crab and I actually forgot it was watermelon. I don’t think I’ll run out and buy watermelon slices now-I’ve tried to get myself to like it for years, no dice– but I would totally have this dish again. As for the other dishes, the lobster roll was amazing with extra big pieces of lobster on the side. The scallop and salmon sashimi was so smooth & fresh, I think I enjoyed the salmon just a touch more but both great. And the yellowtail & jalapeño, I’ve actually had before in NYC but didn’t eat the jalapeño because I wasn’t a fan. Well this time in the spirit of embracing watermelon, I tried the pepper and it was actually really good with the fish. Added just the right amount of crunch & spice. So color me converted. Nobu, you’ve done it again with amazing food and the ability to test my taste buds!

We were first to arrive around dinner time but the bar area quickly filled in. Great service and even better food. Scallops were perfect!

Last weekend was my first visit to NOBU! And OMG THAT WAS PROBABLY THE BEST SUSHI I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE! It was incredibly fresh and literally almost melted in my mouth!!! It’s definitely NOT CHEAP! But OMG OMG OMG it was so good! We ordered salmon sashimi new style, both kinds of kushiyaki with 3 sauces, wagyu beef, San Diego Uni and some bluefin toro, king salmon and Japanese red snapper Nigiris. For dessert we got 2 bento boxes but requested vanilla ice cream in it instead of green tea!
The dinner was excellent !

Nobu never disappoints… Their food is great, the drinks are amazing, and their service is on point. It does get packed, so I recommend making a reservation before you go. Food wise, I’ve tried different things and they were all good in my opinion (mostly tried tried their «cold dishes» and only tried the Black Cod from their «hot dishes» menu). Their martinis are very tasty as well.
This place is our place to go for celebrating big events like birthdays and anniversaries. Will come back again and again for sure.
They also have a restaurant week menu (they had one for 2015 SD Restaurant Week) and it was GREAT!

Nobu is probably one of the most iconic restaurants of our time. It blazed the trail for Asian fusion restaurants and set the bar high for elevated and creative dining. There’s a reason why it’s been immortalized in rap songs… from Usher to Drake and Kanye, everyone seems to be having dinner at Nobu.
This Nobu is located on the ground level of the Hard Rock Hotel. Dinner reservations on a Sunday were a breeze, even though the restaurant was packed. We started with the spicy tuna and crunchy rice, truffle baby spinach salad, live local uni and yellowtail sashimi with jalapeño. All were good, but the salad was stellar. One of the most flavorful salads I’ve ever had. The sashimi and spicy tuna were good, but very standard. For it’s time, they were probably game changing, but many less expensive sushi spots offer these dishes at lower prices and comparable quality. The uni was fresh and served in it’s shell, but I found it to be much less sweet and creamy than I expected. I’ve had better uni at many places in LA for a fraction of the cost. The entrees were outstanding. The black miso cod is a must! Perfectly soft and flaky and bursting with umami. The beef tenderloin with chimichurri, which was recommended by our waiter, was also tender and flavorful.
I would recommend ordering ala carte rather than doing a tasting menu. Dinner can be pricey, but the quality of the food matches the bill and Nobu, afterall, is legendary and immortalized by the most well-​known rappers/​musical artists of our time. These days there are so many good Japanese and Asian restaurants to choose from that are equally delicious and probably less expensive, but Nobu certainly stands as one of the originals. This restaurant is busy and lively, service is acceptable but not as attentive as it should be for a $$$$ restaurant.

I’m a big fan of Nobu’s flagship restaurant, Matsuhisa, in Beverly Hills but I can’t say the same about Nobu in San Diego. Sure it was tasty enough but the presentation was too simplistic and the serving size was a little too lean even for a fancy Japanese restaurant. My tiny friend was still hungry after dinner and she eats like a bird. I think they marked it up way too much probably for being located inside the Hard Rock but put in half the effort than they do at Matsuhisa.

Fabulous services staff. Happy Hour 5 to 7 pm is so worth it here.
Cucumber martini is delightful.
Yellowtail sashimi yummy
Abalone was too chewy but garlic sauce flavorful
Lobster roll fantastic and donut holes for dessert with key lime curd

Ate dinner with hubby during trip to San Diego. A lot more casual than Nobu in NYC. Ordered the tasting menu which is a seven course tasting of sushi, cold and hot dishes as well as a palate cleanser and dessert. Favorites of the menu included, yellowtail hamchi, miso cod, sushi with Tamago and salmon salad, and the sesame crunch cookie with green tea ice cream and chocolate cake. Service was prompt but the kitchen was a bit slow. We were there for over 2 and a half hours. The ambience is vibrant but filled with tourists from out of town.

Took a co-​worker here who had never been to Nobu (they live in Cleveland *sigh*).
We were running late and they were more than happy to accommodate us and pushed our reservation back twice.
We started with a few drinks, I had the Japanese lager and she went with a Pinot Noir. Both were very good.
We ended up ordering an array of appetizers as I feel these are some of the best dishes on the menu. The oysters 3 ways, tiradito, tartar with caviar, hamachi jalapeño and fluke new style sashimi were all huge hits with my guests. You can tell someone enjoys dining when they unabashedly explain how great the food is.
Service was highly attentive, as expected, and very accommodating. On par with other Nobu locations I have visited which is to say this place is fantastic.

Amazing food. Stunning. LIKE WOW OH WOW good.
The quality is first in class.
I would recommend certain dishes, but EVERYTHING is good.
However, you pay for it, heavily and literally. This place will easily break the bank for you. Portions are very small. If I won the lottery this would be the first place I would go eat in San Diego for the Food, not the ambience though. That’s saying something.
A little different than the Beverly Hills location, less intimate and very loud.
tips: famous for Black Cod, Tiradito, and Firecracker Shrimp. My personal favorites are the black cod, the Toro, and the Uni Pepare for your taste buds to become absolute snobs after eating here. You will never look at Japanese food or Seafood the same.

The experience was OK but fails to wow for a restaurant of this caliber.
We came here for dinner one night during our quick getaway trip to San Diego. Dude bought a Groupon deal for a 5 course dinner which definitely saved a lot of money. He made a reservation in advance and as soon as we arrived we were seated right away.
The five courses consist of some of the restaurants signature item such as the yellowtail sashimi with jalapeño. And also the cod with miso sauce. Obviously I’ve had all of these dishes at a different location before and the taste is pretty consistent across the board. This particular restaurant however is not as clean and the décor is a little bit out of date. The service was also a little bit lacking and at times very absent. Besides the two signature just shows the other courses were OK but lacking in the wow factor.
Overall an OK experience but I would never pay full price to come here.

It wasn’t by choice but the couples wanted to come here for a Valentine’s Day dinner… their idea of go big or go home. Randy and I went since we said yes prior to knowing the decision was going to be here… and nope nope nope.
$ 8 for a mediocre bowl of miso soup. A unagi handroll that wasn’t even a traditional handroll let alone flavorful. It looked like someone took a sheet of nori, put a slice of unagi, added a tablespoon of rice and then rolled it like a tube. It wasn’t even in a easy to hold cone shape. Already been here before for a happy hour years ago, I was prepped not to throw down $$$ for ridiculously priced dishes. My friends on the other hand, as hungry as they were afterwards, they fell into the trap «well since we’re here anyway and its Valentine’s Day… blah blah blah.» One couple dropped almost $ 180 for the both of them… and then got dessert somewhere else after. Hell no.
It because it’s in downtown and they pride themselves on being authentic Japanese cuisine in the heart of downtown. Well… first of all, the wait staff can be a bit more friendly and at least smile or look like they enjoy working there. Those pursed tight line lips and dead eyes really didn’t make us feel welcomed. Then your prices are ridiculous, obviously catering to a different demographic that is not knowledgable about Japanese cuisine or trying to make it to pompous where business men can smooze their guest into a deal or some guy trying to impress a their female date with an hidden agenda in mind.
San Diego has so many other great Japanese cuisine options, this would be the last place I would go.

Nobu San Diego was the second Nobu location we have tried, the experience was absolutely lovely, I LOVED everything about it! The hotel managed to squeeze us in for a last minute reservation since we were hotel guests, it was all booked for Valentine’s Day! Beautiful restaurant and bar at Hard Rock hotel San Diego. We were seated at a window seat in private dining room, it was more private and quiet.
They had Valentine’s Day course menu, for $ 350 per couple the selections were pretty decent, but we tried the course menu at Caesars Palace location, it wasn’t ideal so we decided to just go for a la carte. Again Nobu is not authentic Japanese food, and I highly doubt there are any authentic Japanese restaurants in San Diego. If you want to have a true Nobu experience, please order special /​signature cold & hot dishes in both appetizers and entrees, that’s what the beautiful Peruvian accented Japanese /​Asian fusion creations are!
Started off with bottle of Voss sparkling water and bottle of Louis Roederer champagne, bubble was very tasty and perfect for Valentine’s Day dinner!
The very good:
San Diego local Uni sashimi: whole fresh Uni sashimi in the shell, it was one of the freshest and tastiest, FANTASTIC!
Uni sushi: again local Uni, extremely fresh and sweet, hubby loves Uni so much!
Crab ceviche: it was like two crab free tacos, ceviche was refreshing and flavorful, very tasty!
Lobster with cold noodles: generous amount of lobster meat was tender and very fresh, the noodles were so good, loved the textures and flavors!
The good:
Shishito pepper with sea salt: the sea salt was a little overwhelming, but the ones on the bottom were pretty good.
Toro sashimi with black truffles: fresh and creamy toro and truffles were perfectly balanced with housemade sauce, not too light or too heavy, nicely brought out the sweetness in Blue Fin Toro fish. We loved it!
Mushroom soup: the broth was so light with nice flavors, enormous amount of assorted mushrooms, hubby loved the soup, I had most of the mushrooms. So both of us were happy!
Steamed eggs Chawanmushi with caviar: it was supposed to be in course meal only, but they were nice enough to make us one of those. The eggs were cold but still very creamy and soft. Hubby liked it hot much better, I am never into steamed eggs though.
Japanese beef skewers: hubby asked for medium rare, they came a bit too cooked, but they were flavorful and tender, still very delicious.
For dessert we had three scoops of different flavored sorbets, the lime one was too sour, but the peach and raspberry ones were so tasty and refreshing, they were great with my espresso martini. Definitely a great way to finish our meal, very balanced but still satisfying!
Our waitress was extremely pleasant and friendly, we took time to enjoy our slow dinner date, everything was PERFECT! We were right to order a la carte, the food portions were actually pretty decent. The tab was only around $ 400 this time, with a bottle of $ 150 champagne! The value was a lot better than Nobu Caesars palace! Dinner date definitely done RIGHT!
Loved loved loved Nobu San Diego, I highly recommend try this place for special occasions or whenever you want a fancy and delicious dinner experience!

Don’t come hungry. The food is delicious, but the portions are super small, for the price. They serve the food in a home style way so everyone can share, I think you might enjoy it better not sharing lol. I recommend the miso glazed sea bass! We ordered a second. Also the scallops were delicious.
He ambiance is cool, overlooking a very historic part of SD so perfect for tourists or a night out. Big windows draw your eyes to the Gaslamp sign.
They seat you pretty quickly, and the staff is super friendly and accomi
Tips:
–Fridays are happy hour all night for women
— you can only order from the happy hour menu at the bar
–happy hour menu is like half off, so get your appetizers at the bar along with your drinks, then sit down at a table. (We almost ordered at the bar but then got seated so we wished we knew so we could grub some more.

The service and food here was magnificent. It was definitely pricey and the portions were a bit small but overall we were impressed by the restaurant.
We sat at the sushi bar and got immediate service from a very friendly waitress as well as one of the sushi chefs behind the counter. I had salmon and bluefin tuna sashimi and an eel cucumber roll with avocado on top, as well as a miso soup. He ordered the beef tenderloin with teriyaki sauce, the waitress let us know it would take about 25 minutes for the steak, which was great. The sushi came out very quickly and was fantastic, soup a little bit later (which I would have preferred as an app but didn’t mind too much) and the steak came out well within the 25 minute window and was incredible.
Will definitely be back next time in SD.

For SDRW, you get 5 courses for $ 40, which is a great deal for Nobu. My high expectations were met both from a food and service standpoint. The first three courses are shared if you order off the SDRW menu.
We ordered the yellowtail sashimi (my favorite part of the night) followed by a delicious mushroom salad, and the tempura Chilean sea bass. Each dish has such depth of flavor. All the ingredients included are important. I enjoyed how the server described the dish as he placed the plates in front of us. We also had a spicy tuna and California roll following the sashimi, salad, and sea bass. Everything was delicious and I just kept eating. The final course, the bananas dessert, was interesting and not my favorite, but it didn’t matter too much because by that point I was sufficiently stuffed.
The service was spot on fantastic. I enjoyed the ambiance, the look and taste of the food, and if it was’t for the high price point might return more often. It’s worth it to treat yourself, even if you have to wait until Restaurant Week to do so.

I love restaurant week. It really gives people the opportunity to try amazing restaurants for a nominal price, restaurants they could not otherwise afford.
$$$$ is a little daunting as well as stories of Nobu being saved only for special events because a meal could cost upwards of $ 300 for 2 people. I avoided Nobu like the plague but always dreamed of going. Too bad dreams of having money don’t manifest into physical and tangible money.
Surprisingly, looking at the Happy Hour menu, Nobu is affordable. Happy hours is everyday from 5 – 7 and all night every Friday. Beverages range from $ 4-​$ 9 and tapas range from $ 4-​$ 12. Super affordable. But this review is not about HH. Its about RW.
Restaurant week. $ 40 for 5 courses, 4 of which are served family style. You have the option to choose between 3 dishes for each course. To ensure satisfaction, dine solo or with those with like palates. There was a total of 3 of us so reference the photos for serving sizes. They were quite small to be honest. We opted out of upgrading any of the dishes because the increase in price is per person.
We ordered the yellowtail sashimi and it was amazing! The texture, the taste, the butteriness. Our second dish was the shiitake salad. My brother hates salad but he thoroughly enjoyed it. Our third dish was in my opinion the best, the chilean sea bass tempura. The fish was light, tender, and flakey. The flavors of everything were on point, straight up. The 4^th dish was the chef’s choice rolls. They were pretty basic. We had a few pieces of the tuna roll, salmon roll, and california roll. I was keen on drinking a bit more so for dessert I had the fruit infused hokusetsu sake. It was like nothing I’ve had before. It was sweet, milky, and refreshing all at the same time.
Being in downtown, the parking is a bit of a headache. We couldn’t find street parking so we parked in a structure. I think the one directly in front of Omni Hotel and to the side of the Hardrock Hotel offers the best rates.

Our reservations were scheduled for 730 pm, we arrived at 715 and were asked to wait at the bar and our table would be ready at 730. We waited and at 730 were asked to wait longer, we waited until 745 and were finally seated at a table completely unfit for two people. While we were waiting we saw couples and groups seated before us leaving the impression of favoritism or some sort of weird heirarchy depite the fact that we had reservations.
We opted to go with the restaurant week menu as most of the items on the menu sounded delicious and was a great value with 5 courses included. Well it turns out that you receive and underwhelming amount of food for what you pay. Albeit the two items that stood out were the miso marinated black cod and the shiitake salad. The cod was the 3^rd course but it took 30 minutes in between courses to come out. Everything else was exceedingly average.
Most infurating about the restaurant week menu was the fact that there were items not available. One would think that if you VOLUNTEER your restaurant to be featured in a restaurant week, you would have the forethought to order more of all the items on your featured menu. On top of all this although their two best selling menu items were unavailable we still had to pay full price, the consideration to offer a discount never even crossed their minds. Bottom line, we paid full price for an INCOMPLETE menu.
While dining our 4^th course were very pedestrian sushi rolls. At this point we did not know soy sauce was available. So we asked and were given soy sauce. What bothers me about this is that every table except ours had soy sauce from the very beginning. When setting up our table initiallythey had not forgotten to put the fancy river stone to hold our chopsticks, however they failed to put soy sauce out. This level of attention to detail however minute shoild not be ignored as small lapses like this are often indicators or largers issues.
Despite these missteps, the saving grace of the experience was our hostess; Tracie. She was accomodating and warm the entire time and definetly the only difference between a formal complaint to the manager and this forum. Thank you Tracie.

Just had a 5-​star restaurant week dinner at Nobu. Can I be lazy and let my pictures speak for the experience?
Seriously, it was a great first time for my GF and I. For $ 40 plus additional $ 8 each for extra nigiri, we got to try many popular dishes at Nobu.
Kudos to the staff for putting out a high quality meal on a busy restaurant week night. Be back for sure!

We decided to give Nobu a try since it’s apparently Kourtney Kardashian’s *favorite* place and it was on the menu for Restaurant Week. But for all the other Restaurant Week diners, beware that the portions are small, and you will leave hungry! :(
Our selections for the «family style» dishes in the menu were:
Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalapeño
Prime Beef Tataki (was an additional charge $)
Miso Black Cod
Chef’s Choice Sushi Rolls (Which ended up being a California Roll and Spicy Tuna Roll).
Desserts are per person, so the two of us picked the Banana Toban (delicious!) and Mochi.
My boyfriend and I are known by our friends as sushi snobs, but we really enjoyed the sashimi and the takaki. Both were very tasty (and the portion size made us wish we had more!) We actually just expected a lot more from the Miso Cod, since it’s the restaurant’s signature dish and Unilocalers seemed to love it. It ended up being so-​so. Taste was good; nothing wrong with it, but nothing I’d crave to have again. The sushi rolls were basic, so they were also just alright.
As for the service, we had a reservation (was easily made online!), were seated immediately and there were a bunch of servers filling our water, clearing our plates and asking us how the meal is going. But it’s worth mentioning that our meal time for the five plate dinner was almost an hour and forty minutes.
Our server ended up bringing us the rolls first because the Miso Cod came out very, very late. It actually came out more than 30 minutes after our second plate, causing our meal to be «out of order.» Slightly annoying, but our server was really nice and offered us a complimentary dessert. We ended up not enjoying the complimentary «Blood Orange & Tofu» cheesecake at all, but it was a nice gesture so we’ll give it to them!
All in all, we would give this place 2 stars, because there are far better tasting places in this city at this price range and we weren’t really impressed. The service and the ambiance are great, but we probably won’t be back.

The food does not disappoint, it’s super good! I recommend the beef tenderloin and the black cod, it melts in your mouth!
My family and I came for restaurant week, but just be aware: your whole party has to order the same selection. The service was on point, but the kitchen was pretty slow. Also, the portions are pretty small, I left still hungry.

I was very curious to see what all the hype about Nobu was so I decided to stop by for dinner here. I didn’t have a reservation so I just grabbed a seat at the bar.
The staff there is very friendly and knowledgable of the menu so if you need help on deciding something they are there!
The ambiance of the place is nice. It’s a great spot for a date or a group outing. However, the prices are not cheap so come prepared to shell out some cash!
I ordered the Mango Martini, the Edamame, the Shrimp Tempura rolls, and the Key Lime Malasadas.
Mango Martini: $ 9 (happy hour)
Edamame: $ 7 (happy hour)
Shrimp Tempura rolls hand cut: $ 23 for 6 rolls
Key Lime Malasadas: $ 12
The martini was delicious. I expected it to be overly sweet but it was surprisingly light and slightly tangy. The edamame was normal as it did not taste different than any other place. The edamame were really fresh and lightly salted. The Shrimp Tempura rolls were tasty and even had the slight crisp from the shrimp tempura. The Key Lime Malasadas were donut holes that were served alongside key lime and berry compote. I was not a fan of this dish. The donuts were bland and the dipping sauces didn’t have enough flavor to enhance them. Disappointed with my dessert.
Overall, I had a good experience. I think the vibe, service and food all together make this a 4 star place however if I were reviewing it solely on food then I would have to give it a 3.5.

Much deserved hype here.
My wife has raved about this place for years, but I had never been myself until recently. I actually had a bit of a skeptical chip on my shoulder initially, but since I was staying at the Hard Rock in San Diego, I figured I should try it. It surpassed all expectations. Make no mistake: it’s not cheap, but if you want fine dining — here it is.
The service was phenomenal. I actually went 3 times during the week I was in S.D. and the service was professional, attentive and friendly without being overbearing. The décor is hip and inviting and with a fun, energetic ambiance. I do suggest dining early if you can or that you make reservations well in advance, because this place gets totally packed during the prime times.
The food was over-​the-​top in flavor and presentation, if somewhat small in portions.
Recommendations: Anything on the menu. No lie. I ate there 3 times and never had a bad dish.
My favorite Cold Dishes: Bluefin Toro Tartare with Caviar. Unbelievably delicious. And that little green thing that comes on the side? It’s a «Japanese peach». Don’t waste it! It’s delicious!
The Salmon Sashimi New Style was also excellent. I got a picture, but a couple of the diners «couldn’t wait» and took a couple of pieces before I snapped it… well, I couldn’t fault them.
Do NOT skip the salads. They are fabulous. The Cucumber Sonomono was my favorite
The Tobanyaki dishes were all good, but my fav was the tofu.
As for the Hot Dishes, the Black Cod Miso deserves its flagship status. In-​your-​face flavorful.
Although the wagyu dishes were great, my actual favorite and top recommendation was the Beef Tenderloin with Anticucho sauce. This was unanimously voted the best steak dish of the night by everyone at our table.
My favorite dessert was the Bento Box with coconut sorbet subbed in for the chocolate gelato, but the Blood Orange & Tofu Cheesecake and the Tropical Kakigori were also wonderful and accompanied by some excellent cocktails (I preferred the Suntory Sidecar and the Hakushu Old Fashioned), made for a great end to a superb meal.
I will absolutely return for dinner here and I would not hesitate to highly recommend it!

Ok WOW!!! I’ve always wanted to go here but and finally did. It’s definitely pricey but I think me and my boyfriend did it the right way and my suggestion to you.
Happy hour goes till 7:00 so we got there at 6:30 and ordered 2 drinks and apps until happy hour was over. My favorite app was the warm mushroom salad which I didn’t think I would like at all!
We then moved to the main dining area and shared the hot stone with wagyu beef. Very expensive for only 4oz of meat but well worth it!
Overall, you can’t come here thinking it’ll be cheap. However, this place is amazing and well worth the cash.

The food at Nobu is spectacular even their happy hour menu. Aside from the food, the dining experience at Nobu has always been terrific and last night was on par with their level which is a pretty high level.
Tip: get there early.
Best valued happy hour dishes: black cod, black mussels and scallops.

I am so glad I had such a fantastic a Nobu experience. I went with a Nobu frequent flier and our ordering could not have been better. The cucumber martinis were so refreshing. We shared the yellowtail, ceviche, black cod and rock shrimp. Everything was incredible. Black cod was rich but not overpowering. Ceviche with the perfect tartness. The yellowtail with jalapenos was unforgettable.

WOW WOW WOW! YOU NEED TO COME HERE NOW! ME LIKEY!
I went here with two of my friends for restaurant week. I first heard of Nobu from the Kardashians, they go to the one in Malibu. I thought it would be fun to try out the Nobu in SD.
We ordered the set restaurant week menu option 1 which was $ 50 a person (WHAT A DEAL HUNNAYS!)
Option 1 includes:
Tuna Tataki with Valdivia Farm Green Tomato (interesting taste)
Soft-​Shell Crab with Pickled Watermelon (Wow mamaz don’t even bother to peel the crab, just eat the shell!)
Chilean Seabass Umami-​zuke (super fresh)
Chef’s Choice Sushi Roll (I think it was tuna and Philadelphia roll)
Dessert
Since it was my birthday they threw in a dessert plate! YAY!
I love the décor of the restaurant. It’s located downstairs of the Hard Rock Hotel. My friends and I dressed up (which you should) but some customers were DGAF and wore denim cutoffs…
Their servers were super quiet, my friends and I were trying to make conversation with several of them but they don’t like to talk. Maybe they’re shy?
Their happy hour menu looked awesome too, if you want to try Nobu but don’t want to spend an arm and a leg and your down payment on your future house then come to happy hour!

Our hotel was literally across the street and Nobu was accepting same day reservations. Combine that with my lack of hunger and having read that the portion sizes at Nobu are miniscule but delicious added up to a spur of the moment visit.
To get inside you need to walk through the lobby of the Planet Hollywood hotel. It was a pretty wild scene. There were television monitors everywhere. It had a very Vegasy feel to it.
The restaurant itself was very lively (even though it wasn’t filled) and quite dark. We had a very friendly waiter that gave us 4 recommendations. One sashimi (Yellowtail with Jalapeño), the cod (house specialty), a beef dish and one other that I cannot remember. We also had a the BANANA SOY TOBAN-​YAKI for dessert.
The verdict is in and everyone on else is correct. The food is quite tasty, but if you have any kind of an appetite you will either be broke or leave hungry (or both)

My rating is not a reflection of the food. Nope, the food was excellent; pricey, but excellent. The 3 stars is for the service that kept slipping away as the evening wore on.
On a Friday night, met a couple of friends (one of them brought their daughter) at about 8pm. I was running behind, but 2 of my friends were already seated in a booth. Other friend arrived and we were greeted quickly to place our drink order.
I went with their Nigori unfiltered sake. Server warned me that it wasn’t as sweet as most places; I thought that sounded perfect. I really enjoyed it. It was drier and what I was in the mood for.
Food? Having not been to Nobu in years, I asked for the server’s recommendations.
Jalapeño Sashimi ($ 24): Very Good, but standard.
Dry Miso Sashimi, Tai Sashimi ($ 28): Excellent.
Tiradito Sashimi, Fluke Sashimi ($ 24): Excellent.
I loved how all the sashimi was thinly sliced with a beautiful presentation. Fresh, light sauces & sprinkled w/​almonds, etc. I get why people come here for the Sashimi.
Black Cod Miso: This was tasty, but unoriginal.
So in the beginning, server brought out drinks quickly. As the night wore on, I had to flag him down to remind him of our drink orders. Then we stopped seeing him and I would just flag down whomever stopped at our table to pick up plates. Further, when it was time to pay, the computers were down. I told him that I was concerned about getting into the bars/​club in hotel, if they were busy. He said he would speak to management. 15 minutes later, I finally get the bill. He attempted to walk away when I reminded him of our conversation. He said, they weren’t affiliated w/​bars in hotel so he couldn’t do anything about it. «Sorry.»
Despite excellent sashimi, «sorry» service was lacking.

I went to Nobu on a recent trip to San Diego as I was lucky enough to snag a travel zoo deal for a 7 course tasting dinner. Nobu is located downtown across from the Convention Center in the Hard Rock Hotel. We parked on 6^th and only had to pay $ 3 which is a steal considering what the hotel charges. We were early for our reservation but had no problem getting a table. The atmosphere was open and bright and our server was wonderful.
Dinner highlights — yellowtail sashimi with jalapeño, rock shrimp tempura, tuna tataki salad, and black cod with miso. We finished with the banana soy toban-​yaki (gelato topped with roasted pecans and caramelized bananas). It was heaven.
I would be back but probably only on another voucher visit. I found the menu items quite overpriced (if we would have been paying full price). I’ve been to plenty sushi restaurants at half the price with the same quality ingredients.

*3.5*
This restaurant is four dollar signs. Just expect a lot of things to be overpriced. For instance a small bowl of edamame was $ 7 and a small portion of tempura was $ 8 – 9. The food is good but I won’t let the price to impact the restaurant’s rating. People are right though, the food shouldn’t be costing so much for so little. I ordered the Black Cod with Miso. I have to admit that was really good! It’s a simple dish but the flavor is sweet and the cod falls off easily and melts in your mouth. I just wish the food was more filling even after you’ve spent $ 50 already.
Our server was polite and attentive. :)
I probably wouldn’t come back here because there are better restaurants but it’s a nice experience!

Excelente comida! Uno de los mejores lugares en San Diego para disfrutar de un excelente sushi, productos más frescos inposible!!!

The food here is not that good. There are far better places for WAY cheaper. The portions are small and over priced. The tables are awkward and uncomfortable. Pretty much everything about this places is bad except for the fact it’s in the Hard Rock. Go somewhere else or you’ll leave this place broke and still hungry