Following a 15-year run on Mayfair’s Berkeley Street, the luxury global Nobu group has shut up shop at its original London location to relocate to Marylebone.
Nobu Portman Square is found at the hotel of the same name and is yet another collaboration between superstar chef Nobu Matsuhisa, legendary Hollywood actor Robert De Niro and business partner Meir Teper, who jointly own the Nobu Hospitality lifestyle brand. It is the second London hotel for the Nobu brand, with the first being the much-celebrated Nobu Shoreditch. There is a Nobu restaurant at the Shoreditch location, and the brand also operates a standalone restaurant at the COMO Metropolitan London hotel on Old Park Lane.
The in-house Nobu restaurant at the Portman Square hotel seats almost 200 diners and features a standalone sushi bar and a private dining room. The team from the former Berkeley Street location have moved across town to head up the kitchen, which means you can still tuck into Nobu classics such as the famous black cod miso and other popular dishes including crispy pork belly with apple wasabi salsa or lobster tempura with creamy lemon and red jalapeno.
Both the hotel and restaurant’s look has been designed by David Collins Studio, which was previously in charge of design duties for top London restaurants such as Covent Garden’s J Sheekey and the Harrods Dining Hall in Knightsbridge. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Portman Square are a nice touch (and great for people watching), while an eye-catching glass sculpture by designer Jeremy Maxwell Wintrebert is the centerpiece of the bar and adds a real sense of glamour.
Handily, the bar is attached to a 50-seat outdoor terrace, where guests can sip on cocktails and enjoy light bites from a short food menu. If you need a lie down after your feasting session, there is always the option to choose from one of the hotel’s 249 rooms where you can slip into a food coma - be warned though, an overnight stay here doesn’t come cheap.