First of all, the atmosphere was.. weird. I’m not counting it in my dislike of the restaurant as this was my first time in OC and I have no idea if that’s just the vibe of OC, I usually stay in LA proper or out in Malibu but work brought me to OC. There was a dj? 2/3 of the clientele appeared to be dressed for the club, the tables all around us were extremely loud and drunk yelling, the table next to us had a harmonica and kazoo they kept playing?! Super weird. The only other Nobu I’ve been to was the one in NYC, and it’s been a few years but I remember it being a much more quiet and upscale feeling. But again, this may just be Orange County vibes rather than Nobu here specifically 🤷

Food: some courses were delicous,some were just okay. We got the $250 omakase (the server had said the omakase can range from 200-300 based on how high quality of cuts you want, we chose to go down the middle) and while the New York strip, yellowtail and a couple of the salmon courses were great, the rest was simply.. fine. Also the order was a bit weird? Cold courses, warm courses, then sushi. Why sushi last if it’s cold? I’m not a sushi expert, so I concede if there’s a reason for that I’m missing. Also disappointment that dessert wasn’t included. 250 tasting menu and not even a tiny dessert?

Drinks: a highlight, the cocktails were great as was the hot sake we got (they only had one hot sake option though, wish they had more) . I had two different types of tea as well, black orchid and hojicha, which were both very good

service: Lacking. Started off good, but about halfway through the meal on it got weird. We started having several different servers who didn’t talk to each other, kept asking us if we had more dishes coming, all asking the same questions repeatedly as no discussion, and there was an extremely long gap between the hot and the sushi courses, where all the courses before that were spaced very well.

Overall- decent, it didn’t stand up to my Nobu NYC experience, but I have no idea how low or high my standards for Orange County fine dining should be, so I welcome feedback or suggestions for better places next time on that.