Good Taste tells you where to stick your chopsticks in the Bay. This week, a local taste of the global Nobu brand awaits.
As a teetotaler, I am not typically on the happy hour beat too often. But I was admittedly thrilled to accept an invitation to be one of the first to try the Tanoshi Hour, a presentation in the Nobu Palo Alto Hotel’s Lobby Bar.
It features fun spirit-free options as well as saké and cocktails. You also get one of two big snack sets that come with the chef’s choice of sushi and either fresh oysters and takumi burgers or the Nobu Classics of rock shrimp tempura and black cod miso butter lettuce cups.
It’s $80 for two people, a solid deal for luxurious Nobu world. There used to be more of an art to maneuvering a relatively economical Nobu outing. It’s now much easier with deals such as this, and with the Palo Alto location’s snack booth at Outside Lands over the last two years.
Disclosure: I enjoy the culture of Nobu, bought founder Nobu Matsuhisa’s memoir, have one of his rare Beverly Hills Sushi Club t-shirts, and would totally fangirl out on him if I met him, but not in a gross way? He looks like he’s enjoying his life and staying young at 77. This was my first invitation from the brand.
Previous Nobu world experiences on my own dime include a solo dinner in the West Hollywood restaurant bar and lunch at the sushi counter of Matsuhisa. At each restaurant, I told a server or a chef what my upper spending limit would be, and asked for recommendations of dishes they thought were a good value. That’s probably not their typical customer dialogue, but in my experience, everyone was quite friendly and helpful for the request to have a more humble than average meal or snack.
I happened to pick the one day where it was raining on the Peninsula, so I wasn’t able to sit in the garden dining area, but looks like a beautiful, serene space. I’m sure I had just as much fun nibbling on the Nobu fantasy in the bar that day.
The service is commensurate with the high quality of the food that’s presented, and adds to the enjoyment. I’d love to return to Nobu Palo Alto for happy hour, and explore other food offerings at the beautiful boutique hotel. Weekend afternoon tea is $85 per person and a showstopping Blue Zone bento box lunch is $60 and appears to be an offering that’s unlike anything in this region.
The hotel should be a consideration for upscale travelers coming to the Bay Area to experience a bite of the vast culinary scene. It’s easily walkable to a number of fabulous international restaurants, like Ramen Nagi, Macarena, Zaytinya, and Meyhouse; cute cafes such as Rikyu and Ralph’s Coffee, and the dessert delights of Oklava, Goodthing Coffee, and Tong Sui.
It’s also right by the Palo Alto Caltrain station and an easy ride full of food highlights from the South Bay up through the Peninsula to San Francisco.
