Il Giorno Italiano Sogna: Nobu San Diego: No Bang for our buck!

We headed downtown to eat at Nobu San Diego on Monday night. All three of us opted to try the Omakase, the multi-course chef's tasting menu. We were really excited to try the omakase at Nobu since we had tried and really enjoyed the omakase at Makoto in Washington DC. Needless to say, the omakase at Nobu was not worth the money. Even though the restaurant was fairly empty (it was a Monday night) they seemed to rush us; we were also the only three people sitting at the sushi bar! All of the courses were decent, but overall nothing special like you would assume for the price! The first few courses were the best part of the dinner.

Course 1: Lobster Ceviche with Avocado

This was our first course and a great way to start out the meal. Definitely one of my favorites, even if it was only a bite!

Course 2: Fatty Tuna Sashimi in a ponzu/soy broth with a Japanese peach

This, while only a bite, was also very good. I wish there had been a little more....Even though it is a tasting menu! The tuna was topped with caviar.

Course 3: 3 piece sashimi platter with traditional Japanese broth

This was one of the other good courses featuring a traditional Japanese broth which was very flowery and three sashimi dishes: red snapper, fluke, and hamachi.

Jaime's favorite was the hamachi which was served with serano chilies:

Reed and I preferred the fluke:

Course 4: Hamachi and Salmon Sushi

The presentation on this dish was nice. There were two pieces of hamachi sushi (yellow tail) and one piece of salmon which was wrapped around rape (broccoli rabe). The salmon was excellent and one of the highlights in my opinion. For garnish there was an anchovy crisp and a traditional Japanese herb (can't remember the name).

Course 5: Lobster with Asparagus and Mushrooms

This was our first "warm dish." It was ok. Not my favorite. There definitely was a decent amount of lobster meat; it was however a little difficult to eat with chop sticks! Reed really liked the mushrooms but we all agreed that the sauce was kind of heavy and really dominated the dish.

Course 6: Seared Kobe Beef with Asparagus, Mushrooms, and Yuzu

Another ok, but not great dish. I think we all enjoyed this dish more than the lobster but it was disappointing to see the same asparagus and mushrooms that we had in the previous dish. We were looking for some originality and diversity that seemed to be missing in these dishes. Reed felt that the citrus aspect of the yuzu was a little too much in the dish.

Course 7: Miso Soup with a submerged clam

The miso soup was good and a pleasant break from the two previous courses which were quite heavy, but nothing really spectacular.

Course 8: Sushi

We probably had about 6 pieces each of sushi (some we were told to eat with soy sauce and others without). I can't remember all the pieces we had but we had a tuna, a few different white fish sashimi, Uni (or sea urchin which I thought was interesting...but Jaime and Reed loved!) and Unagi (or eel...aka EEK!). I enjoyed the majority of it (Reed's favorite was the white fish pictured below), but somehow I could not get past the "swimming snake" image and enjoy the eel.

Course 9: Fruity Granita with Orange

Course 10: Dessert

I somehow managed to forget to take a picture of our last course which was a cake with chocolate and cherries along with a frozen cherry slush. Not bad.

With our meals, Jaime and Reed enjoyed a bottle of Nobu Sake and I had a bottle of Nobu Beer.