4 Wildly Famous Dishes to Try at Nobu, Now Open in New Orleans

At restaurants around the world, thinly-sliced pieces of fresh yellowtail topped with slivers of jalapeño in a pool of citrusy soy sauce help signify to the diner the type of establishment they’re patronizing. It’s usually an upscale Japanese lounge, a hugely popular genre ushered in by Nobu, the brainchild of chef Nobu Matsuhisa. Now, New Orleanians can try the very dish that inspired it all at Nobu New Orleans, which opened last week in Caesars Hotel and Casino downtown.

Nobu joins celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse’s latest New Orleans restaurant, Emeril’s Brasserie, at the casino formerly known as Harrah’s. While both restaurants mark the casino’s foray into luxe dining, Nobu, which has come to define Japanese fine dining in America, is particularly symbolic of that aim.

The Nobu empire started as a single restaurant opened in New York in 1994 with chef Nobu Matsuhisa at the helm, backed by actor Robert De Niro. At Nobu and his first restaurant in Beverly Hills (called Matsuhisa), Matsuhisa became known for his inventive take on Japanese dishes that incorporated Peruvian influences. His restaurants helped set fine-dining trends globally in the early aughts. Nobu became a celebrity favorite and grew into an international chain — one known for its consistency across locations — that now spans more than 50 restaurants.

Nobu New Orleans, a 175-seat restaurant with a bar and lounge area, sushi bar, and the chain’s signature dining pods, is on the riverside of the casino. It offers a chance to try Matsuhisa’s game-changing sashimi, nigiri, tempura, kushiyaki (grilled meat skewers), and sushi tacos, which make up a vast menu that also includes wagyu dumplings, crispy okra, lobster salad, gambas al ajillo, and Australian lamb chops. But there are four dishes in particular that, while not all invented at Nobu, have become so “canonically tied to the restaurant and other high-end Japanese lounges that they’re almost mandatory on menus in the genre,” according to Eater LA: yellow jalapeño, miso black cod, spicy tuna crispy rice, and rock shrimp tempura. Here’s a look at each.

Yellowtail jalapeño

Matsuhisa was inspired by the Peruvian tiradito for this dish, in which yellowtail is dabbed with grated garlic, topped with slices of fresh jalapeño, and covered in ponzu. Six slices are arranged in a starfish shape and plated with fresh cilantro leaves and a slice of radish, carrot, or beet in the center. It’s currently listed at $32 on the New Orleans menu.

Miso black cod

The key to Nobu’s famed miso black cod is time. Sablefish, a rich Pacific Northwest fish also known as black cod, is marinated in Nobu’s den miso, a mix of miso paste, mirin, and sugar, for three days. It’s then broiled, giving it a slightly sticky, crispy crust, and plated with a pink strand of pickled ginger root and dots of saikyo miso, for $48.

Spicy tuna crispy rice

As Eater LA reports, “Of the four canonical dishes of Japanese lounge restaurants, this is one that Nobu didn’t overtly invent.” But, it is one of Nobu’s most popular. Cubes of pressed sushi rice fried to a crisp are served with a creamy mixture of finely diced tuna, Japanese mayo, sriracha, and green onion. At Nobu, it’s served with fancy toothpicks that resemble mini chopsticks, used for stabbing the crispy rice cube, for $34.

Rock shrimp tempura

Ubiquitous crowd-pleaser rock shrimp tempura, on the other hand, can indeed be traced to Nobu. Though New Orleans chef Paul Prudhomme popularized popcorn shrimp in the 1980s, Eater LA notes, it was Matsuhisa who first tossed them in a spicy mayo sauce in the 90s. Today, Nobu’s rock shrimp sauce combines rice vinegar, garlic, chile, and yuzu juice and is served on a bed of lettuce sprinkled with chives. A bowl is $32 on the New Orleans menu.

Nobu is open for dinner reservations Wednesday through Sunday. Nobu Hotel, which takes up part of the casino’s newly-built hotel tower, is opening later this fall. Check out more of the menu below, and read Eater LA’s full story on how Matsuhisa engineered the dishes that define Japanese fine dining in America.