Feast on the finest delicacies at Nobu KL this Lunar New Year

Deep fried Japanese grouper.

Humans have a biological preference for symmetry and are highly attuned to detecting it in people and objects – more often than not, it equals beauty and perfection. Apart from visual harmony, I think people are also attuned to detect balance in food. Although taste is more subjective, good restaurants usually survive because they have managed to balance flavours, aromas and seasoning in a manner pleasing to their clientèle.

Nobu Matsuhisa started as a Japanese cook in Shinjuku, Tokyo, but circumstances took him to Peru where he had to adapt to the lack of Japanese ingredients. As a result, he devised his idiosyncratic style of Peruvian/Japanese fusion dining which he brought to the US, via an eventful venture in Alaska.

After a couple of other stints, he finally opened his own restaurant in Beverly Hills, which attracted a lot of Hollywood film stars including Robert de Niro, who invited Matsuhisa-san to open a new restaurant in New York City. This was the beginning of the Nobu global chain, and in 2014, Kuala Lumpur managed to beat Singapore as the chosen venue for the 31st outlet.

Yellowtail sashimi with jalapeño peppers.

At the time of writing, Nobu KL has only done a soft launch. A little stroll through the club lounge reveals that it is a little “indecisive’’ compared to the uber-chic (and often crowded) lounges in London. In KL, the focus is now purely on dining, hosted in an extended area with magnificent views over the city.

The restaurant opened on Sept 25 and the club lounge is scheduled to open sometime this year. If you have visited other Nobu outlets, you will understand why this may take a bit more time to realise. But fortunately, we were here for the food and that little preface about symmetry extends very nicely to Nobu’s blend of Peruvian and Japanese fusion dining.

People normally relate Peruvian food to ceviche, slices of fresh raw fish cured by sharp citrus juices, garnished with onions, coriander, salad leaves, and topped with a scattering of mild green jalapeños. Ceviche is a nice enough dish, though often the sharpness of the citrus detracts somewhat from the delicate fish.

There were no concerns about the balance of flavours this time as we were offered the omakase menu. Once seated, the nibbles of edamame and a little dish of shishito peppers and shimeji mushrooms appeared along with my Ocha Camomile Martini – a smooth creamy drink, but a little complex at the same time. My partner had a virgin Calamansi Shiso Mule, which was clean and very refreshing indeed.

The first course was the yellowtail sashimi with jalapeño peppers. Our waiter, Paul, suggested wrapping the coriander with the slices of fish before devouring it – and he was right. It was a simple starter constructed with elegance and lovely uncluttered flavours. 

Tuna sashimi salad with matsuhisa dressing.

The effervescent Ms Pari, Nobu KL’s special events manager, had stopped by earlier and informed us that to maintain quality and consistency, the ingredients for the global signature dishes are delivered from the same supplier to all Nobu restaurants around the world. 

However, outlets also rely on regional suppliers for produce which suits the character of the restaurant, so there are always local influences and ingredients in each menu.

Next up was a selection of nigiri sushi. Interestingly, the bases had all been dipped in soy sauce beforehand, so all one had to do was just rub a little wasabi on top.

All of the individual sushi pieces were delightful, both in taste and also in presentation. Although they are unmistakably Japanese, they were garnished with pretty toppings to add colour and flavour, something which Japanese sushi cooks would never do. A cute carrot butterfly also garnished the plate, and I would gladly have re-ordered this dish again.

The next dish was tuna sashimi salad with matsuhisa dressing, a slightly ragged but radiant explosion of colourful salads on top of a mild sesame dressing blended with curious Peruvian spices. The very fresh tuna was seared perfunctorily and it was delicious. The texture and flavour of the fish harmonised really well with everything.

Chilean seabass with red jalapeño pepper miso.

I was thinking the dishes thus far could not be surpassed but that was before the Chilean seabass with red jalapeño miso appeared. Seldom have I tasted a fish so brilliantly well-cooked, yet so simple and immaculate. This was the highlight of the evening for me.

There were just a couple of tiny splashes of miso sauce on the plate. Any more would have been excessive, as the coating of miso before grilling was enough application of additional flavour to an exquisite piece of fish that flaked off beautifully in the fork. It was served wrapped in a bamboo leaf, which maintained the heat at the perfect temperature. The sweet pickled guava and papaya cubes at the end added a lovely inventive finish to a very fine dish.

At this point, I should perhaps mention that after my first Martini, Pari kindly offered us another drink. Based on my sketchy preferences, she chose the Cucumber Martini – rather presciently as I was thinking about it myself – and this was even better than the earlier Camomile Martini. At this point, you should know that I do not smoke, hence regrettably I am obliged to drink twice as much.

Cold, flat somen noodles in dasahi, topped with shredded nori.

Returning to the food, the next dish was a wagyu beef steak, served with shimeji mushrooms and other roasted vegetables. Personally, I tend to find wagyu beef to be a rather status-conscious dish and not something I would normally order. However, this was an omakase menu so whatever the chef decides, goes.

Saying that, the meat was beautifully cooked and came with a choice of two sauces and a curious little bed of flaked sea salt. The first sauce was an interesting Peruvian chilli and spices sauce. However, maybe it was just a touch too provocative. The second was a silky teriyaki sauce, which was better though perhaps it was not too unexpected.

We were then served a special dish from the kitchen, a sort of deep-fried grouper balanced on pieces of fillets cut from the fish, tempura and, interestingly, black truffles. This was the first time I had encountered truffles with fish and it was an inventive combination which worked well enough, especially if one is as fond of truffles as I am.

The presentation was really funky and dramatic. The fish looked like it had swam up from the deep fryer and reminded me a little of ikizukuri, which I have never dared to eat myself. However, we did dare to break off crusty pieces of the fish to chew on and they tasted superb, even better than the fillets.

All in all, this was an original dish which was even more rewarding if you are adventurous. And yes, we did use our fingers to break off and eat the delicious fried bits, including the fried fins and bones – so what?

The dinner started to wind down now, and the next dish was a small dashi with cold flat somen noodles served in a sake drinking square, topped generously with shredded nori. The dashi was superb as you would expect and it was a pleasing little palate cleanser before the dessert, Nobu cheesecake, which turned out to be a vanilla-based cheesecake served with a yuzu strawberry sorbet.

Cheesecake with yuzu strawberry sorbet.

I have been to several top kaiseki places in Kyoto and invariably the desserts there tended to be a little elemental – all the effort was towards making the dinner wonderful and the dessert is almost like an afterthought. This is not quite the case here. The vanilla cheesecake smelled wonderful, and texturally was between custard and cream, though the biscuit base was a little too thick.

The sorbet was good and the presentation was pretty with edible flowers, red fruit sauce and sesame earth. Overall, it was a competent, fitting end to the evening’s dining.

I have to add that the service was very good and always pleasant, especially as the whole restaurant was almost heaving by the end of our dinner. As a food writer, it would be amiss not to mention that London’s Nobu restaurants have lost their single Michelin stars in 2014/15.

Nobu KL is bright and clever, and the food is beautiful and simply delicious. The head chef, Philip Leong, is an Ipoh cook who had been at Nobu Berkeley Street in London for the past nine years. He has certainly managed to transport the Nobu experience here very successfully and introduced some funky local variations to the menu. 

Still, the signature dishes you get here are exactly the same as what you will eat in Beverly Hills, London, New York and Milan, and the dining experience is comparable to any other Nobu around the world.

Nobu chefs at work.

¦ Nobu Kuala Lumpur is at Menara 3 Petronas, Level 56 KLCC, 50088 KL. Tel: [phone].

¦ This article was originally published in Life Inspired, out every second and fourth Sunday of the month, and distributed exclusively with The Sunday Star to selected areas in the Klang Valley. The next issue will be out on Feb 22.