Nobu Hotel London Portman Square

Portman Square’s branch of Nobu opened as part of a hotel and quickly settled into the rhythm of every other outpost in the global group: a long, confident menu of Japanese cooking filtered through Nobu Matsuhisa’s years in Peru, and a room full of people who have eaten this exact meal in half a dozen other cities. That familiarity is not really a complaint; regulars return precisely because they know what they are getting before they have even sat down.

Miso black cod remains the dish the whole menu is built around, marinated for days in sweet miso and sake before roasting to a caramelised glaze over flesh that falls apart at the touch of a fork. Rock shrimp tempura with a spicy creamy sauce and yellowtail sashimi with thin slices of jalapeno are the other two dishes that appear on nearly every table, and with good reason.

The menu is genuinely large, split between long standing classics and newer additions, which can make ordering feel daunting without guidance from staff, who are generally happy to steer newcomers towards a sensible spread rather than letting them order at random.

The room itself is smart rather than showy, dark wood and clean lines, built to let the food and the prices speak rather than the interior design. Portman Square adds a bar and lounge for anyone wanting cocktails and smaller plates without the full sit down menu.

The honest caveat is cost. Black cod alone runs past fifty pounds, and a proper dinner with sake and a few shared plates comfortably clears a hundred pounds a head. The cooking is reliably excellent rather than experimental, this is Nobu delivering exactly what Nobu has always delivered, and diners hoping for surprise or innovation should look elsewhere. For a special occasion built around a menu you already know you like, it rarely disappoints.