MANILA -- Nobu Manila in City of Dreams now offers Sunday brunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The brunch, which started only this month, includes items from the famed breakfast spread of the global restaurant, as well as dishes concocted especially for Nobu Manila by Filipino Nobu New York executive chef Ricky Estrellado during a recent visit.
During the day, Nobu’s luxurious dining hall has a different character, one that's more zen, with light shining from the wide open windows with a view of the gardens and the pool.
The open bar set-up of the cold station also lends one to appreciate the fine sushi that one will eventually partake. The teppanyaki stations, housed in round wooden structures, invites with every sizzle of sound. A green-tinted chocolate fountain dominates the center of the dining room, surrounded with a bevy of breakfast cakes and pastries.
“All the elements are here for an approachable, relaxing, exciting, and a one-of-a-kind brunch. We are distinct in what we do,” Nobu Manila’s F&B director Anthony Hannan proudly announced.
There are seven stations in the brunch and you can’t go wrong starting with the cold section. Hannan's "distinct" boast resonates loudest in this section, which offers small bites of seafood prepared the Nobu way. (Just to note: Nobu Matsuhisa has enjoyed critical acclaim for his fusion cuisine blending Japanese with South American ingredients.)
With this brunch, one gets to taste a multitude of his Japanese preparations – including favorites like the Whitefish Dry Miso, a clean-tasting fish accentuated with the umami bomb -- dry miso powder, the taste of which develops and lingers in your tongue.
The Shima Aji Jalapeno uses Jack (the most expensive white fish) and is served with a light soy-citrus (probably yuzu) broth and a jalapeno. At first taste, you get the broth or sauce, then the fish, which has a hint of fattiness, and then the jalapeno, which adds an almost fruity and spicy component to this. The end of the bite features why Shima Aji is one of the most expensive white fish in the world — with the lingering heat from the jalapeno, you taste the fish, which has a clean sweet taste to it.
Another favorite would be the fresh oysters on a half-shell, which can be slurped with condiments (chives, onions, etc). I loved spooning a spicy vinegar concoction onto the oysters, for a zingy oyster shot in between stations.
Nobu’s sushi a la carte costs in the P400 to P500++ range, so for the unlimited sushi alone, the brunch is a great bargain. Tuna, white fish, salmon, shrimp and unagi sushi are on offer, as well as maki or cut rolls like the California roll (with fresh crab and asparagus), vegetable rolls, salmon avocado, shrimp tempura and spicy tuna.
It was also a treat watching the sushi chefs prepare it fresh, or if the buffet runs out, wait a while, or ask the chef to make you a particular kind that they’re making that day. Nobu’s sushi and rolls use the freshest ingredients, and you can feel it in every bite.
I would caution with eating too much of the rice rolls for there are five more stations to go.
Next is the Salad station, which was surprisingly one of my favorite stations for this brunch.
Kelp is a umami-rich ingredient, and a Kelp Salad, which has more than five types of kelp has so many layers of umami that you can’t help but just marvel at the colors, textures and flavors, which tastes of the sea. A light soy-vinegar dressing complements it perfectly, as well.
Tomato Ceviche Nobu Style reminded me a bit of how Filipinos like eating fresh tomatoes, with colorful cherry tomatoes enjoying a tart ceviche sauce that had yuzu, with the cilantro rounding it all out.
The Shiitake Salad Spicy Lemon Dressing is the most traditional of the lot, with rocket greens dressed with the dressing, but eating it with the fat rounds of grilled shiitake though takes it another notch.
Last but definitely not the least, is a personal favorite, Baby Spinach Salad with Dry Miso Parmesan.
“This signature dish is originally from Nobu Malibu, made with artichokes, and it developed into this salad, using the secret ingredient, his [Nobu’s] special dry miso,” explained Casper Khampouy, Nobu Manila restaurant manager.
Fresh baby spinach leaves give off a light bitterness with the dry miso parmesan, creating a salty, briny, creamy scrumptiousness, balanced out by the fruity tartness of a citrus (probably yuzu), a revelation of how delicious a salad can be.
There’s also a soup station that features miso soup, and congee with your choice of condiments. And since this is Nobu, your congee condiments include tsukemono or Japanese pickles. They are not only colorful, but each has a definitive taste that you can mix and match. I prefer umeboshi (plum), pork floss, and a large spoonful of bonito flakes for saltiness and umami.
Main dishes feature items from the regular breakfast menu, including the Yaki Udon (thick chewy Japanese stir-fried noodles), Okonomi Yaki (Japanese savoury pancake), and the rather luxurious sounding and tasting Truffled Cabbage.
Special dishes concocted especially for this brunch are led by a Crispy Pork Knuckle in Amazu Ponzu. I would dub this as the “Nobu Crispy Pata,” one of the most gourmet preparations of this dish with the pork knuckle enjoying a souvide for hours, then fried until crispy, resulting in melt-in-your-mouth pork and fatty bits, with crispy skin, but with the magic of souvide tastes not as heavy as the usual crispy pata.
The accompanying ponzu sauce is resoundingly tart (rice vinegar and citrus), but has sweet, salty, and spicy components to it, with sliced colorful chilies floating around, just in case you need to some additional spice.
Shrimp in Spicy Garlic Sauce, at first glance, looks to be spicy but actually tasted sweet. The shrimp is complemented by the sauce, a mixture of peanut, sambal, and lots of garlic, mixed in with vegetables like zucchini.
The Umami Marinated Chicken reminds me of a less spicy piri-piri chicken. Chicken is marinated with crushed herbs and spices for a day, then roasted, resulting in chicken that’s tender and juicy, tasting of deep smoky roasted flavors.
I saw a man loading two to three fillets of this next dish onto his plate, and upon tasting, I understood why. Nobu has grilled seabass in the brunch buffet, and it is divine. A really beautiful dish, where a miso glaze coats the tongue with a sweet-salty flavor before one gets onto the perfectly cooked buttery seabass.
If beef and mushrooms made a baby, it would be this last main dish—the Braised Short Rib with Sauteed Mushroom, with meat falling of the bone, and a gravy-like sauce with sautéed shimeji mushrooms. Ideal to eat with a cup or two of garlic steamed rice.
For more meat, head to the teppanyaki tables. One table serves skewers of roasted shiitake mushrooms, which goes really well with the Black Angus Skewers Chimichurri (tender beef with a fresh spicy sauce with a yuzu kick), as well as the roasted vegetables with yuzu garlic soy. This is also the table that serves the no- to-be-missed XO fried rice, spicy and coated with ample amounts of XO chili and butter.
Seafood is the star at the other table—gloriously fresh Alaskan crab legs are cooked and served with a yuzu mustard emulsion. Another would be the Baby Squid Antitucho, with crispy and tender squid with a garlic spicy marinade, and for the vegetable, asparagus with egg sauce and salmon roe. The uni sauce surprisingly works with asparagus.
Dessert is a one-page menu in itself. The matcha white chocolate fountain dominates the center table, with a variety of treats for dipping like nougat, chocolate cake, meringue, and delightful clusters of granola.
Around the fountain are breakfast pastries, including croissants (plain and kurogoma/black sesame seeds), miso muffin, Danish, yuzu pound cakes, honey and preserves. Brunch tarts and cakes include a strong-tasting Don Papa Cake, Red Bean Crème Brulee, a Mango Lime Tart, cookies, and financiers (chocolate and lemon).
Besides the center dessert table, a satellite dessert station can be found at the front of the windows, where Pain Au Chocolat is baked ala minute. Ice cream is also made to order on an anti-griddle machine. For that day, we had Green Tea and Black Sesame Ice cream. Green tea ice cream with the warm Pain Au Chocolat was an ideal pairing—not too sweet, especially after such a filling meal.
Ice cream teppanyaki with the anti-griddle with all your wanted fix-ins from fresh fruits, green tea crumble, to marshmallows, is also available upon request. Sauces include berries, chocolate and the more unusual soy-caramel, and the tropical tasting passion fruit ginger.
Dessert in cups are also found in that station, including the healthy Chia Parfait, Nobu’s interpration of the mango sago (which consists of an airy mango mousse and sago), and a Passion Fruit Coconut Dacquois (a deconstructed cake with coconut mousse, passion fruit sauce, and cake).
With 32 restaurants and counting around the world, Nobu dining is an experience, and the Nobu Manila Sunday brunch (P2,800++/person) is as singular as it can be, as far as brunch goes in Manila.
Pair the experience with their brunch beverage package (P1,000), for an additional boozy relaxed dining experience. Unlimited concoctions from their bar include four types of Bloody Mary from the classic (vodka), Japanese (sake), Shiitake (shiitake infused vodka), to the Bacon (Bacon infused vodka). You can even make your own Bloody Mary, according to your preferences.
Aside from the Bloody Mary, there’s also the mojito – classic (white rum, lime, mint) and Japanese (Havana rum, yuzu, and shiso leaves).
But given the chance, I would only order from the Champagne cocktail selection included in package -- glasses of Bellini (peach), Mimosa (orange), Kir Royale (crème de cassis), or its most popular drink: the Champagne 95, a concoction of peach, Cointreau, pineapple puree, and champagne. It’s a fizzy, funny, zippy drink, that will make you sit back more and relax, and enjoy more seabass.
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
