Review: Nobu’s Japanese Restaurant in St. Louis

Nobu Kidera has been a sushi chef - slicing and dicing fish, vegetables and other things into a myriad of intricate shapes and sizes - for a long time. He began in Kobe, Japan, as a young man, moved to Hawaii in 1972, and came to St. Louis 11 years later to work at Tachibana. That’s where I first came in contact with him and his magic hands. His first St. Louis restaurant, which I wrote about in 1987, was a tiny place on Delmar Boulevard, just west of Old Bonhomme. He was successful enough there to move to his current location, a former pancake house, a larger, more accessible spot, in 1993, and he remains behind the counter, doing splendid things with fish.

While there are a few meat items on the menu, Nobu’s is primarily a fish house, featuring seafood one doesn’t see in many St. Louis restaurants that are not of Asian origin. For example, special, extremely rich cuts like salmon belly or jaw, and mackerel, are regulars on Nobu’s menu.

Watching Nobu work is like watching a great sleight-of-hand artist. Think of Ricky Jay. His hands move with the swiftness of a darting hummingbird, but preparing sushi is not solely about speed. There is swiftness in cutting dozens of pieces of fresh fish into smaller pieces of the same size, and arranging them artistically on one of the many serving dishes he uses, depending on which fish or which rolls, their sizes and shapes and numbers. Sitting at the counter brings amazement, admiration and appetite in equal amounts.

As an appetizer, consider the buckwheat noodles, delicious under a soy base sauce heightened with ginger and green onions, or the sushi (raw fish atop chilled rice) or sashimi (raw fish in slices, arranged beautifully on a plate). The guru loves sushi - the delicate flavors of the fish bouncing off the rice with hints of vinegar, the pickled ginger and the fiery wasabi horseradish. (A purist when it comes to sushi, I find the rolls have too many ingredients and diffuse the flavors too far.)

With spring drawing near, Nobu is offering salads with thinly sliced, seared tuna or lightly cooked salmon, plus a lot of garden vegetables under a soy-heightened dressing. We sampled a couple. The fish was perfect and the vegetables good, though the dish had been over-dressed. Where salad dressing is concerned, less is more.

Dinners, including salad, rice and a garnish, and preceded by miso soup (a light and tasty soy bean-chicken broth) are a modest $12.50 and $14.

Main dishes to check out include sauced and grilled salmon or swordfish, or any one of Nobu’s amazing tempura plates. (Although it is a mistake to order the soft shell crab prepared that way. The delicate crab seems lost inside the batter.)

The mackerel, in any form, is absolutely delicious, and another terrific taste sensation comes from the jaw of the yellowtail. The scallops and clams and eel dishes served under light, delicate, flavor-enhancing sauces, are winners. So is the sukiyaki, with thinly sliced beef simmered in broth with bean curd, translucent noodles and a variety of vegetables. Rice never tastes better than when it comes out of the sukiyaki broth.

Service at Nobu’s, long a weak spot, has improved a lot in recent visits. There are occasional language problems, but the servers are pleasant and accessible and keep refilling the tea pot, all extremely beneficial touches to the enjoyment of dinner.

As for beverages, good green tea makes a perfect accompaniment to Japanese dinners, and there are a number of beers, both domestic and Japanese, and that works very well. I’m not a fan of sake, but it’s available for those who are.

And not being a fan of sake does not make the guru any less a fan of Nobu Kidera, who came to slice and remained to conquer.