Nobu London

I have eaten at Nobu 5 times in the past 12 months, and am always impressed. The food is cooked to perfection, although with my limited knowledge of Japanese food I found myself guessing to start off with. I'd particularly recommend the Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalapenos, the Beef Tenderloin Tataki and the Dover Sole with Red Chili, all are absolutely amazing dishes. Occasionally I find dishes I'm not struck on but they too are prepared and served perfectly, it's just me being fussy. There is a wide and varied wine list, and the service is almost always brilliant, though once we were served by someone who seemed new, who clearly had a few things to learn. The decor is slightly bland , although perfectly nice, and the views of Hyde Park are lovely. While it can be quite expensive, the food is quality and comes close to warranting its high price, but isn't quite there. Overall, it's a fantastic place and I'll certainly be returning as many times as my bank balance allows.

We dined in February, I was really looking forward to it and then read some reviews on the day, and thought, oh no we've booked into a dud.

We let the waitress order for us, and probably had two courses too many, we had a couple of the signature dishes that everyone raving about, e.g black cod but they weren't the tastiest, possibly yellow tail with truffles gets that accolade. Service was a little too brisk, and you'd finished one dish and another was arriving before you had chance to cogitate, however, our waitress was perfectly charming and looked after us. I thought the food was overall was wonderful and although I needed to remortgage when the bill came I really enjoyed my meal and would not hesitate to come back again at some point in the future or recommend to others.

At the peak of the recession, splurging £317 for lunch for two (without much booze too) is always going to be a little indulgent, particularly when the well sited tramp outside asked for money after and I didn't have a penny to give him.

Still, after expecting a disappointing culinary let down from reading the Sq Ml reviews , I was delighted with the results. The beef, sushi and (some) of the lobster dishes were first class. Service was adequate, but the setting over-looking Hyde Park is undeniably pretty, although the decor has faded a little. Ordering saki which had been filtered with the sound of whale music also made us laugh.

Overall it's a great place to enjoy food done in a brilliant style, with top quality ingredients. The portions though are miniscule and be prepared to either do a runner or abuse high quality drugs in the toilets when the bill arrives – it really is tramp punchingly pricey.