Barney Travel Technologies

Back in January, I headed for my annual tradition of a weekend in London. For this trip we chose to spend our time exploring Shoreditch, East London, in depth. During the trip, we stayed at Nobu, part of the famous restaurant/hotel chain.

Now, I am going to preface this review with moan. We stayed in a lovely room, BUT it was the room type below the one I had booked and paid for in advance. They provided no compensation or refund, and when I emailed to follow up with the central reservations team after my weekend stay, they replied trying to convince me that I had in fact been upgraded (and offering a free breakfast on my next stay by way of apology).

I know that is really not a big problem, but it’s still not great behaviour/service from a 5* hotel. OK moan over, the rest was wonderful.

Location

Nobu is located in the heart of Shoreditch, one of London’s coolest areas. The hotel is in walking distance of a whole host of incredible restaurants, including Dishoom and Gloria. It’s also close to the famous Brick Lane and Spitalfields Market, as well as Colombia Road Flower Market which runs on Sundays.

It’s also easy to reach from central London, being around a 30 minute walk from The City, and on lots of tube/train/bus routes from across town.

Accommodation

The room was large and spacious with a nice big comfy bed, table and 2 chairs and a small sofa area, as well as a huge TV unit at the end of the bed. It was very clean and nicely finished with nice Japanese touches such as a tea set provided in the room.

As a small point, one of our water bottles had a broken seal and was half empty on arrival which meant we didn’t drink it just in case, though of course not the end of the world.

The bathroom was modern and clean, with a nice powerful shower over a bathtub. The bath was so hard to get out of though as the side was so wide and the bath so deep I had to straddle it like a sumo wrestler and risk it all to a painful slip!

The room was also quite dark. The room looked out on to a street and had 2 layers of sliding wooden shutters. The first against the window was a blackout wooden blind that slid across acting as the curtains. However, the second (in front of the first) was immovable slats covering 2/3rds of the window. The slats block the natural light at all times as you can see in the picture below, and on a dark wintry day it probably felt even worse.

The room was absolutely lovely, please don’t get me wrong. It’s a beautiful hotel. However for the price paid, compared to other 5* hotels I’ve stayed in, it didn’t make it to the top of my list of accommodation recommendations.

Food & Drink

Now, this is where Nobu is special. The food was AMAZING. Nobu as a chain was created by a Japanese chef based in America, and as a result its menu is largely Japanese, with a bit of a South American twist.

Whilst it does serve variety at breakfast, the highlight of staying at Nobu is the weekend Japanese Brunch on offer. All you can eat absolute deliciousness of sushi, curries, salads, rice, tacos, and lots of other treats including a huge dessert buffet with banoffee pie, cheesecake, brownies and pavlovas – heaven.

Even though I didn’t *love* the accommodation (for a 5* hotel), the brunch alone means I would still consider coming back and it was so worth experiencing.

Amenities & Experiences

Aside from the incredible bar and restaurant mentioned above, Nobu also offers a really nice café area to sit and relax just by reception with a tea, coffee or drink. Try a miso brownie to go with it and you’ve got yourself a great start to the day!

Nobu also offers a highly rated spa with a range of treatments, making it the perfect destination for a pamper weekend in the capital if you want to splash out. For once I didn’t actually use the spa, as the prices weren’t justifiable. For hubs and I to have a massage would have cost us £300 for the shorter version and over £400 for the longer option which seemed totally extortionate!!

Nobu doesn’t offer a concierge, or any experiences outside of the hotel. The hotel is uniquely designed and I really liked how modern it looked, but it definitely lacks outdoor space (though I suppose to be expected from a city centre hotel). I found there wasn’t a lot to do in the hotel other than to sit and eat/drink, which isn’t all bad of course!

So what did you think of Nobu? It was a beautiful hotel, but I don’t think it provided value for money. I’ve been disappointed recently with hotels in London – I know they charge a premium for location, but I’ve still been underwhelmed. Undoubtedly Sea Containers remains my ‘go to’ in the capital that I’d return to time and time again. Stay safe and happy travelling!