These are reviews of Nobu Hiro from 2006. For more current reviews, visit the entry.
2006-01-08 23:55:56 I've been here many times, and each time the service gets worse. Last Saturday I was there and we had to ask 3 different waiters about 5 times before we were brought what we asked for. I would only reccomend it over Fuji's when it's not packed with people. —DanFisher
2006-02-04 09:31:05 The Buffets page says the dinner buffet is for student only! That seems kinda budget to me. I know a lot of businesses extend discounts to students showing an id card, but it seems a bit of a lame policy for a restaurant. Don't know why, but... —AlphaDog
2006-02-04 13:48:23 This place is my favorite sushi place in Davis, but the buffet is a bit lacking. It's true that the service is kinda slow and gets orders wrong (but hey, it's super busy at lunch buffet). Still, if you go during the lunch buffett you just might catch a glimpse of the waitress I've dubbed the "Sushi Nazi"...she is brusque, unsmiling, and downright hilarious to watch in action. —EmilyBlake
2006-02-07 14:32:51 I have mixed feelings about this sushi restaurant. The rolls are alright, nothing amazing or extra delicious, but the prices are a little cheaper than the other sushi restaurants in town. Lately, the tables have always been sticky when I have gone to eat, which is kind of gross. I rate this place a B/B-, I recommend Moshi Moshi over Nobu. —LauraChan
2006-02-14 14:55:07 Pretty pretty pretty pretty good. Excellent service at the bar. I can't speak for the service at the tables, but I would sacrifice some service for fresher fish regardless. One of the better restaurants Davis, period. —RyanLeverenz
2006-02-21 13:58:46 Just came from here. I have to say I enjoyed my experience. The atmosphere was cramped, but charming. I took other Wiki users' advice and sat at the bar. I would describe the service as sketchy. It's not bad service; it's more the fact that you have to be clear and very assertive to get what you want. As for the food, I thought it was above average for a buffet; about average for sushi. The sushi was good, but the selection was limited. Something I didn't see on the page was that there's a $2 charge for wasted food, which is economical, but anal. I actually didn't read the entire Wiki page before I went, and found it a pleasant surprise to have tempura and edamame and orange slices and other things available. That alone made it well worth the $10. When I want sushi again, I'll definitely return to this place because buying it by the order (off a menu) is TONS more expensive. —SS
2006-03-03 15:08:10 I went today at lunch and loved it. We got there at 11:05 so we sat at the bar but the restaurant filled up really quickly. We go to order directly from the chef and also got some random items other chefs were handing out and the waitresses were giving out. We were there for an hour and no food was forced unto us, the refilled my water often and were very polite. I liked the food and ate a lot, tried all their speciality rolls. Definately recommend if you 1. get there early and 2. sit at the bar. —JoAnnaRich
2006-04-14 22:13:50 I think it really depends on which chef you get. From MY personal experience, the two chefs on the right (one of them is the old bald guy on the right) are really cool and give good service. The chef on the very left was not very friendly to me during downtime; I tried sparking conversation with him and he was rude. I think it IS akward however, if you go there when it's only you and a friend with no other customers. Also, be sure to give them orders for like 2-3 sushi at a time. They seem to get annoyed if you order one at a time. Overall, sushi is great. ALASKA ROLL IS KING!!! —ArlenKwong
2006-05-07 18:51:09 I went here for the second time on Saturday, sat at the left end of the bar again. The service was FANTASTIC. They filled our waters about 6 million times, tooks the empty plates promptly, and the sushi chef was right on top of our orders. The Alaska roll is FANTASTIC, and the monkey roll was pretty good too. —AlexPomeranz
2006-06-18 12:04:20 Hire some folks to keep the buffet open until Sunday! I'd go quite often. —MichaelGiardina
2006-06-19 20:31:00 This is the worst sushi restaurant that I have EVER been to!!! I took my girlfriend's family there for the sushi buffet based on the coments on this page. None of you know what even decent sushi tastes like. None of us enjoyed a single thing that we ate. We happened to bring along a food thermometer that my girlfriend's sister uses for her quality assurance job at a resaurant chain. She checked the temperature of the yellow tail (which looked disgusting and tasted the same) and the temperature was 65.5, she told us that in order to ensure that bacteria isn't growing food needs to be below 40 degrees or above 100. The fish also looked like it was cooked, the red that is typical of yellow tail was not there, the whole thing looked off-white. Please don't eat here. Eat anywhere else. —AndyLyn
2006-06-22 12:51:00 Sushi served at below 40 degrees would be horrible and near frozen. It'd be so cold you wouldn't be able to taste anything. If that's your preference, hey, that's fine, but keep in mind that the "below 40" rule is generally intended for storing food or for holding food for longer periods of time. Also, if you're really concerned about food temps, you should know that to be "safe" for storage or holding, the upper minimum temp is 140 degrees, not 100. The basic rule of thumb for the "danger zone" of bacterial growth is between 140 and 40 for 4 hours. Regardless of any of this, I think you'll find that almost no sushi is 40 or below by the time it's served. —AmandaGarrison
2006-07-06 15:22:26 I’ve never had such a horrendous experience eating at a restaurant. my friend introduced me to this sushi buffet, and at first i was pleasantly surprised by the service and the quality of sushi. Unfortunately, today we were told in a rude manner that we had to finish our rice before ordering more food, or we would be charged $2/plate. now, it is understandable to inform us of their restaurant policies, but my friend has been going there for a couple years now, and they have NEVER enforced that rule upon them. the waiter was rude enough to point it out on the menu, and had us read it, like we're idiots. now, this particular waiter was already rubbing me the wrong way when we asked for miso soup and sushi and he never brought it over. i've worked in a sushi restaurant before, my managers would never allow me to act the way he did. then he proceeded to stare at us, because he knew we were unhappy. After a 1 min. staring contest, my friend asked him to please stop staring and that it was making us uncomfortable while we were trying to enjoy our lunch. of course the waiter said he was trying to see if we needed anything else. however, from the beginning of our meal, he never asked us if we needed anything, not even once. this guy was a jerk. he kept staring, then as the manager came over to calm my friend and I down, the waiter had the nerve to jump in and blame us more than once. we were trying to talk to the manager, but the waiter would not shut up. bad managemnt, and the yellowtail was disgusting today. it was bloody, we didn't even know if it was yellowtail. the hokigai was lost in a bed of rice. this waiter has ruined all my experiences at nobu, i've never witnessed such rude behavior at a restaurant. his staring didn't stop and he had the nerve to talk back to customers. he wouldn't stop either. i am NEVER going back. sushi is really not that great. —OnnieLin
- Yea I've heard from friends that the service at the tables suck horribly. So every time I've gone there I've sat at the bar and have never had a bad experience. Have you tried to sit at the bar? The only people you'll interact with is the chefs (and you get your food faster) who are really nice. — JR
2006-07-06 16:15:23 I was the friend that went ate with OnnieLin. I have been eating at this restaurant for a couple years now and have never encountered a situation like I did today. One of the male waiters whom i've never seen work there before was a complete d*ck. The very first thing I ordered was 2 miso soups, and of course he never brought them out. Granted, if the restaurant was busy I would understand why he forgot but I could count the number of people there with my 2 hands. Towards the end of the meal I tried to order a plate of Ebi and he had the nerve to point out the "excess food policy" by pointing at the actual writing on the menu. Yes, thank you buddy I can read and I understand the policy and I'm not a complete jerk that I'll leave plates and plates of rice everywhere on the table. We had one plate with excess rice on it, and he wanted us to finish it!!! The plate wasn't even stacked with rice, it was a few clumps that were leftover from a few bites. I've been there so many times and have never had anyone point out our "excess rice" problem. The waiter even had to throw in the comment that it "takes time to make rice" and implied that it was time consuming. Wait a minute buddy, you're telling me that throwing in a couple pounds of sweet rice, water, and vinegar into a huge industrial rice cooker is difficult? I must be missing something if even scooping rice out of the cooker is difficult and time consuming. I would understand that it would be difficult..... for someone with a negative IQ. Afterwards, for some reason the idiot waiter wanted play a staring game, Onnie pointed out that was he staring at us and I turned around to see for myself. Sure enough, I met him eye to eye for at least 5 seconds and not one word came out of his mouth. He had some sort of idiotic smirk which really annoyed me, and I asked him to stop staring at me. If you're going to stare at me at least ask me if I would like more water or food, don't give me a stupid smirk because you feel like "the man" for trying to shove extra rice down my throat. The manager Sunny came to talk to us and he was apologizing for the incident, I appreciated the fact that Sunny was trying to help the situation but the idiot waiter decided to trot by to throw in useless extra comments like, "I had to do that so I don't get in trouble with the manager". He wouldn't go away, and kept blurting comments to save his own a**. We asked him to please go away, but he continued to talk back!! Sunny said told me the meal would be on him, and me not being the type to freeload still gave them my card to pay for it. He offered the meal on the house but sure enough I was still charged the full amount, not even 1 penny off. Awesome. I'm never going back. Nobu Hiro = The Customer is Always Wrong. —JeefWu
- Wait a minute - you've had pleasant experiences before, but because of ONE isolated bad incident with a new waiter, where the manager offered to pay for your meal, and where the waiter in question likely got in serious trouble, you're never going back and recommending the same to others? I don't think the waiter is the only one being unreasonable here. —JessicaLuedtke
- 2006-07-06 19:41:31 well well well, let's see... the manager never really stopped the waiter from his constant stare down and outbursts. that really shows you what kind of management runs this establishment. he allowed the waiter to bounce around our table accusing that we were trying to get his butt in trouble. I've worked in a sushi restaurant before and I've been to even more, my manager would NEVER allow this kind of behavior. the manager did not even have the decency to tell the waiter to back off and let us enjoy the rest of our meal. they were disorganized and disrespectful. Granted, the manager did offer to pay for the bill, but however I believe it was for show for the other customers in the restaurant. When the bill came he gladly accepted the credit card with a quickness. gee, i wonder why I would NOT consider going back to this restaurant. and that was NOT the only unpleasant experience. we always go to nobu for their sushi buffets and during dinner, sushi buffet is only served at the bar. so, on this occasion we sat at the bar, and we've been there a couple of times for sushi dinner buffet, which the chefs are all very well aware of. but however this time, even though we were ordering off the sushi BUFFET dinner menu, we were charged regular prices for everything. we were annoyed that they took advantage of our loyalty to their restaurant, and decided to give them once more chance today, and look what happened. So, would you really go back to a restaurant with crappy management and services just to save a couple of bucks? Really now….it’s not that good. Do you know what real sushi tastes like? =) —OnnieLin
2006-08-22 11:14:53 I've only eaten there once but it too was a bad experience. For those of you who are used to the regular buffets where all the food is prepared and ready for you to pick up and eat, this is not the same. You have to order sushi from the chef so this means that you have to eat in intervals therefore you get full but eat less food than other buffets. Sushi is okay, but not excellent. —PorkFoo
2006-09-09 16:59:55 We went there today with a group, because I wanted to take them to a sushi restaurant which I felt was superior in quality to Fuji's. We should have just gone to Fuji's instead. From the get go, there was a VERY rude male waiter that soured our eating experience. Before anyone even asked for food, he went up to a woman and her daughter, while gesturing his hand with a "STOP" expression, and said "BE PATIENT. FOOD WILL BE READY SOON." I knew we were in for a long lunch. When he brought us the sushi trays to pick from, he rushed us and did not give us enough time to really look over the sushi and pick. As soon as we picked one he'd QUICKLY move on to the next table. He was so rude it was laughable. He kept looking off into space like he was too good for us when he brought us our sushi. Whenever we asked for other sushi, he either looked at us dumbfounded or just walked off as if he didn't hear us. My friend also gently elbowed him (by accident while turning) and he gave him a very mean, rolled eyes back look. All I will say is we are probably never going back to this restaurant, and if the management knows any better, they would fire this guy's ass before he drives away any more customers. I bet he's the same guy that OnnieLin was referring to. BOYCOTT NOBU UNTIL SERVICE IMPROVES!!!! —BlackHamster
2006-09-09 19:13:22 I have gone there quite a bit, and never had anything but GREAT service. The Alaska Roll is amazing! —BenjaminRosenstein
2006-09-09 21:14:25 I, too, felt the same way but I also received crap service recently. That one waiter is an asshole. The chefs are generally nice, but as they say, one rotten apple can destroy the whole batch. This guy is who me and my friends call "Mr. Annoyed." lol. He acts like you are murdering his family when you ask him for a drink of water or something. Not to mention this prick also spoke rudely towards us in Chinese (the waitress was handing us our sushi and he said "let them get it themselves"), too bad I ****ing understand Chinese you dick. Man, I will go out of my way to make sure no one wastes their $$$ on Nobu again. Don't go to Nobu... go to Fuji's or Osaka. —ArlenKwong
2006-11-05 18:05:15 Go ALASKA ROLL! —SarahMoussa
2006-11-08 20:56:45 I didnt feel like it was authentic japanese. The sushi rice tasted like normal rice without any sushi vinegar. I went to the buffet months ago and hardly ate anything. —AnnThiNguyen
2006-11-21 10:57:38 I would definitely rate this place lower than Fujis. I was just there recently and it took them awhile to get what i ordered and the selection wasn't all that great. They didn't even have smoked salmon which is my favorite. I would honestly prefer to wait the extra 45 minutes to eat at Fuji's than to walk into nobu —JasonKong
2006-12-11 03:23:27 food is decent, but service is definitely crap. They say they close at 9:30pm. but try going there at around 9, if you're not white, it's even worse, because Asian ppl tends to look down on their own race, while try to please the whites —JamesLi
- 2007-01-01 20:05:04 I totally agree with JamesLi. I was thinking the same thing. —ArlenKwong
