A Big Fish in the Culinary World Opens Nobu-Malibu

Malibu doesn’t get a new restaurant very often, and when the chef in question is Nobu Matsuhisa, with restaurants in Beverly Hills, Las Vegas, New York, London and Tokyo (and that’s not all), the citizenry takes note. Nobu-Malibu, which takes over the old Malibu space in Malibu Country Mart, is a hybrid of his cult classic Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills and Ubon, the sparkling little noodle house he put in the Beverly Center last year.

Here the menu is more or less a hit list of favorites from both restaurants, yet it somehow is less interesting than either.

Ralph Gentile and Sophie Harvey--the same architects who gave Ago in West Hollywood its distinctive hard-edged look--have tweaked the amiable space that once housed the sushi restaurant Bambu into something more edgy and contemporary with touches of spun stainless steel, tumbled river rock, ash and onyx.

Everyone walking in the door gets a shout of welcome from the sushi chefs, disconcerting enough that you may not notice the raw bar at first. A stainless steel bowl sitting on a pebble pedestal, it’s filled with ice and oysters in the shell. The night I was there, the ratio of staff to customer was as high as that on a luxury cruise ship--which is, of course, reflected in the prices. This is not your corner sushi bar.

Along with spicy tuna roll and monkfish pate, you can find ceviche Nobu-style, seafood cooked in lime and chile and garnished with miniature plum tomatoes. It’s a terrific version; I just wish there were more of it. Seaweed salad, a trio of different colors and textures, tastes flat. A halved Japanese eggplant broiled with a smear of very sweet miso seems pricey at $8, but a spring roll stuffed with soft-shell crab is juicy and powerfully delicious.

Oddly enough, it’s the sushi that disappoints. We get a beautiful platter of mixed sushi and sashimi. It’s good, but considering that we spend $50 a person for dinner here, not as sterling a quality as I remember from Matsuhisa’s sushi bar. Hamachi is lackluster; toro unremarkable. I’ve had better uni (sea urchin) too. It’s not a good sign when the best things are the sushi rolls.

One thing is clear--if Matsuhisa can rise to the occasion, the mud-slide crowd is ready and willing to make Nobu-Malibu a local hangout.

*

BE THERE

Nobu-Malibu, Malibu Country Mart, 3835 Cross Creek Road, Malibu; (310) 317-9140; fax (310) 317-9136. Open daily for dinner; Saturday and Sunday for lunch. Cold dishes $6 to $32; hot dishes $8 to $32; sushi and sashimi (two pieces per order) $5 to $8; omakase (chef’s choice) $70 and $90 per person. Lot parking.