August 30, 2025
Nobus trip from New York Hotspot to Global Hospitality Empire

Nobus trip from New York Hotspot to Global Hospitality Empire

Many Hollywood stars have tried as hoteliers and restaurateurs over the years. However, nobody had near Robert de Niros Nobu’s success.

The star of Goodfellas, taxi driver, the godfather Part II et al. founded Nobu in collaboration with the Japanese chef Nobu Matsuhisa and the film producer Meir Teper.

It started in 1994 as a coveted New York dining goal and developed into a global collection of minimalist, high -quality restaurants and hotels.

With 19 hotels, 56 restaurants and another 25 hotels with restaurants in the pipeline, including one in Rome this year, Nobu is currently one of the fastest growing hospitality brands worldwide. What exactly is the secret of his success?

Nobu primarily prioritizes the quality of his foodNobu primarily prioritizes the quality of his food

Nobu primarily prioritizes the quality of his food

According to Robbie Hodges from Travel Trend forecasting agency Globreuer: “A large part of Nobu’s continuing success can be attributed to its glamorous, prominent origins.

“Thanks to the participation of de Niro, Nobu really became a well -known name during the Paparazzi flowering time of the nineties and the Noughties.

“It quickly symbolized a kind of emerging celebrity lifestyle -shady and exclusive and yet through the cooperation with pop culture -icons such as the Kardashians.

“For me, Nobu restaurants and hotels have to step into this world like an invitations, even if it is only for one night. It is a hype brand from the age in front of the Instagram, which is cleverly navigated social media and has remained at the top.

Nobu BarcelonaNobu Barcelona

Nobu Barcelona offers warm service, typical dishes and great views – Nobu

The marriage of the restaurant and hotel is extremely happy in this case. In contrast to most hotels that approach their food offer as an add-on, Nobu uses the “wrong business model” that first focuses on the food.

With every new opening, a hit by Nobu’s top chefs, who are often monitored by Matsuhisa themselves, spend several months to train the Kitchen team so that they can create the menu classics from Nobus perfectly. In addition to a reliable standard of design, comfort and service, whether in Malibu, Manila or Marbella, you can be sure that the food is excellent when eating in the hotel.

The Japanese-Peruvian fusion menus (Nikkei) in almost every Nobu have typical dishes such as miso black cod (soft, silky and surprisingly tender) and Chilean Seebass Umami (excitingly tender, in a marinade made of white Miso paste, sake and mirin rice wine).

Breakfast buffets in the hotels and all the usual that you would expect contain dishes that are specific for each location. In London Portman Square property you can order a complete English (albeit an upscale named Marybone), while in Marrakech Moroccan pastries in colorful, conical daily dishes are served with lid.

The Nobu story of course started eating.

As was often said, the seeds of the brand were sown at the end of the 1980s when a friend of the film industry from De Niro opened him to the Japanese restaurant of the same name Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.

Robert de NiroRobert de Niro

De Niro was “beaten” when he discovered Nobu Matsuhisa’s food in the late 1980s – Nobu

De Niro was beaten in this way, especially with the Miso Black cod, he suggested that he could expand and open a second branch of his restaurant in New York.

Until 2011 there were 19 Nobu restaurants and de Niro, Matsuhisa and Teper received regular inquiries to open new branches in some of the best hotels in the world.

It was de Niro who suggested that you didn’t open a hotel yourself.

From the beginning, de Niro had said that he knew that Matsuhisa’s food was “something special”, and so he was confident that he and his partners with the hotels, such as in the restaurants, and his partners could create an experience for guests who were also something special.

Places often offer fantastic views on roofs, sea strips or landscapes, while the elegant, clear interior rather contains a single style to cleverly maintain the style and culture of the hotel’s place.

De Niro and MatsuhisaDe Niro and Matsuhisa

De Niro and Matsuhisa have founded a global restaurant empire with 56 branches worldwide

It was not to get married that he initially had no concerns about the validity of bringing cities like Marrakech or San Sebastián a Japanese meal experience.

De Niro told me when we met at the opening of Nobu Marrakech in 2023 that Americans or British could be inclined to think: “Well, well, [some countries, especially in Europe] Do you have such a special culinary identity that it would find it difficult to have a Japanese restaurant. “

But he said he realized: “This is a kind of narrow -minded [unique] for you too. “

San Sebastián is a particularly interesting example; Probably under the “gourmet” cities of the world with theirs Pintxos Culture and high concentration on restaurants awarded with a Michelin star.

De Niro is right that it is usually countries such as Great Britain and the USA that are not best known for their food and have different population groups in which they get a real mix of kitchens.

Nobu MarrakechNobu Marrakech

Nobu Marrakech has a pool, bar and a restaurant on the roof – Nobu

Nobu is attributed to bring Nikkei Cuisine to a global audience, which in turn is interesting as a fusion of cultures, a Spanish -speaking spokeswoman is already available.

This is not just a case in which old foods are introduced to a country like Spain – it mixes the best with the best (since Peru and Japan are also extremely regarded for their respective kitchens) and then bring the best to bring To The best.

In Barcelona, although the Nobu Hotel is neither in the narrow streets of the Gothic district nor in the middle of the leaf boulevards of the Eixample district, but has converted 23 poles next to the train station, the 23-story office block tower still has two factor.

The rooms and suites on the upper floor have a panoramic view of the whole city, as well as the restaurant on the 23rd floor. My 22nd stock suite contained a traditional Japanese OnsenCedar bathtub in which I was able to luxuriate while I looked at the Sagrada Familia. The blue and white triangular mosaics on the ceiling in the hotel bar reflect Gaudí to nod the city’s architectural heritage – examples of a harmonious merger of two cultures.

Nobu Hotel BarcelonaNobu Hotel Barcelona

The Nobu Hotel Barcelona offers panoramic views throughout the city

The Marrakeech-Hotel from Nobu is no less impressive, with an almost sky-showing Japanese Bonsai tree, which dominates the lobby majestically, in the middle of carved Moroccan stucco work and employees who are dressed in traditional Moroccan dress, mint tea from silver tea stoves. The circular roof terrace has a view of the mountains of Medina and Atlas.

Of the Nobu hotels in which I have stayed in recent years, only the London Portman Square did not meet expectations. The service was undesirable and unorganized (a confusion about my booking was waiting for almost an hour in the reception) and my room seemed somehow soulless. The food, on the other hand, – and actually the service in the restaurant – was excellent.

The phenomenal success of the Nobu brand is unlikely that you are the outstanding film career in Eclipse in Eclipse in Eclipse Eclipse, but who knows what the future could do.

“I never imagined in my wildest dreams [Nobu] I would get where it is today, ”says de Niro,“ but I always knew that it was something special ”.

Eddi Fiegel traveled as a guest of Nobu Hotel BarcelonaThe double of £ 215 and offers Nobu Hotel London Portman SquareWhat doubles from £ 399.

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