The talented Japanese born and raised Nobuyuki Matsuhisa is originally a trained sushi chef from Tokyo, but his life in South America and experiences from the United States have flavoured his cuisine. A lot has happened in Nobuyuki Matsuhisa’s life since he started his legendary Matsuhisa restaurant in Los Angeles 1987 and since the first Nobu started in New York 1994. At present Nobu has 25 restaurants in 21 different cities around the world, spanning across five continents so the empire certainly has become big. Nobu Bahamas was one of the first Nobu restaurants outside the United States and it is located on Paradise Island inside the famous Atlantis hotel.

Nobuyuki Matsuhisa has been awarded Michelin stars in the United Kingdom and the United States, but his Bahamas outpost will never receive any stars due to its location. And frankly the Bahamas venue does not deserve any stars. Both the service and the cuisine suffer from inconsistency problems. A good example is when we only received half of what we had ordered and the rest had to be reordered and many of the guests we have talked with complained about lack of service and lengthy waiting times as well. However our previous visit was a pleasant one without any disappointments even if the place was absolutely packed mostly with drunk Americans.

The restaurant’s entrance is framed by a green archway and located just off the Atlantis’ casino floor. You can have your dinner or just a drink at a large bar and there are two dining areas on either side of the main dining space as well. In addition to the okay wine list there is a lot of exquisite sake to be ordered from the sake cellar.

The Nobu menu always works well and the food is mostly delicious with classics like the rock shrimp and the yellowtail sashimi with jalapeño. You can also order fresh Bahamian seafood from the menu which is something you only can do at Nobu Bahamas.

Nobu’s Bahamian installation works well and the food is among the most delicious in the country even if the competition is far from tough and Atlantis’ other restaurants keep a generally low level. Of course you should visit Nobu Bahamas while you visit Paradise Island, but we wish that the staff of Nobu including Nobuyuki Matsuhisa raised the bar a couple of levels to better compete on an international level.

Written by Andy