Fishy Fingers: The raw and the hooked

Three intrepid youngsters try Nobu's new children's menu

The Place

Internationally renowned Japanese chef Nobuyuki "Nobu" Matsuhisa opened Nobu Cape Town about five years ago. Situated inside the One & Only Hotel at the V&A Waterfront, the voluminous, carpeted restaurant, predominantly decked out in dark wood, is grand and somewhat imposing.

"It's very fancy," says Sophia, one of my dinner companions. She's right. It's the sort of place where you'll find executives meeting for business lunches, and - it is a hotel after all - international, well-heeled folk (the kind who wear Tod's Italian shoes and always looked starched and pressed, despite long-haul flights) having dinner.

Naomi, another in our group, agrees that it's the kind of place where good manners are a must, but she says, "I'm very bad at good manners."

Naomi is six years old. Sophia, and her friend Maya are nine. The purpose of our excursion is not to sample the restaurant's unusual Japanese cuisine .

Continuing the theme of firsts, Nobu Cape Town has now launched Nobu KidsOnly gourmet platters.

The Food

There are two choices available on the children's menu, seafood (R245) and vegetarian (R145). But there seems to be only one question on the girls' minds. "will we get pudding?"

I have "borrowed" my intrepid dining companions for the evening, and when they are genuinely interested in food I am rather relieved.

It helps that the service is friendly and accommodating, and the girls are all offered a choice of "easy" chopsticks (essentially chopsticks with elastic bands wrapped around the end, which makes them more like tongs).

They know that sushi is "fish, seaweed and rice", so prefer to try the vegetarian option over the fish. But for the sake of variety, I order the seafood platter, hoping they might venture a try.

Each platter has six different pieces of sushi on it, but calling what is essentially a fashion sandwich an avocado and cucumber "burger", and another a vegetable pizza, seems a bit of a stretch. No one is fooled.

Maya asks, "but where's the pizza oven?" Some of the options seem a little extravagant, even for the budding gourmands - a piece of lobster perches atop a roll, and another option is crispy rice with creamy spicy tuna. I ate the spicy one. It wasn't too "burny".

Of the pieces that I tried (I ate most of the seafood platter) it was all delicious, if not on the sweet side of the flavour profile. Which one might think would appeal to tiny taste buds, but on tasting the inari with tamago (tofu and egg omelette-type of sushi) there were two definitely wrinkled noses and a chorus of "it's too sweet".

The edamame beans were a hit, though, as was the crispy rice with avocado salsa.

There is no children's pudding on the menu, but the girls each had ice cream (R20 a scoop). They loved it.

The Verdict

My party of diners were well-behaved and particularly well-informed. But even for children interested in food, this kids' menu might be a step too far.

As Sophia says, "sushi tastes different to how it looks - the pieces that look like they will be crispy are soft."

When I ask them if they would return they say yes. Naomi says, "It's very nice, even though I didn't want to eat the seaweed." That said, spending about R300 a head on your child's dinner is expensive, even for a special occasion.

• Nobu, One and Only Hotel, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront,021-431-4511, noburestaurants.com