"Nobu joined the Bay Area scene in 2017, bringing its scene-y Japanese cuisine to attention-starved Palo Alto. Its arrival gave Silicon Valley power players a new destination for Instagram bragging rights, though it was generally not loved by critics. Now comes news that the restaurant’s tiny interior will expand into a two-story restaurant in downtown Palo Alto, as the Epiphany Hotel undergoes a renovation with plans to reemerge as a Nobu Hotel in 2020. The new restaurant will open around the corner from the restaurant’s current entrance, taking over a former florist’s space on Emerson Street just a few doors down from Tacolicious. According to a publicist for the hotel, the current iteration of Nobu will move over to the new space when it is completed; there’s no timeline for the restaurant’s closure. Everything at this new hotel will be uber fancy, from the in-room Nobu dining (available 24 hours) to the Toto toilets and Amazon Alexa-equipped rooms. Perhaps a shiny new Nobu that’s more in line with its other, spacious locations around the globe (including nine hotel locations) will bring some of that Nobu magic to Palo Alto’s lackluster first version, which caused former SF Chron critic Michael Bauer to say 'you feel like you’re getting 1995 food at 2025 prices.'" - Ellen Fort
