When a place like Nobu Waikiki opens, it's unavoidably front-loaded with expectation and hype.

Chef Nobu Matsuhisa's restaurants (operated in partnership with actor Robert De Niro, producer Meir Teper and managing partner Richie Notar) are both food meccas and star magnets — a seductive combination.

With a heavy hitter like this, one reviewer isn't enough, so food editor Wanda A. Adams teamed up with deputy features editor Lesa Griffith, along with a culinary-savvy friend of Wanda's we'll just call Taste Bud.

Here's the She Said, She Said (with a quote or two from TB):

THE BIG QUESTION

WAA: The first thing you have to talk about is the black cod with miso ($8). It's Nobu's signature dish, and it's actually misoyaki butterfish — something you can get at any Japanese tavern, okazu-ya or fish shop here for a few bucks. The dish characterized my fundamental question about Nobu Waikiki: Would Islanders patronize the place, given that the food is so familiar (at an exquisitely high quality level)?

After a long evening eating there, I concluded that

a) Nobu's take on this and other dishes is different enough to be interesting (the butterfish preparation is more crisp and almost steaklike, less unctuous and melting, but delicious).

b) Most Islanders aren't going to go to Nobu more than a few times in a lifetime anyway, unless they've got very deep pockets and a very deep desire to catch a glimpse of Someone Who Might Be Someone.

On a Tuesday night, the place was packed with people who appeared to fall mostly into two groups: Japanese visitors on expense accounts and young, boisterous Western visitors hoping that De Niro might show up.

LG: Hawai'i's population is changing — and the dining landscape is changing with it. From Stage to Nobu, a spate of new restaurants reflects a new wave of diners who shell out bank for food — and scene. Today's high rollers are no longer just old-school A&B honchos and Bank of Hawaii execs.

I reviewed Nobu New York in 2000 for Time Out New York's Eating & Drinking Guide. Back then, I had the same realization Wanda did — hey, all the stuff these New Yorkers rave about my grandmother makes! Oshitashi, miso butterfish, oshinko. But Bobby De Niro wasn't sitting in the corner of my grandmother's kitchen. And there's a lot more to the menu.

Nobu opened in New York in 1994. Thirteen years later, the time is right for Honolulu. Hey, why not — it's a chain. A luxe one, but a chain nonetheless, and Hawai'i likes its chains.

THE AMBIANCE

WAA: The textures, lighting and patterns make you feel as though you're in New York or Tokyo or maybe a New Honolulu. I was glad I had a cool new dress on.

When I interviewed Matsuhisa and managing partner Notar last month, they said their goal was to create a restaurant that's lively and happening but still about the food. They're succeeding — the place is boisterous but not unbearably loud, and there is a sense of excitement and the food is up to standard.

The sushi chefs work as though on stage; the rest of the room is subtly lighted, but their counter area is spotlighted, the centerpiece of the room; it's fun to watch them dance around each other.

LG: The walk though the Waikiki Parc's revamped lobby — all Korova Milk Bar minimalist white — is a stark contrast to the warm, opium chic of Nobu. The David Rockwell Group, which has designed half the big-name restaurants in Manhattan, did the interior. Kacho, the former occupant, was an unprepossessing warren of rooms. The Parc gutted the space to create one big seraglio of dark woods, burnt umbers and orange. Bamboo light fixtures based on Japanese fish traps hang teardroplike from the ceiling, streamlined banquettes have subtly floral luxe fabric backs and leather seats. And the sex-me-up lighting makes everyone look luminous.

A squad of four sushi chefs practice their craft behind the dramatically lit black sushi bar, looking like an Old Master composition. Rembrandt would've loved it.

"Lost" folks such as Daniel Dae Kim, Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett (a Sasabune regular), and "America's Next Top Model"-level arm candy have graced the venue. But on a Wednesday night at 7, there were no beautiful people in sight.

With sunlight still beaming through the window and fiftysomething aloha-shirted businessmen trying sushi, throbbing house music felt wrong. Pump up the volume later.

ON THE PLATES

WAA: OK, the food. I enjoyed it all. A lot. The first course of shishito (grilled spicy-salty-sweet peppers; $7); kiawe-wood-grilled yellowtail collar ($14); lobster wasabi, served in its shell with asparagus and shiitake, cut open so you could scoop it out ($40); beef tenderloin with anticucho sauce ($37); seafood ceviche ($16); uni tempura ($13); octopus tiradito (tako with yuzu; $17); black cod with miso ($8 apiece, presented in a lettuce cup) and a sushi selection ($3-$5 a piece).

Taste Bud and I noticed that there seems to be yuzu/ponzu on everything — the way Hawai'i Japanese spots use shoyu-sugar-garlic-ginger.

It was a lovely feast. But I can't say that there was anything that on any given evening, I might not find at Izakaya Nonbei or Sushi Sasabune or Mr. Ojisan. This will be Nobu's challenge in attracting a local audience (assuming they care about attracting a local audience). My friend said, "It's the same thing (as what you find elsewhere in Honolulu), but just that much better."

To come clean, I should say this: For the first time in my reviewing career, I was "outed." Someone must have recognized me and tipped off the kitchen, because with at least one dish, they switched out the usual preparation and the manager kept coming by to chat.

LG: The consistency of Nobu's food — contemporary Japanese with Peruvian accents — remains across time and space. Like Roy's blackened 'ahi and Alan Wong's Da Bag, the signatures and once-groundbreaking flavor combos are in place more than a decade on — hamachi sashimi topped with bright green slivers of jalapeno, the black cod (although now you have a new presentation option) — and prepared as carefully and cleanly as ever.

While the food may not be as exciting as it was in the '90s, there is much on the menu that's new to Honolulu. And the execution, under local boy Lindsey Ozawa, who returned home from Nobu Las Vegas, never slouches.

Three dainty Kumamoto oysters arrive in a mesmerizing turquoise glass bowl. Light shishito peppers are flash-fried just as they are in Madrid tapas joints, subtly sweet, and every fourth pepper or so giving a piquant bite.

Seafood ceviche, also with a peppery kick, is a sculpted pyramid of scallop, shrimp, fish.

Octopus teradito features thin slices of meat that are pure texture to the sharp citrus sauce.

Another signature, poached lobster with wasabi pepper sauce, still has its eyeball-rolling power. The simple sauce (wasabi, shoyu, dashi) has an inexplicable depth and infuses the dish with flavor without flooding the plate.

Meat eaters can't pass up tenderloin with anticucho sauce. Made with Peruvian red chile paste, rice vinegar, sake and other delectables, it's the best barbecue sauce ever. Combined with butter-soft beef, it's culinary heroin, and you want your $35 fix.

As for sushi, Sasabune now has competition. While sushi was never Nobu New York's strong point (with the likes of Kuruma Zushi and Sushi Yasuda in town), in Honolulu's sushi-weak context, it's almost stellar. The team, led by head sushi chef Toshiyuki Sasajima, turns out very good one-bite-size edomae-style nigiri sushi. (Locals who equate size with quality will grumble.) While selection is limited, the fish choice and preservation are faultless, which is why the price for one piece is close to what you pay for two at most other places.

Something to avoid: "fish 'n' chips," Pavlovian words for people who love fried food and don't love fish. It's all about the sauces and square fries stacked like Lincoln Logs.

Nobu Waikiki also has the second-best bar in town (Lewers Lounge across the street is No. 1), with cocktails like pisco sour (made with the grappa-like Peruvian spirit) and a tart margarita made with real liliko'i.

THE SERVICE

WAA: Because I was recognized, it's difficult to know if we got upgraded service, but I don't think so. I recognized a number of servers from respected O'ahu restaurants — people I know to be savvy and well-trained. (When I talked to Matsuhisa, he brought up unprompted the fact that he was sensitive to charges that he was poaching staff from other restaurants. He was adamant that local workers called him.) The service struck the right balance between attentive and intrusive, familiar and friendly — not easy in a busy, high-profile restaurant.

LG: The restaurant brought in three managers from Nobus Miami, Las Vegas and Manhattan and servers came from Chef Mavro, Duke's, you name it. Then they went through a rigorous three-week training program to learn the Nobu way.

Staff are taught to push signatures, as a greatest-hits introduction, and it can be a hard sell. I've had my fill of hamachi and jalapeno over the years (the late O-Sake Lounge served a version) and said we'd pass, yet I almost had to argue with the manager to keep it off our order. Others might find the firm guidance helpful when navigating the menu's 15 sections.

But the resto boot camp paid off in knowledge and polish — servers have an air of authority rarely seen in local restaurants.

FINAL WORDS

WAA: The question always is, would you go back on your own dime? My answer is yes, on a very, very special occasion. I don't much care about seeing and being seen, but I like intriguing food, and I'm willing to spend money on it (although I can't afford $400 dinners often). And intriguing, especially when the dishes draw simultaneously from Matsuhisa's Japanese and South American roots, this restaurant certainly is.

LG: As much as I try to steer clear of chains and root instead for local restaurateurs and ingredients, the precision and quality of Nobu's well-oiled (and financed) machine sing a seductive siren song of food. Resistance is futile.

Reach Wanda A. Adams at wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com and Lesa Griffith at lgriffith@honoluluadvertiser.com.