The five-storey, 143-bedroom hotel on 10-15 Willow Street is from Nobu Hospitality – the lifestyle and restaurant group founded by Japanese chef Nobu Matsuhisa ‒ and was first announced in summer 2014.
The group has now confirmed that the new in-house Nobu restaurant will have 240 seats, plus a private dining room for up to 24 people, and an outdoor courtyard with terraces seating up to 85.
The site’s design – from Ben Adams Architects and Studio PCH ‒ is aiming to draw on East-meets-West influences, as well as taking inspiration from what it calls “the cultural and industrial context” of Shoreditch.
The hotel will also offer a new landscaped garden, plus a gym, steam and sauna rooms, and a wellness centre. There will also be a ground floor, 180 square metre “Kaijo” meeting space, which can be separated into six distinct rooms.
The new restaurant will be the third Nobu in London, after Nobu Old Park Lane in the Metropolitan by COMO hotel in Mayfair, and Nobu Berkeley Street, also in Mayfair.
All sites offer Japanese-Peruvian fusion food, and have often been reputed as popular with celebrities. The sites previously had one Michelin star each (awarded in 1998 and 2005 respectively), but they both lost the accolade in 2014.
Nobu Hospitality currently operates 33 restaurants around the world, including in New York, Malibu, Dallas and Miami.
It also has nine properties under the Nobu Hotel name, either open or soon-to-open – counting the London site ‒ including Las Vegas Caesar’s Palace, Bahrain, Riyadh, Chicago, and Eden Roc in Miami Beach.