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Nobu keeps endangered bluefin on the menu … but asks diners to choose an alternative
Terry Kirby27 May 2009
Talk about mixed messages: Michelin-starred restaurant Nobu is defiantly keeping endangered bluefin tuna on its menus, but advising diners that they should ask for an alternative dish.
The concession comes after a lengthy campaign by environmentalists to persuade the global chain of Japanese-South American fusion restaurants to stop selling bluefin tuna dishes.
In response, Nobu, whose London branches in Park Lane and Berkeley Street sell bluefin in a variety of forms, in dishes costing up to £32 each, has now put a footnote on its menus and website saying: Bluefin tuna is an environmentally threatened species please ask your server for an alternative.'
Highly prized by sushi fans, bluefin tuna commands stratospherically high prices, particularly on the Japanese market, where one fish can sell for $100,000. But demand is such that stocks in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean have fallen dramatically in recent years.
WWF, the former World Wildlife Fund, which estimates that breeding stocks could disappear by 2012, has criticised Nobu's move. Giles Bartlett, its senior fisheries policy officer was reported as saying: They shouldn't sell endangered species. They should change their menu to incorporate a fish that's sustainable and not one that's critically endangered.''
Nobu is one of the few major restaurants that continues to sell bluefin, although it still does not specifically state on its London menus that its tuna is bluefin, despite a commitment to do so by one of the chain's backers.
Last year, Greenpeace investigators were told by serving staff in London that their tuna was not bluefin, but tests on samples smuggled out of the restaurants proved otherwise.
Richard Notar, the chain's New York-based managing partner is quoted in a new film about endangered fish species saying it was “unacceptable” that customers were not being told the truth.
He said that he would like to take bluefin off the menu, but it was being resisted by his Japanese chefs. The company is also exploring using bluefin farmed in Australia.
Mr Notar said that in future its menus would distinguish between bluefin and less endangered species of tuna like yellowfin. This is now the case in its American outlets, although they do not carry the advisory footnote.
The restaurant's novel way of dealing with the issue features in documentary The End of the Line, based on the book by environmental journalist Charles Clover, which is released next month.
Mr Clover has spent several years trying to persuade Nobu to speak about its policy on sustainability. Among a range of tuna dishes it sells o-toro tuna sushi – the most prestigious cut of meat – for £8 for a single piece.
Reader views (7)
I went to Nobu a few years ago and it was indeed rather fantastic (no, I didn't have the tuna). But I can safely say that I won't be going again (and I had been planning to) until they clean up their act.
Similarly I shall have a good research before going anywhere that specialises in seafood of any sort (which will also include my local chippy).
And, Alan (Carlisle), you beat me to it. Those were my initial thoughts too.
- Robin, London, UK, 27/05/2009 15:32
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The time is near when we shall need to give up eating all sea fish for a decade or two, to allow stocks to recover from what we're doing to them. We may as well get used to it, and start now.
- Mdj E10, london uk, 27/05/2009 13:56
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I notice that Sainsburys have now stopped selling yellowfin tuna and seem to only sell Bluefin, perhaps we could boycott them as well.
- Bob, Cheam, 27/05/2009 13:33
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Nobu seem guilty of several things here: Chief of which is sheer, utter stupidity.
Either they DO care for the sustainability of a product that they sell, (and at current rates, not for too much longer anyway) or they DON'T care.
Be an adult, take some personal responsibility, pick a stance and go with it!
Taking a "I'd like to sell it to you, but I ask you not to buy it please" stance is utterly ridiculous and completely contemptible.
As for Richard Notar, his mealy-mouthed mumblings are equally worthy of contempt. Is he, the Managing Partner, in charge of his restaurants, or is it his employees the chefs?
Good grief, how are people in such positions of power so weak and timid?
I LOVE sushi, but after reading this article I'm afraid I can't eat in Nobu again until they've resolved this issue.
- John, London, 27/05/2009 13:05
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There is a simple solution to this, boycott this restaurant.
- Wally Grout, Exmouth, Devon, 27/05/2009 12:31
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So you catch and kill a fish, but then ask people not to eat it, so it will be binned when past its best by date.So why kill it in the first place, or was it done, like whaling, in the name of scientific research or to appease the Japanese chefs? Have I missed something or does this beggar belief?
- Alan, carlisle uk, 27/05/2009 10:57
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What a pointless gesture.
- Dave Davies, Basingstoke, 27/05/2009 10:17
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