Chicago, United States

Nobu Hotel Chicago

Price per night from$321.25

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD321.25), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Cliché-free refinement

Setting

Chicago’s restaurant row

There are three certainties in life: tax, death and chef-hotelier Nobu Matsuhisa nailing every single one of his openings, as is the case here at Nobu Hotel Chicago. In keeping with the hotel group’s signature style, local design firm Studio K has shunned en vogue interiors in favour of a timeless, thoughtful design in which Japanese sensibilities (a pared-back approach, plenty of pale wood, low-lying fixtures) are integrated with industrial aesthetics (lofty proportions, Crittall-style windows, swathes of indigo and sisal). Although the Nobu sense of calm extends to the indoor pool, this hotel is far from a rest home – big-shot businessmen in Brioni suits broker deals at the namesake restaurant; food obsessives rush to the sushi counter with the energy of a prime Michael Jordan charging at a leaky defence; and the rooftop bar flows with some of the best sakes in America.

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Facilities

Photos Nobu Hotel Chicago facilities

Need to know

Rooms

115 rooms, including 23 suites.

Check–Out

11am. Earliest check-in, 4pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £298.71 ($377), including tax at 17.4 per cent.

More details

Rates don’t include breakfast, but it can be purchased at the hotel. With options such as French toast with yuzu-lemon Curd, crème Chantilly, berries and honey, we’d advise coughing up the extra dollars.

Also

The hotel has ADA access and features ADA-compatible guestrooms.

At the hotel

24-hour fitness centre, indoor pool, steam room, two restaurants, two bars, free WiFi. In rooms: Smart TV, smart technology, minibar, Nespresso machine, steamer, Dyson hairdryer, hair straightener, yoga mat, Natura Bissé bath products.

Our favourite rooms

The Zen Suite, which features Venetian plastered walls, and the Zen Deluxe Suite, whose teak soaking tub is the best spot to soak up views of the surrounding neighbourhood, are our top picks. For more square footage, the Nobu Villa has a living space with a pool table, and a dining area – though, with Nobu Hotel Chicago’s reputation as the ultimate foodie bolthole, you’re unlikely to reach for the pots and pans at any point during your stay.

Poolside

Work off all that sashimi and sushi with a few laps of the indoor pool. Once you’ve reached your front crawl limit, recline in one of the daybeds and plan your next meal.

Packing tips

Given Chicago’s breezy nickname, you may want to consider stocking up on windbreakers and a down jacket at your local outdoor clothing store.

Also

A dry-cleaning service is available, so eat with abandon knowing that any drop of soy sauce or spill of sake can be dealt with.

Pet‐friendly

Pets under 25lbs are permitted, for a one-off charge of $150. See more pet-friendly hotels in Chicago.

Children

All ages are welcome, but the hotel isn’t particularly geared towards families (unless your child really knows their tataki from their toro), and the surrounding area thrives off its nightlife.

Sustainability efforts

The hotel’s cooling and heating systems minimise water and energy usage. Windows in public spaces will tint according to the level of sunlight, and guest rooms use motion-sensor lights. Half of the roof is covered by greenery, including six inches of soil designed to maximise water retention.

Food and Drink

Photos Nobu Hotel Chicago food and drink

Top Table

The hidden sushi counter on the mezzanine is perhaps the closest thing you’ll get to Kyoto without having to jump on the red-eye.

Dress Code

Like Nobu’s style of cooking, go for something timeless, classic and pared-back: some Axel Arigato trousers (which have extra stretch, perfect for when you’re going hard on the lobster tempura) and a boxy jacket by Studio Nicholson should do the trick.

Hotel restaurant

For decades, Nobu Matsuhisa’s nikkei cuisine has elicited the type of praise often reserved for works of literary genius, and the celebrated chef has recreated his winning formula on this stretch of restaurant row. Crowd-favourite signature dishes of black cod with miso, rock shrimp tempura, and yellowtail sashimi with sliced jalapeño peppers are permanent fixtures on the menu; there is an extensive, almost dizzying selection of maki; and an omakase option is there for those who wish to leave their dining fate in the hands of the chef.

Hotel bar

There is a see-and-be-seen feel at the rooftop lounge, where well-heeled party people in Balenciaga and Balmain sip speciality cocktails – the Smoke and Mirrors (pineapple rum, La Luna mezcal, Licor 43, lychee, lime, Demerara sugar and Angostura bitters) is a signature. There’s also a condensed menu of small plates to help soak it all up, but the true attraction is the outdoor terrace that has a first-row seat to Chicago’s glinting cityscape. Downstairs, at the restaurant’s bar area, order a lychee-and-elderflower martini (a lethal but irresistible mix of Spring 44 Vodka and St Germain liqueur), pair it with a lamb chop anticucho, order another martini, and cancel your early-morning alarm clock – an exploration of the surrounding neighbourhood can wait another evening.

Last orders

Breakfast/brunch is served 7am–10.30am. Lunch is 11.30am–2.30pm. Dinner is 5pm–10pm.

Room service

In the morning, you can order in a breakfast of ikura, scrambled egg and roasted salmon over rice; dinner has the carnivorous promise of wagyu dumplings.

Location

Photos Nobu Hotel Chicago location
Address
Nobu Hotel Chicago
155 North Peoria Street
Chicago
60607
United States

Nobu Hotel Chicago looks out onto the lively West Loop neighbourhood, a former meatpacking district that now buzzes with galleries, retail, Big Tech, and the city’s finest restaurants.

Planes

Chicago’s two major airports, O’Hare International and Midway International, are both under 50 minutes away by car. Transfers can be arranged with the hotel, but if you plan to get behind the wheel, parking garages with 24-hour valet service ($78 per day) are located nearby.

Trains

Ogilvie Transportation Center is around the corner (two minutes by car; 10 minutes on foot). CTA (Pink and Green lines) and Metra trains arrive here, and transfers can be arranged with the hotel.

Worth getting out of bed for

It’s almost too easy to spend the better part of your trip at Nobu Hotel Chicago, sipping on junmai as though it’s water and getting your fill of yellowtail nigiri. It would, however, be hard to resist witnessing a game night at the nearby United Center, home to Chicago Blackhawks (ice hockey) and Chicago Bulls (basketball), two teams as important to local life as a snappy, onion-topped hot-dog. This being the city that birthed the skyscraper, it’s also difficult to miss the high-rise highlights all around: the seminal 330 North Wabash, overseen by Mies van der Rohe, is a 52-floor glass-and-steel construction that lords it over the Chicago River and is the ultimate expression of the famous architect’s ‘less is more’ philosophy; and Studio Gang’s Aqua Tower features a rippling facade that adds movement to the skyline. If you’re a little fatigued by Nobu’s nikkei cuisine, food for thought can be found at the MCA – exhibitions here are often provocative, place equal emphasis on promising talent and established names (debuts have included Frida Kahlo’s first solo show in the United States, and Jeff Koons' first solo museum exhibition), and blur the boundaries between mediums and genres. If you’re left trying to make some sense of it all afterwards, clear your head around the 606, a 2.7-mile-long elevated trail that features running, walking and cycling paths, all of which tie together four neighbourhoods (Humboldt Park, Wicker Park, Bucktown and Logan Square). And then head to Humboldt Park for patches of wild grass, a boat house, an in-land beach, and a lagoon that was the one-time home of an alligator named Chance the Snapper. And, of course, your Chicago stay won’t really have been complete without your bean-there-done-that picture in front of the world’s most famous kidney-shaped sculpture.

Local restaurants

Even though it’s bookended by Los Angeles and New York, two cities that are considered the finest dining destinations in America, and despite being largely – and sometimes wrongly – famous for its gooey, deep-dish pies, Chicago is home to some of the world’s most innovative restaurants. At Alinea, chef Grant Achatz puts together theatrical dishes of almost unimaginable creativity: helium-filled, apple-flavoured balloons float while you bite into them; there’s a see-through pumpkin pie that’s as transparent as a politician’s lie; and a dessert of blueberries and liquid nitrogen-frozen chocolate mousse is splashed and smashed across the table in a way that Jackson Pollock would approve of. Erick Williams’ Virtue dials down the sleights of hand but is no less noteworthy – the Southern-influenced dishes here have included catfish with Carolina Gold rice and barbecued carrots, and smoked turkey with stewed collard greens. And it would be a fool’s errand to attempt eating your way through all of restaurant row in a single trip; if short on time, contemporary American restaurant Girl & the Goat, whose must-order whole branzino and Flinstone-style lamb ribs are flavoured by heat and smoke in the wood-fired oven, is a Chicago essential.

 

Local bars

Cocktail bar Moonflower attracts the city’s tastemakers with its use of offbeat ingredients: the Kiss & Tell incorporates Milkis (a Korean milk soda); the sweet and addictive Seeing Green blends matcha-sweetened condensed milk with Jinro soju and vodka; and we’ll go on the record to say that the Off the Record (Old Forester rye, raspberry Goldsaft syrup, pear brandy and bitters) is a nightcap we frequently return to. The team behind Alinea continues its madcap thinking at the Aviary, where the drinks are prepared and served in lab-style vessels. Downstairs is the Office, the type of all-leather, speakeasy-style bar that brings to mind Chicago’s Al Capone days (albeit with less of the clandestine dealings).

Reviews

Photos Nobu Hotel Chicago reviews

Anonymous review

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this luxury hotel in Chicago and unpacked their Nat King Cole and Sam Cooke vinyls and Chicago Bulls memorabilia, a full account of their Windy City break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Nobu Hotel Chicago…

Despite being known as one of the best beds in the Windy City, Nobu Hotel Chicago’s subdued elegance makes sure it doesn’t blow too hard on its own horn. The design and feel is as lyrical and melodic as the jazz music that this city is famous for: traditional Japanese hallmarks – platform beds, teak soaking tubs, mango wood millwork, and a sense of restrained design – dovetail with a warehouse-like shell of mottled greys, browns and accents of black. The lap pool allows for further cocooning, but the true draw is the namesake restaurant where Nobu’s globally famous cooking, which has spurred countless imitators from Chengdu to California, is showcased.

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Price per night from $321.25