Sushi and the City: A Nobu Hotel is finally opening in NYC
Calling all sushi lovers and those obsessed with luxury hotels: New York City is finally getting a Nobu Hotel.
Thailand-based Asset World Corp Public Company Limited is teaming up with Nobu Hospitality to transform the Hotel Plaza Athenee (which closed due to the pandemic), in New York's well-to-do Upper East Side, into the Plaza Athenee Nobu Hotel and Spa New York. Additionally, the companies will open another dual-branded Plaza Athenee Nobu Hotel and Spa in Bangkok.
Nobu Hotels, for the uninitiated, are the hotel love child of celebrated Japanese chef Nobu Matsuhisa and Hollywood business partners Robert De Niro and Meir Teper. The first location opened 10 years ago in Las Vegas as a hotel-within-a-hotel at Caesars Palace — and has taken the world by storm ever since.
Today, there are over 30 Nobu hotels around the world, and more in the pipeline, with locations in beach destinations like Los Cabos, Mexico, and Miami, as well as city hot spots like Chicago, Barcelona and even Marrakech, Morocco.
Though New York was home to multiple Nobu restaurants (and the celebrity crowds that tend to eat there), the city was absent a Nobu hotel. That will all change, however, in 2026, with the debut of Plaza Athenee Nobu Hotel and Spa New York.
Related: The best hotels in New York City
Like many hotels set to open in the more distant future, the details are currently sparse. But, we do know a few things. The hotel will be located at 64th Street and Park Avenue in the Upper East Side, near some of the city's most prized attractions like Central Park, shopping on Fifth and Madison avenues, and some of the world's most famous museums.
The hotel, set in a nearly century-old building with a famed history of hospitality, will have 145 rooms, suites with indoor-outdoor glassed terraces, a Japanese onsen, a spa and a wellness center. There will also be a kind of private dining experience in a townhouse setting "serving as a private sanctuary for the discerning traveler," according to the now-public hotel website.
And of course, the hotel will also offer Nobu's signature omakase, meaning that the celebrity-sighting Instagram account Deuxmoi had better get ready for its notifications to blow up even more come 2026.
Unfortunately, renderings of the Nobu Hotel New York (as we're sure it will be casually known) are not yet available. We do know that AWC "will oversee overall project development along with the concept and design," according to a statement.
In Bangkok, the Plaza Athenee Nobu Hotel and Spa Bangkok, also set to open in 2026, will be located in the historic EAC (East Asiatic Company) Heritage Building by the Chao Phraya River. The hotel will feature "curated dining offerings," alongside a special Nobu cruise boat that can host special events and private parties.
As always, we'll keep track of the progression of these hotels and share more information as it becomes available.