Nobu Manalapan Celebrates Its First Anniversary at Eau Resort & Spa With Chef Nobu Matsuhisa

Some anniversaries are worth the drive. On Saturday, October 17, 2026, Nobu Manalapan marked its first year at Eau Resort & Spa in Manalapan, and Chef Nobu Matsuhisa came to host the celebration himself. I was there, and it was every bit the evening the occasion deserved.

Set on seven oceanfront acres on the south end of Palm Beach Island, a short drive from Worth Avenue, Eau Resort & Spa has been home to Nobu Manalapan since the restaurant became a permanent fixture at the property. To mark the milestone, Chef Nobu was joined by members of his Southern region culinary team for a rare collaborative evening, with guests moving between chef stations, handcrafted cocktails and entertainment with the Atlantic just steps away.

The highlight for me was catching up with the icon Nobu himself. He has built one of the world’s most celebrated restaurant brands, and he still greets a room the way he always has: warm, generous and genuinely present. It was great to reconnect, and to see that same spirit carried by the team that runs the Manalapan dining room night after night.

Nobu Manalapan brings Chef Nobu’s signature Japanese cuisine with South American influences to the Palm Beach area, from iconic dishes such as Black Cod with Miso and Yellowtail Jalapeño to exclusive offerings created specifically for Eau Resort & Spa, served alongside the Nobu cocktail program. The restaurant is open for dinner only and takes reservations only, which, for a dining room of this caliber, is exactly as it should be.

The setting does its part. Eau Resort & Spa is an intimate ocean retreat with 309 guest rooms and suites designed by Jonathan Adler, two oceanfront pools, three Har-Tru clay tennis courts and the 42,000-square-foot Eau Spa, with its spa cabanas, bathing rituals and Self-Centered Garden. Nobu Manalapan sits within a culinary program that also includes Angle, the resort’s contemporary American restaurant led by Chef Joseph Oesterwind, and the oceanfront Breeze Ocean Kitchen, with Executive Chef Neall Bailey overseeing the resort’s hyper-seasonal menus.

For those making a weekend of it, the resort is about 15 minutes from Palm Beach International Airport and a short drive from both the small-town charm of Delray Beach and the shops of Worth Avenue and the renovated Royal Poinciana Plaza. Club-level rooms add a private concierge, separate check-in with Champagne and VIP pool service, and the oceanfront terrace with its fire pit is the place to end the night.

One year in, the partnership reads as a natural fit. Palm Beach has never lacked for glamour, but the island’s dining conversation has become far more ambitious over the past few seasons, as Haute Living noted in its look at where Palm Beach is actually eating in 2026, and a Nobu dining room on the ocean gives the quieter stretch of the island a destination worth the trip. Saturday’s celebration felt less like a milestone and more like a statement of intent.

Nobu Manalapan is at Eau Resort & Spa, 100 South Ocean Boulevard, Manalapan, and is open for dinner nightly from 5 p.m.; reservations are required. For more of Haute Living’s Palm Beach coverage, see The 7 Best Luxury Hotels in Palm Beach for 2026-2027.

Reserve your table at Nobu Manalapan.