By: Ralph Grizzle

You heard it here first at Cruising From Stockholm: Sweden’s capital city now has a Nobu Restaurant!

This is big news. Nobu Matsuhisa is one of the world’s top sushi chefs. There’s only one problem: The restaurant leaves town tomorrow.

The Nobu restaurant I’m referring to is on Crystal Cruises’ Crystal Symphony, tied up alongside the dock yesterday and today at Stockholm’s Frihamnen. You’ll need to cruise on Crystal to dine at Nobu. But that’s not a problem, as the Crystal Symphony turns around four times in the capital city during 2009. What can you expect from Nobu?

Well, if you spend an evening at Matsuhisa Restaurant in Beverly Hills, you can easily rack up a tab totaling a few hundred dollars. Sushi of this quality does not come cheap. But at the famed chef’s restaurants on the two ships operated by Crystal Cruises, you’ll need to pony up only US$7 per person after you’ve laid down your chop sticks for a final rest.

Long a land-based favorite, sushi has returned to the sea at Nobu’s restaurants on Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony. And at what a price. That US$7 per person? It’s for suggested gratuities; Crystal charges nothing for dining at Nobu’s Silk Road and The Sushi Bar.

“Nobu is about as good as it gets,” says Thomas Mazloum, senior vice president of hotel operations for Crystal Cruises. “His cuisine is unique, creative and healthy, and he has a name that resonates well around the world.”

For people who love sushi, cruises on Crystal, with rates that range from US$300 to US$500 per person per day, can prove to be quite a value, especially considering that you could dole out US$100 or more per person for similar dining experiences ashore.

And it would be hard to swallow that the sushi is fresher elsewhere than in a restaurant floating directly over sushi’s natural habitat.