The design-hotel revolution hit San Francisco decades before it reached Silicon Valley, but among the more conservative luxury hotels in Palo Alto is at least one example of impeccable style. Nobu Hotel Palo Alto is right in the heart of the city’s small downtown, but thanks to its design it offers an experience that feels a world apart. The concept is “urban ryokan,” and with its Japanese-inspired interiors and its tranquil inner garden courtyard, it’s a remarkably successful adapation of the form. Its rooms and suites are aJapanese-Californian hybrid; the look is minimalist, but certainly not without character, while the in-room technology is advanced, as you’d expect from the setting, but remains always subtle. And on the seventh and eighth floors is something of a hotel within a hotel: here the Ryokan Suites take on an even more expansive and luxurious aspect. Though Palo Alto lacks the natural hot springs that are key to the Japanese ryokan experience, the hotel’s Watercourse Way Bath House Spa fills in admirably. And, as you might imagine, Nobu Hotel Palo Alto is home to Nobu Palo Alto, a restaurant and bar centered on Nobu Matsuhisa’s signature Japanese-Peruvian cuisine, in a space that opens onto both the lobby bar and the courtyard garden.