Chotto Matte, a high-end restaurant concept born in London that showcases the Nikkei cuisine of Peru — which is influenced by Japanese immigrants in the country several generations ago — is coming to San Francisco's Union Square next year.

In a sign of the neighborhood hopefully turning a corner following a dismal pandemic period, Union Square has a huge and splashy new rooftop restaurant to look forward to in 2022. As the SF Business Times reports, the landlord at 100 Stockton Street, a.k.a. the former Macy's men's store that is still under construction to transform into a big mixed-use development, has inked a deal for the eighth floor and rooftop terrace — 17,000 square feet in total — with Chotto Matte. It's the first lease being announced for the building, and it will be the largest single restaurant in the city once it opens.

Chotto Matte opened in London's Soho district in 2013, and two other locations debuted in Miami and Toronto starting five years later.

---

---

"Chotto Matte embraces the very best of Nikkei (Japanese—Peruvian) cuisine, with bold eye-catching natural colours and mouth-watering taste sensations," says restaurant founder Kurt Zdesar. "The two cultures share a deep appreciation for fresh fish and seasonal ingredients, with Japanese sushi and sashimi, and Peruvian ceviche central to their gastronomy." (Eater covered the trend in Nikkei-inspired restaurant back in 2019.)

The Miami location of the restaurant features prix-fixe menus ranging from $75 to $155 per person, featuring a mix of Japanese and Peruvian dishes including nigiri sushi, maki rolls, gyoza, tostadas, grilled octopus, and Peruvian-style pork belly.

Also, as a clue to the restaurant's vibe and ambitions, in addition to opening this SF location next year, new locations are planned in Doha, Qatar; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and Dubai.

Kazuko Morgan of real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield represented the landlord and tells the SF Business Times, "We really do believe that this should be the number one grossing restaurant in San Francisco." And another agent representing the landlord, Danniel Blatteis of Blatteis & Schnur, tells the paper that they conducted an international search for a restaurant tenant "that would maximize our unique eighth level roof deck experience in terms of cuisine, buildout and ambiance."

The remainder of the building at 100 Stockton has yet to lease up, and the landlord is actively seeking luxury retail tenants for 47,000 square feet of space on the first and second floors. The third through seventh floors could be given over to entertainment or hospitality uses, and the agents tell the Business Times there's already been "lots of demand" from these sorts of tenants.

Rendering via Gensler