Kaiyo Rooftop is opening Wednesday, February 16 at the new Hyatt Place Hotel near Oracle Park, and it's a swanky new rooftop dining and drinking option in slowly reviving SoMa.

Nikkei cuisine — the combination of Japanese style and recipes with Peruvian ingredients which was born a century ago in Lima thanks to immigrant Japanese chefs — has been having something of a moment around the globe in the last few years. One of SF's first introductions to it came with the opening of Kaiyo in Cow Hollow in 2018, under the helm of owner John Park, who is also a co-owner of Whitechapel and Novela.

And now Park is set to open Kaiyo Rooftop, a new downtown, semi-al-fresco spinoff on the top floor of the Hyatt Place Hotel on Third Street, across from Oracle Park. As he tells Eater, he was aiming for "vacation vibes" for this second spot, and it will be serving a similar menu of sashimi, nigiri rolls, ceviche, empanadas, and more, as well as Pervuvian- and Japanese-inspired cocktails.

The space features handsome, green-tiled bars, lounge tables, and a projection screen that will enable the place to show four sports games at once — it is a hotel bar after all, though Park insists it won't be primarily a sports bar.

The open-air seating for the restaurant will surely be a prime spot for SF's warmer and more windless nights, but the photos don't give an indication of how many wind screens and heat lamps are available for more normal, windy conditions.

Photo courtesy of Kaiyo

The plan is to open another Kaiyo restaurant on the hotel's ground floor, but the rooftop spot is debuting first.

Kaiyo Rooftop opens on February 16 at 701 Third Street for dinner only, and brunch may come later.

Meanwhile, SFist learned a few months ago of another Nikkei-inspired restaurant coming to Union Square this year: Chotto Mate. The high-end restaurant born in London is coming to the penthouse/rooftop space at the building formerly known as the Macy's Men's Store on Stockton Street. And it's going to be massive, once it opens, with a total of 17,000 square feet on that top floor, and both indoor and outdoor seating planned.

We have not yet heard an update on when Chotto Mate may be aiming to open, but it's likely in the latter half of 2022.