Japanese-Peruvian in a Roofless Lincoln Road Restaurant

A London-based restaurant with a Japanese-Peruvian menu and an underground Tokyo vibe in a tropical paradise.

Whoa.

Anyway, that’s Chotto Matte in a nutshell. It’ll begin taking reservations on Monday for a Thursday opening on Lincoln Road, and here it is in pictures. 

This is the same Chotto Matte that you can also find in the U.K.. The one you’ll show up to with a date you want to impress. The one without a roof.

See, the retractable roof remains open unless the detectors spot rain. In which case it’ll automatically shut eight seconds after the first drop. So you’ll dine alfresco, drink alfresco and laugh flirtatiously alfresco. Kind of. Basically.

Start at the bar, a glowing booze dispensary built around a 19-ton Sicilian boulder. Order a Japanese whiskey for you and a Holy Water for that date. The latter is made with sunflower sake and arrives at your table aflame.

The indoor palm trees. The hanging garden. The mixture of natural stone, carbon steel, tinted glass and dark timber. It all lends itself particularly well to slipping back to the sushi bar for tuna yuzu and aubergine miso. 

Or gathering around a table for pork, prawn and yucca dumplings served on aji amarillo with sweet potato purée. All of which comes to you from chefs with pedigrees from as near as La Mar at Mandarin Oriental to as far as London’s Nobu Park Lane.

But save the next drink for after dinner in the adjoining lounge. You’ll find it by the pivoting, wall-length door that leads outside.

Ceiling-less ceilings. Wall-length doors. What a world.