Is the heyday of corporate amenities coming back? Well, if you work for BioMed Realty’s South San Francisco campus, you may think so. Omakase Restaurant Group, the team behind one-Michelin-star Niku Steakhouse, as well as Dumpling Time, Prelude, and more,
debuts its new food hall, Omakase World Market, at the Gateway of Pacific campus, opening to the public on Wednesday, June 17.
The 50,000-square-foot market comprises six restaurants under the Omakase umbrella: The Butcher Shop by Niku; Italian restaurant Campo; French bistro Cuisinett; Dumpling Time; sushi restaurant Ichiba by Omakase; cafe and bakery Kyoto Senses; plus a bar menu offered from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. daily. The project “just came about [through] some talks with BioMed about what they wanted to change,” says Jason Fox, director of operations for Omakase Restaurant Group. “[They were] trying to get away from it feeling like a corporate cafeteria, and wanted to create a more dynamic food hall with individually branded and recognized restaurants.”
Chances are, you are not a BioMed Realty employee. Fair enough. Nevertheless, the market is open to the public and provides a glimpse into new restaurants in the works for Omakase Restaurant Group. Notably, Kyoto Senses, the cafe and bakery at the food hall, is among the newly developed concepts for the food hall. Fox says that they needed a coffee shop at the food hall, so they leaned into piloting a matcha bar with accompanying coffee program — a cafe the Omakase team was already considering developing. Locals will likely see other locations of Kyoto Senses pop up soon.
Campo is another new restaurant developed for the food hall. Although Omakase Restaurant Group focuses more on Japanese-style restaurants, but Campo leans toward classic Italian food. That restaurant serves pizzas, sandwiches, salads, and fresh pasta. Think rigatoni with pork sugo and the funghi pizza, a pie starring wild mushrooms.
Otherwise, the restaurants are recognizable brands, serving the hits from those spots. The Butcher Shop by Niku, for instance, serves its smash burger with cheese and a chicken katsu sandwich; Dumpling Time offers shrimp har gao, scallion noodles, and eggplant bao. Cuisinett, meanwhile, has a focused menu on rotisserie chicken, salads, and sandwiches, while Ichiba by Omakase offers sushi, sashimi, rolls, nigiri, and bento boxes, The menus are a bit truncated from the fuller, standalone restaurants, but Fox calls the menu offerings “the greatest hits.”
The bar itself runs from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., and the drinks there come from Omakase’s beverage director, Franco Bilbaeno, who runs the cocktail programs at Niku Steakhouse and Prelude. There are cocktails, nonalcoholic options, wines by the glass or bottle, plus imported and California beers.
Omakase World Market (800 Gateway Boulevard, South San Francisco) debuts on Tuesday, June 16, and is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday. The latest business hours can be found on Instagram, @omakaseworldmarket.
