Nikkei cuisine has grabbed a foothold in San Francisco’s dining scene, thanks in part to restaurateur John Park’s trio of Kaiyo restaurants. The Japanese-Peruvian restaurant first launched in its Cow Hollow location in 2018; that opening was later followed
up with the splashy debut of Kaiyo Rooftop in 2022, a rooftop bar and restaurant set inside the Hyatt Place San Francisco. Then, in 2024, he followed those two businesses with a third Kaiyo restaurant, set on the ground floor of the same hotel that hosts the rooftop bar.
But amid the fuss of opening the twin hotel projects, along with the opening of sister business Cavaña, Park decided to close down the original Kaiyo location two years ago. The decision to close, Park says, was that the Kaiyo team felt the city wasn’t busy enough to accommodate two similar restaurants, especially as San Francisco was still struggling in its comeback from the pandemic.
As office workers returned, Park’s Brick by Brick Hospitality Group refocused its sights on Union Street once again, this time bringing back Nikkei cuisine in hand roll form. Now, say hello to Kaiyo Handroll Bar, debuting on Friday, September 11.
The reborn Kaiyo restaurant will feel familiar in some ways to locals, with Kaiyo chef Alex Reccio and chef de cuisine Kenji Sawada at the helm in the kitchen and hospitality vet Danny Louie heading up drinks. But at the heart of the menu are the hand rolls, an extension (and expansion) of the offerings at the Kaiyo restaurant in Hyatt Place San Francisco. Some favorites from the other Kaiyo menus have been ported over to the new restaurant, but there are still surprises at hand, along with some new cocktails to lure the neighborhood back in. “We want our food to be approachable… and hand rolls certainly are that fun element,” Park says. “And paired with the cocktails Danny [Louie] created, they are very fun, as well as unique at the same time.”
Kaiyo’s hand rolls, in a Nikkei context, combine elements of Japanese sushi with Peruvian ingredients and dishes. How this plays out at the restaurant is via third-culture, Latin-inspired methods and ingredients in the rice and proteins; think a lomo saltado hand roll made with A5 wagyu and shoestring potatoes, or the hand roll take on arroz con pato made with tataki-style, flash-seared roast duck with sansho pepper. As Sawada shares, rather than using traditional sushi rice across the hand rolls, the team instead implements more flavorful cilantro rice and chicha morada rice, infused with Peruvian purple corn. Many of the items on the menu are a collaborative effort between Reccio, Sawada, and Park, “re-imagining what Peruvian cuisine can be in the form of hand rolls,” Park says. Referencing the lomo saltado hand roll, Reccio adds, “To me, that’s what nikkei is all about. It’s a very organic type of cuisine; it’s not set yet. It’s still growing, still expanding. There’s plenty of room to create.”
Alongside the Nikkei hand rolls, the menu features a selection of more classic Japanese-influenced hand rolls, using bluefin tuna, uni, and salmon, as well as a ceviche and tiradito selection of dishes, and dishes Reccio describes as comfort food. One example is the aji gallina croquettes, which are based on the Peruvian chicken stew, breaded and fried in this version. Reccio is also particularly proud of the scallop udon with mentaiko sauce, a dish that uses fresh and dried Peruvian chiles blended into a dashi cream with mentaiko roe. “I figured that since the hand rolls are the center of the menu, anything around it should be complementary,” Reccio says. “And comfort food is one of the many adjectives I would give to Peruvian cuisine overall.”
For drinks, Louie’s cocktail menu brings over a few favorites from the other Kaiyo menus, but with some new options for locals. Louie is particularly excited for Deiji, a version of the margarita that melds tequila, shiso, and sakura with lime and agave. The orenji cocktail hits a nostalgic Orange Julius vibe, pairing rum with fresh orange juice, condensed milk, and vanilla syrup, with an unusual addition of sencha tea to round out the flavors. Fresh vegetables fit elsewhere on the drinks menu, such as in the Chuhai, which pairs tart Granny Smith apples with basil, coconut, and Japanese whisky, or the Katakana with tomato, gin, black pepper, lime, and cilantro (one of Louie’s recent favorites) — a bloody-mary-adjacent savory drink. The restaurant will also offer alcoholic soft serve (non-alcoholic versions will also be available), along with an array of zero-proof drink options, including matcha; Kukki, for instance, pairs matcha with pineapple juice, Oreo milk, and vanilla syrup.
Once the kitchen closes, the hope is to keep the night going as a cocktail lounge with Louie’s drinks as an anchor, paired with limited bites and DJs (and a later closing time). It’s all in a bid to reclaim the Kaiyo space in Cow Hollow once again after two years of being away. “We wanted to bring a great cocktail program and bar program together here because we don’t just want to be known for our hand roll,” Park says. “I think the fun in hand rolls also represents the fun in cocktails as well. It’ll be more of a sophisticated cocktail lounge than anything else.”
Kaiyō Handroll Bar (1838 Union Street, San Francisco) debuts on Friday, September 11, and is open 4 p.m. to midnight, Tuesday through Thursday (kitchen closes at 10 p.m.); 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday (kitchen closes at 11 p.m.); and 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday.
