Chotto Matte

Address: 11-13 Frith Street, London, W1D 4RB, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)207 042 7171
Style: Restaurant bar
Food: Set menu

Review

Peruvian-Japanese Chotto-Matte fuses the cuisine and cultures of Tokyo and Lima in a new twist on the Peruvian foodie trend sweeping the capital. This two-floored Soho space mixes splashes of gritty concrete industrialism with colourful animé-style graffiti, plush curved wood and leather finishes. The multi-faceted site, formerly well-known as Bertorelli's and latterly a pop-up from Giraffe, now boasts a robata grill, sushi bar, restaurant seating and granite-L-shaped bar. The atmosphere's buzzy: when the floor to ceiling ground floor glass walls are pushed back it becomes part of Soho street life; and black-uniformed staff scurry around efficiently.

The drinks complement the two cultures, laden with fragrant sakes, plum wine, powerful piscos, punchy bitters and heady spices. Drinks are, however, restrainedly Japanese- or Peruvian-influenced, but not both at the same time. And they're arranged by curiously incongruous 'medicinal' subheadings on the menu - the Bon Vivant's Coupette, say, which mixes Hennessy Fine de Cognac, plum sake, Benedictine, grapefruit and chocolate bitters is listed under a 'Prescriptions' heading, while 'Anti-Depressants' counts several pisco-based cocktails. ('Oral injections' just sound unnecessarily vulgar.) Most drinks £12.