Went to Chotto Matte about a week and a half ago on a Monday night. They have quite a large patio that is covered and fully open-air. It has lots of live plants, so I spent time watching honeybees feed on some of the flowers. We were the only people on the patio, so Monday night is clearly the time to go if you want a table.
We had been wanting to try here for awhile as they feature Nikkei cuisine, a mash-up of Japanese and Peruvian. Overall we were quite happy with the food, although it is a bit pricy due to its location in the heart of the Financial District. Service was very good and they comped us a dessert because it wasn’t actually as advertised (though still very good).
Cocktails/mocktails had great flavour combinations and textures:
- Lychee Picante: Cazadores Blanco tequila, lychees, chia seeds, chili, lime and dragon fruit - like a riff on a spicy margarita, with interesting textural elements from the chia seeds.
- Jasmine Fantasy: Tanqueray Gin, St. Germain, Aperol, tonic water and pink grapefruit - very nice, like a grapefruit-y Aperol spritz.
- Chicha Morada mocktail: purple corn, pineapple, cinnamon, cloves, soda, lime, and a dried apple - nice spice notes and perhaps the best beverage of the evening.
- Lychee ceviche: leche de tigre, chive oil, sweet potato, Peruvian corn, cilantro, corn nuts, kumquat - a vegan ceviche that really works, with supple texture from the lychee, crunch from the corn nuts, herbal notes, and nice citrus’y tang.
- Branzino tempura: amazu ponzu sauce, red onion salsa (slices plus cilantro plus red chilies) - not actually a tempura coating, but a very light non-oily coating, with a delicious red powder/rub over top - really good dish.
- California hand roll: snow crab, avocado, cucumber, tobiko, mayo - decent, but too heavy on the mayo.
- Soft shell crab makisushi with avocado, tobiko, mayo, sesame, wasabi, and shiso, wrapped in crisp raw daikon - this was really good, with the lightly fried crab not overwhelmed by all the other flavours.
- Rocoto cauliflower wings: Peruvian Chili dressing, cilantro - lots of kick, with a complexity of spicing.
- Binchotan charcoal BBQ - black cod aji miso: chili miso marinade, yuzu, chives - straightforward and very well done.
- Coconut Sakura: coconut biscuit, chocolate orange ice cream (not the lemon sorbet on the menu) orange crema (not really, seemed to be mascarpone cream), amarena cherry grated on top - overall a good dessert, perhaps improved with the changes.
- Magical Chocolate Ball: Dulce de leche treacle cake, black sesame ice cream, red berry dust, white sesame sauce poured over it - nice to have a little bit of show, and the flavours all worked well, particularly the sesame ice cream.
