While no official announcement has been made regarding when Black Roe closed, the restaurant’s website has been removed and its Instagram page has had its handle converted to ‘chottomattemayfair’.
Black Roe, which opened in March 2016, served a menu of Pacific Rim-inspired cuisine including poké.
A countdown clock on the Chotto Matte website currently puts the opening of the Mayfair site at 1 June, although this is yet to be confirmed.
It will be the Nikkei restaurant brand’s second London location, and its fourth globally.
Meaning ‘wait a minute’ in Japanese, Chotto Matte was launched in Soho in 2013 and serves ‘fresh and high quality Japanese inspired Nikkei cuisine’ alongside a large selection of Japanese drinks in loud, hip surrounds.
Following the success of the Soho site, NZR Group opened company-owned Chotto Mattes in Miami and Toronto, in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
It also launched an ‘accessible adaptation’ of the brand at Arcade Food Theatre within London’s Centre Point building last summer.
In January it was also announced that NZR Group would be partnering with an as-yet unnamed company to open a Chotto Matte in Saudi Arabia; the first of what is hoped to be a series of international franchise deals for the brand.
Originally from Australia, Zdesar helped launch Nobu in London as head of Nobu Europe, before going on to establish dim sum chain Ping Pong.
He is also a backer of Chinatown Japan-inspired burger restaurant Ichibuns.
BigHospitality has contacted Chotto Matte for comment.