Nordic-Japanese restaurant Mei opens in downtown St. Pete from team behind Michelin-starred Kōsen
/Mei, a new fine dining restaurant in downtown St. pete, has opened on the ground floor of the Camden Pier District Apartments | St. Pete Rising
A restaurant from the team behind Michelin-starred Kōsen in Tampa quietly opened its doors in downtown St. Pete last week.
Mei is located at 320 3rd Street South on the ground floor of the Camden Pier District Apartments, replacing Bento Asian Kitchen + Sushi, which closed earlier this year after eight years in business.
Helmed by Executive Chef Alex Chamberlain and backed by Orlando restaurateurs Jimmy and Johnny Tung, Mei is a new fine dining concept combining French technique, Nordic influences, and Japanese ingredients.
Reservations for Mei aren’t available on online platforms yet, but guests can join a waitlist for the soft opening on its website.
Chamberlain previously served as Chef de Cuisine at Kōsen, while the Tung brothers are the founders of Bento and the team behind multiple Michelin-starred restaurants.
The restaurant is a deeply personal project for Chamberlain, named after his sister.
“My sister has always meant home to me, and Mei is a way to invite St. Pete into our version of home,’" says Chamberlain. “Our goal at Mei is to make you feel like you're visiting a lifelong friend, sitting around a dinner table and sharing a meal and bottle of wine reminiscing over shared memories and plans for new ones.”
The concept is rooted in seasonality and locality, with Chamberlain previously describing Mei as a restaurant focused on celebrating Florida's ingredients through a Nordic-Japanese lens.
The limited opening menu provides an early glimpse into that philosophy.
Starters include housemade milk bread with brown butter and tulsi basil, oysters with plum and spring herbs, beef tartare with rye and chive, and chilled soba noodles with poached shrimp and house pickles.
Entrees include dishes such as scallops with polenta, corn, and tomato; dry-aged duck breast with Swiss chard and cherry; and a ribeye served with summer truffles and potato mille-feuille.
Desserts include sticky toffee pudding with orange and thyme and a corn waffle topped with corn ice cream, blueberries, and almonds.
The beverage program will be led by Benjamin Coutts, a Michelin-awarded Sommelier of the Year who most recently worked at Soseki in Winter Park. The menu will feature sparkling teas, sodas, beer, and sake.
Chilled soba noodles with poached shrimp, house pickles, and cilantro | MEI
According to Tung, Mei’s food and beverage program will change throughout the year, reflecting seasonal shifts and the availability of ingredients.
As the kitchen team grows and operations ramp up, diners can expect new dishes and additional complexity throughout the menu.
An eight-seat Chef's Table experience is expected to launch once the restaurant is fully operational.
The Chef's Table will eventually serve as the centerpiece of the restaurant, offering a tasting menu that utilizes advanced techniques including binchotan grilling, in-house fermentation, koji aging, dry aging, and fire-based cooking.
Sustainability is also a key component of the concept, with an emphasis on whole ingredient utilization, preservation techniques, partnerships with local farms and fishermen, composting, and biodegradable packaging.
"Focusing on locality and foraging, along with preservation, Mei is a kitchen celebrating Florida, and a restaurant celebrating genuinely warm hospitality," Chamberlain said in a press release earlier this year.
For the latest updates on the soft opening and future reservations, follow @mei.restaurant on Instagram.
Currently, Mei is open from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, with plans to expand its hours in the future.
