Inside Riyadh’s 2026 Restaurant Awards: Chotto Matte Takes the Spotlight
The Nikkei restaurant in KAFD was named Restaurant of the Year at the What’s On Saudi Arabia Awards, an editors’ pick, on a night that also honoured Liza, Table;To and chef Luca Rossi.
Chotto Matte, the Nikkei restaurant in the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD), was named Restaurant of the Year at the What’s On Saudi Arabia Awards on 2 September at the JW Marriott Hotel Riyadh. The fourth edition of the awards, which What’s On published the next day, covered 44 categories across restaurants, hotels and leisure.
The top prize is not a public vote. Forty of the 44 categories were decided by public vote; the other four, the Editor’s Choice awards, were chosen by the What’s On Saudi Arabia editorial team. Alongside Restaurant of the Year, they went to Luca Rossi, head chef at Myazu Riyadh, as Chef of the Year; to Liza as Newcomer of the Year; and to Table;To as Homegrown Restaurant of the Year. Chotto Matte’s only place on the public-vote shortlist was Favourite Latin American Restaurant, which went to SIRA at W Riyadh – KAFD.
The restaurant
Chotto Matte’s Riyadh branch opened in KAFD in 2025. FACT had announced it for January that year, and by June What’s On was reviewing it as a going concern. The brand serves Nikkei cooking, which blends Japanese and Peruvian influences, and was founded by Kurt Zdesar, who previously worked for Hakkasan and Nobu. The name is casual Japanese for “wait a minute”.
In Riyadh the room is built around an open sushi counter and a robata grill, with lava-stone accents, graffiti-inspired artwork, greenery and a terrace. Dishes named in What’s On’s 2025 review include yellowtail Nikkei sashimi, a spicy tuna hako roll, grilled octopus, truffled mushroom rice and wagyu sirloin in truffle teriyaki.
Other winners
The Riyadh categories show how varied the field was. Among the winners:
- Favourite Restaurant in Saudi Arabia: La Petite Maison (LPM)
- Asian: Kantami, one of the openings in our guide to nine new Riyadh restaurants
- Middle Eastern: Ziba, ahead of Berenjak and Mahsan on the shortlist
- Indian: Gymkhana; Italian: Pastamamma; Japanese: Zuma; Lebanese: Yawmiyat by Dalal
- Saudi Arabian: NOMAS, Marriott Riyadh Diplomatic Quarter
- Fast casual: Wingstop; burger: Sold Out; steakhouse: Rowley’s
- Beyond Riyadh: Ricci San in Jeddah, Floating World at SLS The Red Sea for AlUla and the Red Sea, and Rava for the Eastern Province
The awards are a media-organised event rather than an official classification; for a different yardstick, see our report on MENA’s 50 Best 2026. For Chotto Matte, the editors’ pick comes less than two years after the restaurant opened in the capital.
Sources & fact-check5
- What's On Saudi Arabia Awards 2026: Here are the winnersWhat's On Saudi Arabia, 3 September 2026
- Winners 2026What's On Saudi Arabia, 3 September 2026
- What's On Saudi Arabia Awards 2026: Shortlist revealedWhat's On Saudi Arabia, 13 August 2026
- Nikkei restaurant Chotto Matte is coming to RiyadhFACT Magazines, 6 January 2025
- 3 reasons why you should check out Chotto Matte Riyadh this weekendWhat's On Saudi Arabia, 20 June 2025
Every name, number and date in this story was checked against the sources above before publication. Spotted something wrong? Tell us — we correct errors openly. See our editorial standards.
