The Mission’s eccentric Japanese izakaya Chome is making a move this week, opening up in a new location at 26th Street and San Jose Avenue after a temporary one-month closure.
The restaurant — with a bar — is aiming to reopen on Nov. 10 at 3601 26th St., nine blocks from its old spot at 18th and Mission streets and in the former home of Wild Pepper, a Chinese restaurant that closed in May after 15 years.
Storefront of Chome’s new location at 3601 26th St., which used to house Wild Pepper. Photo by Xueer Lu. November 8, 2023.
“We are very excited about this new place,” said Judy, an employee who has been working at Chome since it opened in October 2021. “Some neighbors already came and said hi. We are very grateful for that.”
It is unclear why the izakaya relocated, but the move will come with a few tweaks to the menu and will provide the restaurant with a bigger dine-in space, according to Judy. Most of the employees now working at Chome will be sticking with the restaurant, she said.
The restaurant, which gained a reputation as a hidden gem, had a petite dining area with only six tables. Customers would often face lengthy wait times to get a taste of the restaurant’s various offerings — grilled skewers, udon, ramen, and other fare from the five-page long menu.
Chome’s old location at 2193 Mission St., has become the home for Undingable, a temporary dim sum spot created by Chome’s owner, serving Shanghai-style soup dumplings, shumai, and other Chinese dishes.
Undingable, as in “un-ding-able,” is a coined word translated from Chinese, meaning unstandable. The name came from the inside jokes among the staff at Chome when they make fun of each other.
This tiny but fast-paced dumpling shop is currently open for business but for limited hours – only from 5 to 11 p.m. from Tuesday to Saturday.
Undingable’s business hours. Photo by Xueer Lu. November 8, 2023.
Judy said Undingable is a transitional pop-up and will be replaced by Shanghai Moon, the upcoming new restaurant that will occupy the spot and serve Shanghai flavors. The crew is working on completing the signage, designing a new menu, and retraining the staff.
The “restaurant business is very hard in San Francisco so we really have to have the heart for it,” Judy said. “Hopefully the heart will keep going for years and years.”
