Yunta Nikkei

Yunta Nikkei is Charlotte's first Peruvian-Japanese restaurant, at 2201 South Boulevard in South End, from Randy Garcia and chef Bruno Macchiavello — the hospitality veterans who opened the Peruvian rotisserie concept Viva Chicken in Charlotte in 2013 and built a cult following from it. Nikkei cooking is the cuisine that emerged from Japanese immigration to Peru, and it is the natural home of raw fish handled two ways at once: ceviches and tiraditos alongside sushi technique. The restaurant calls itself a gastro barra, and the room matches — an industrial, modern space with a sleek fluted wood-panel wall and a lush covered tropical terrace. The menu runs a crabocado causa at $16, a ceviche trio at $39, lomo saltado at $30, a New York strip at $68 and a duck tamago at $72. Queen City Nerve readers named it Charlotte's Best South End Restaurant in 2024. It opens at 4pm on weekdays and from late morning at weekends, with reservations through Resy.

For a non-drinker the important structural fact is that Yunta prints a section headed "Mocktails" on its main menu, four drinks deep and priced at $11 to $12 — meaningfully below the cocktails, and sitting in the same place on the page as everything else. The Gardener and Isle del Sol are both $11, with Flor de Sauco and Blushing Rose at $12. The names point at what the kitchen does with produce: Flor de Sauco takes its name from elderflower, and the list leans on the same Peruvian aromatics — black mint, aji, citrus — that run through the food. Asahi Dry non-alcoholic beer is $5.50 for anyone who would rather have a beer with raw fish. One caveat worth stating: the restaurant lists its mocktails by name and price without printing ingredients, so if a specific allergen or a particular flavour matters to you, ask rather than assume — and the list rotates with the kitchen's seasonal produce.