Cleveland Circle Will Soon Be Swimming in Sushi Restaurants

A sushi restaurant is on the verge of opening in Cleveland Circle on the ground floor of a new hotel: Sushi Momento (399 Chestnut Hill Ave., Brookline) is on track to open sometime this fall within the AC Marriott, which is on the border of Brookline and Brighton.

It will be “a contemporary eatery serving inventive sushi and cocktails,” per a job posting.

The restaurant spans nearly 3,000 square feet of space and features a sushi counter as well as standard tables and bar seating. Phaze Zero Design, a local architecture and interior design firm, worked on the project.

Kenji Wong, an alum of Michael Mina’s downtown restaurant Pabu, will serve as Sushi Momento’s chef, per LinkedIn.

The new hotel is part of a plan several years in the making to redevelop part of Cleveland Circle, starting in part in 2016 with the demolition of a longstanding Applebee’s and a decades-old cinema. Dubbed the Circle, the development includes the hotel, a senior living center, and retail space. The recently opened Cafe Landwer is also part of the Circle.

Elsewhere in Cleveland Circle, there’s another new restaurant that may cause some competition for Sushi Momento on the sushi front: Feng Shui Sushi & Dumplings. It’s part of a small chain of local restaurants that serve a mix of Chinese and Japanese food. This location of Feng Shui debuted in September. Plus, there’s also been a Cleveland Circle location of Fin’s Sushi & Grill, another small local chain, for years, and if a sushi lover were to leave the neighborhood on the Beacon Street side and head a little further into Brookline, she would find that both Washington Square and Coolidge Corner have even more sushi options.

Here’s a video rendering of the Sushi Momento space from Phase Zero Design; stay tuned for updates as the opening draws closer:

• Sushi Momento to Open in Cleveland Circle [BRT]
• Sushi Momento [Official Site]
• Sushi Momento [IG]