SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — A new Japanese restaurant built around hand rolls, fresh greens and grab-and-go lunches is preparing to open at the foot of California Street in San Francisco.
Nori Mori is coming to One California Street, the prominent Financial District tower located beside the turnaround for the historic California Street cable car line.
It is a particularly visible location, just a short walk from the Embarcadero BART station, the Ferry Building and the waterfront. The building’s street-level plaza also places the restaurant directly in the path of downtown office workers, commuters and visitors.
According to Nori Mori’s Instagram page, the restaurant is targeting a late-summer 2026 opening. Its social media accounts continued to describe the restaurant as “coming soon” heading into September, however, and an exact opening date has not been announced.
Hand Rolls, Sandos, Salads and Smoothies
Nori Mori appears designed to fill several downtown dining needs at once.
The restaurant describes its core offerings as “fresh greens, smoothies and hand rolls,” with a focus on quick, wellness-oriented food rather than a lengthy sit-down Japanese dining experience.
Among the dishes previewed so far is the Nori Ocean, a premium hand roll filled with uni, otoro and ikura. The restaurant has also shown a Japanese-style sando made with teriyaki chashu and promoted it as a satisfying grab-and-go lunch.
Other previews include salmon, a house salad with yuzu dressing and a selection of smoothies.
The restaurant’s name brings together two Japanese words: “nori,” referring to seaweed, and “mori,” meaning forest. That combination fits a menu intended to move between seafood-filled hand rolls and plant-forward salads and smoothies.
Prices, operating hours and a complete opening menu have not yet been posted.
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A Very Prominent Downtown Address
One California Street is a 32-story office tower containing approximately 477,000 square feet of space, according to the building’s leasing materials.
The property is located at California and Davis streets, with direct access to Muni, BART, ferry service and the cable car line. Its renovated plaza includes outdoor seating and is designated as a privately owned public open space.
The address has previously housed several quick-service restaurants aimed largely at the Financial District lunch crowd. The highly automated quinoa restaurant Eatsa opened an approximately 800-square-foot location there in 2016, allowing customers to order from an app and collect meals from digital pickup cubbies.
Nori Mori’s combination of hand rolls, sandos, salads and smoothies appears similarly tailored to people looking for something fresh and relatively fast during the workday.
The City Is Helping It Open
Nori Mori is also one of 39 businesses selected for San Francisco’s 2026 Storefront Opportunity Grant Program.
The city identifies the restaurant as a forthcoming “wellness food and beverages” business at 1 California Street.
Through the program, San Francisco awarded more than $3 million to businesses that had secured long-term leases in previously vacant storefronts. Individual grants ranged from $50,000 to $100,000 and can help cover equipment, inventory, permits and tenant improvements.
The city has not publicly specified the precise amount awarded to Nori Mori.
For a downtown area still rebuilding its daytime population and filling vacant storefronts, Nori Mori brings a practical concept to an unusually prominent address: Japanese hand rolls and sandos for diners who may only have a few minutes before heading back to the office, BART, a ferry or the cable car.
