Mei soft-opens in downtown St. Pete with Michelin pedigree

Downtown St. Pete just got its most credentialed new table of 2026. Mei — a fine dining concept from the same hospitality group behind Tampa's Michelin-starred Kōsen — quietly began its soft opening earlier this month at 320 3rd Street South. If you haven't heard about it yet, you will soon.

What exactly is Mei?

Mei is a new fine dining concept combining French technique, Nordic influences, and Japanese ingredients.

That might sound like a lot of hyphenated food-writing, but the execution here comes from people who have genuinely earned those adjectives.

The project is being led by Executive Chef Alex Chamberlain, who transitioned from his role as Chef de Cuisine at Michelin-starred Kōsen in Tampa.

Chamberlain grew up in South Tampa, trained in Denver at a Scandinavian-inspired Michelin-starred kitchen, and came back to the Bay to build something entirely his own.

The restaurant is a deeply personal project for Chamberlain, named after his sister.

Michelin-awarded Sommelier of the Year Benjamin Coutts is leading the beverage program, and the venture is backed by Orlando restaurateurs Johnny and Jimmy Tung, whose growing portfolio includes Tampa's Kōsen and Tantō and the recently announced Tokyo Swim Club rooftop lounge opening in West Ybor this fall.

Two ways to experience it

With two dining formats, Mei will offer a communal experience with à la carte options and an optional prix fixe menu in the living room, and an eight-seat kitchen counter with a chef-guided tasting menu.

The chef's counter is the one to watch.

The Chef's Table will eventually serve as the centerpiece of the restaurant, offering a tasting menu that utilizes advanced techniques including binchotan grilling, in-house fermentation, koji aging, dry aging, and fire-based cooking.

Think of it less as dinner and more as a two-hour conversation with a kitchen that has something to say.

According to the Tung brothers, Mei's food and beverage program will change throughout the year, reflecting seasonal shifts and the availability of ingredients — and as the kitchen team grows and operations ramp up, diners can expect new dishes and additional complexity throughout the menu.

Where and how to get in

Mei is located at 320 3rd Street South on the ground floor of the Camden Pier District Apartments, replacing Bento Asian Kitchen + Sushi, which closed earlier this year after eight years in business.

It's a short walk from the St. Pete Pier and sits in a stretch of downtown that has been absorbing a lot of energy lately.

Reservations for Mei aren't available on online platforms yet, but guests can join a waitlist for the soft opening on its website.

If you're planning a special dinner in the next few weeks, get on that list now. Soft openings for concepts like this tend to fill fast once word spreads on social media.

Why this matters for St. Pete's dining identity

St. Pete has been quietly stacking Michelin-adjacent talent for the past two years — Elliott Aster at the Vinoy, the Kōsen team now crossing the bay with Mei, and more on the way.

Sustainability is a key component of Mei's concept, with an emphasis on whole ingredient utilization, preservation techniques, partnerships with local farms and fishermen, composting, and biodegradable packaging — all in service of "a kitchen celebrating Florida, and a restaurant celebrating genuinely warm hospitality," in Chamberlain's own words.

That's not a mission statement for a tourist-facing restaurant. It's the language of a chef planting roots in a neighborhood and betting on its long-term trajectory.

I drove by the Camden Pier District building last week and the signage is already up. For a soft opening, that's a strong signal this one is here to stay.

The real estate angle: Consistently, what I hear from buyers relocating to downtown St. Pete is that they want to be within walking distance of the kind of dining that justifies the price tag. Mei is exactly the sort of anchor that makes the downtown St. Pete condo market — and blocks like 3rd Street South — worth a very close look.