A new Monterey restaurant offers Asian-fusion flair, but with a nod to the location’s heritage.

There is a current phrase generally reduced to acronym form that applies to Nami: If you know, you know.

The restaurant, which fills the old Cibo space in downtown Monterey, is a forward-thinking Japanese fusion concept – with a caveat. The menu also features a selection of pizza and pasta dishes.

“I was trying to figure out what Nami would look like,” explains owner Dudley Ashley. “When you’re in the restaurant business, it’s good to look forward. But this is what Rosa would have wanted.”

The Rosa in question is Rosa Catalano, who opened Cibo as an Italian destination more than three decades ago. She died in 2024 and the family decided to sell a year later.

Ashley is a restaurant veteran and owner of Pangaea Grill – as the name suggests, a global fusion restaurant, but with an Asian emphasis – and Sur, with an American touch. He envisioned Nami as fine dining steak and seafood, with a Japanese temperament. Yet early on he decided to pay tribute to Catalano’s achievement.

“What should we do?” he says. “I kept looking at the pizza oven and thought, ‘Why not?’”

So the menu becomes a story. The pasta and pizza tell of what was. Ashley imported kimchi fried rice from Pangaea and seabass tikka masala from Sur to recognize favorites from his other establishments. But the rest follows his vision.

And it all works.

Spicy gyoza soup brings a steady, flickering heat – unrelenting, but not overpowering. There is a grounded, nutty calm that tempers but cannot quell the sting.

In that bold reserve, Nami finds its unifying theme. Plush ahi tuna sashimi is plated with a wasabi-ginger dressing that, despite fiery expectations, provides just enough bite to spike your palate without overcoming the sweet calm of the fish.

These are dishes that revel in flavor without tipping too far in any direction. At times the kitchen uses a sense of reserve to advantage. The tempura batter is so spare it becomes a background note – in both flavor and texture. The vegetables don’t need any assistance, after all. They are fresh, so there is both a natural crunch and savor. The carrots are sweet and earthy, the cucumbers cool with a grassy flair. Even cauliflower makes itself known.

The menu extends from sushi and shareable plates to steak and seafood entrees, such as miso-glazed snapper or grilled ribeye plated with mashed potatoes and bok choy. The standout may be a Wagyu roast served alongside lobster tail. Again, there is a swagger to the dressing – a barbed Japanese A1, teetering with Dijon and pistachio.

The roast is a market price dish, worthy of a fine dining restaurant. But there is plenty to share and the space allows for relaxed casual dining.

“I love it when young people come in and order sushi and soup – that’s it,” Ashley observes. “That’s what this place is supposed to be about.”

Ashley admits that they often must explain the menu to first-time guests. But once they understand the legacy paired to a modern vibe, people begin to connect. “It makes sense,” he says. “‘Let me order sushi and pasta.’ The reaction has been tremendous.”

Unlike its predecessor, Nami opens for breakfast and lunch as well as dinner. When he took over the space in the summer of 2025, Ashley recognized that the location looked far too quiet during the day, particularly as it occupies a prominent corner.

Ashley allowed Nami to come into being slowly. He kept it running as Cibo for months as he and his team considered the menu, then tested dishes as he began to transition the space. When the Nami sign went up in January, the menu was still heavily flavored by Cibo favorites.

Now the space belongs to Nami – with a tribute to its past.

“It’s a full-circle moment,” Ashley says. “Nami is the culmination of everything we’ve learned from Sur and Pangaea, and now Cibo,” he says. “I’m so excited about it.”

Still, the server presents the check in a folder that offers one more remnant of the restaurant’s old identity. “Cibo” is emblazoned on the cover. But that, too, is part of Nami’s story of becoming.

NAMI, 301 Alvarado St., Monterey. (831) 246-8409, namimonterey.com.