HoneyMood, a brunch restaurant that puts Korean, Japanese and other Asian twists on classic dishes, opened on Oct. 20 at 726 Clement St. The restaurant sits between eighth and ninth avenues in the space once occupied by Chili House, which closed in 2023 after a fire in the apartment above it.

Co-owners Farnisa Johnson and Chutikarn Sukchote opened after nearly a year of work on the space, far longer than they had planned.

They said they want the restaurant to feel like a getaway. The name HoneyMood came from the name of an album by their favorite singer, WIM, and it matched the concept the two had in mind.

“You don’t feel like you are in America,” Johnson said. “It’s like you go into Asia and then try something new, so it’s giving you a honey mood, like a sweet mood, or a beginning of a good day.”

Johnson and Sukchote worked together in the food industry for almost four years before deciding to open their own place.

“We saw the opportunity,” Johnson said. “I like doing drinks. She likes doing food, so that’s why we came up with the idea and wanted to start a business together.”

The menu features six eggs Benedict dishes that are topped with either kimchi or roasted chili jam hollandaise and the katsu sandwiches come on shokupan, a Japanese milk bread. Sweet options include a banana pancake with salted whipped vanilla cream cheese and a strawberry matcha French toast. The small bites range from corn ribs to fried squid with kimchi aioli. Drinks include specialty lattes and a long list of matcha drinks.

“When people come here, I just want them to feel like ‘I’m traveling to New York,’” Johnson said. “Or the Golden Tokyo Benedict. You taste some feeling that you were in Tokyo when you’re eating it.”

She said the Almost Classic Bene is one of the restaurant’s standout dishes with smoked beef bacon, kale, panko crumb and roasted chili jam hollandaise on sourdough.

“We are just trying to do some twists in it,” Johnson said. “It’s not just your regular eggs Benedict.”

Matcha is also featured on the menu. A Kiss of Matcha location operates on the same block, so HoneyMood’s drinks are different to avoid items that are already available in the neighborhood.

“Our sakura matcha is something that I really recommend,” Johnson said.

Courtney Jang, who lives in the Sunset District, visited after her sister shared an Instagram post about the restaurant. She ordered the Golden Tokyo and said she’d definitely return to have it again.

“It was definitely an elevated breakfast or brunch item,” Jang said. “It was a really crispy chicken katsu with slaw on top. Nice poached eggs with hollandaise on a shokupan bread, and I opted for a side salad instead of home fries.”

The space itself also left an impression on her.

“The restaurant space is really beautiful,” Jang said. “They did a nice job. I was expecting a more casual cafe, but it’s a really nice sit-down.”

The interior uses orange, yellow and a hint of green, colors the owners tied to the honey theme of the name.

“Orange is actually never a boring color, so most of the interior turned up being orange,” Johnson said.

Passing by one day, Richmond resident Patti Kong was wowed by seeing the interior through the window and then stopped to read the menu. It was too close to the closing time that day for Kong to go inside, but she plans to visit in the future.

“It’s all remodeled and looks very appealing, nice and clean,” Kong said. “I thought it was a dessert place, but then I looked at the menu, and I saw a lot of matcha offerings, and I like matcha.”

Kong said she and others used to visit the previous restaurant before it closed and that it’s good to have one less vacant storefront in the neighborhood.

Getting to opening day was harder than the owners expected. They had hoped renovations would take three to six months, but the building is old and finding workers for cosmetic renovations took time. Johnson said working with contractors was the biggest hurdle.

“Dealing with people in different fields is actually really hard, because when you don’t know about buildings and stuff, that’s quite challenging,” Johnson said.

Opening brought its own uncertainty. The owners said they do not yet know how many customers to expect each day, and as a result, how much food to order.

The owners plan to update the menu regularly so there is always something new for the community.

Johnson said the work behind the opening has been constant.

“It’s a lot of work, and it’s hard work, and we put a lot of effort into it,” Johnson said. “I just want to present something new for the neighborhood.”

HoneyMood opens daily at 9 a.m., closing at 2 p.m. on weekdays and 3 p.m. on weekends. Its website is honeymoodsf.com.