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Behind San Diego’s Food Scene: Comedor Nishi’s Low-Key Stardom

For our Best Restaurants issue, we nod to the trends that marked the year including the arrival of a new brunch spot from an acclaimed Mexico City chef
San Diego restaurant Comedor Nishi opened in La Jolla featuring Torta de conchinita pibil food dish
Photo Credit: Luis Meza

With all the splashy free-agent acquisitions, the La Jolla spot that seemed to slip under the radar was Comedor Nishi from Pancho Ibáñez and his wife Daniela.

For about a decade, Ibañez was the right-hand man of chef Enrique Olvera at Pujol in Mexico City-which has been hailed by nearly every food media outlet as one of the best restaurants on the planet. Daniela, meanwhile, was pastry chef at the revered Máximo in Mexico City (another “Top 50″ spot).

2025 Best Restaurants San Diego Magazine list featuring local restaurant Campfire in Carlsbad

Ibáñez was hired full time as the culinary director of Showa Hospitality (The Taco Stand, Convoy Music Bar), and Comedor Nishi is his and Daniela’s Mexican breakfast-brunch-lunch spot-he soaks triple-cut brioche French toast overnight and house-cures salmon with yuzu kosho-spiked guacamole, and she bakes the pan dulces and cookies and incredible Mexican candies.

By Troy Johnson

Troy Johnson is the magazine’s award-winning food writer and humorist, and a long-standing expert on Food Network. His work has been featured on NatGeo, Travel Channel, NPR, and in Food Matters, a textbook of the best American food writing.

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