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The Best New Restaurants in and Around San Diego, June 2026

Dante Ulanday - News ModeratorJune 5, 202610 Mins read9 Views

The Best New Restaurants in and Around San Diego, June 2026

Where to eat right now in San Diego

Updated Jun 4, 2026, 10:35 PM UTC

Often, readers and friends of Eater have one burning question: “Where should I eat right now?” The heatmap exists to answer that question — offering a prismatic view of what is new and notable in San Diego. While the restaurant and bar industry has faced tremendous challenges, San Diego’s restaurants continue to persevere, with new and exciting openings springing up all the time. The restaurants featured on this list are typically less than six months old and give a sense of what’s hot and happening around town. For restaurants that have established themselves as one of the city’s best, check out Eater San Diego’s Essential 38.

New this update: Night Hawk, Las Cuatro Milpas, Sugarfish, Taconora, Dagu Miishiee, and Urban Matcha join the list, while Verise, Fleurette, La Jollita, and Roppongi Restaurant and Lounge leave.

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Nómada

Nómada brings a bright addition to Carlsbad’s flourishing dining scene. The personal menu highlights chef Alex Carballo’s Sinaloense heritage and adventures in Mexico with live-fire cooking, along with an emphasis on local seafood, seen in dishes such as charred octopus and wood-fired oysters. The raw bar’s supple tortillas get made on site; a duck mole taco trio will satisfy the table. Ask staff to chat about the cocktails like the Ranchero Paloma with fresh twists like cinnamon and traditional ingredients, or the non-alcoholic chicha morada from Peru.

Kimberly Motos

Pastaria Vivi

A team of chefs who have worked in restaurants such as Michelin-starred Lazy Bear in San Francisco, No. 9 Park in Boston, and Mille Fleurs in Rancho Santa Fe opened a new casual pasta café and Italian market in Encinitas. Pastas get produced in house and span 75 varieties that rotate daily. Find tagliatelle, ravioli, tortellini, along with vegan and gluten-free options, to pair with homemade sauces such as slow-simmered Bolognese and heirloom tomato marinara. Counter seating faces an open kitchen as chefs sling pasta dishes to order; a communal table sits in the center of the retail shop that sells specialty Italian olive oils and Aisu Creamery ice cream from Chino Farm. Pastaria Vivi also offers a monthly pasta box subscription and grab-and-go meals. By 2027, the chefs plan to add a stone mill to supply flour for its pastas.

Kimberly Motos

Juice Holler

A charming Appalachian-themed cafe opened in downtown Encinitas on South Coast Highway 101. Owner Kelly Sergott, who hails from rural Kentucky, wanted to create a “holler.” In Appalachian slang, a “holler” represents a community gathering place with deep ties to the land, as well as a valley between two mountains, says Sergott. Decorated with bright murals of butterflies, mountains, and ocean waves created by a local artist, the cafe occupies 1,300 square feet with indoor and outdoor seating. The restaurant serves smoked salmon salad, bone broths, matcha lattes, cold-pressed juices, lemon turmeric bars, and smoothie bowls, the latter of which can be topped with garnishes such as chia seeds, mint, and bee pollen.

Diana Rose Photography

Dark Horse Japanese Nikkei Cuisine

Dark Horse Japanese Nikkei Cuisine serves Japanese-Peruvian dishes at the all-day spot in the Torrey Hills neighborhood. Owner Enrique Ibarra also operates Japanese-Mexican restaurant Tsunami Modern Cuisine in Santee and Chuy’s Taqueria y Burritos in El Cajon after working at Himitsu in La Jolla. Along with co-owner Edgar Machuca, the team wanted to branch out from East County. “I like to add different touches to the sushi rolls and crudo,” Ibarra told Eater. The restaurant serves sashimi, rolls, nigiri, octopus made with aji Amarillo and crispy garlic, and salmon mango tradito, comprising of sashimi slices on thin avocado slices nested in a tangy tropical puree.

Phở Gà Go

A new Mira Mesa phở destination from industry veterans has emerged just in time for soup season. At takeout pop-up Phở Gà Go, find Saturday, Sunday, and Monday pickups for steaming bowls of phở gà with diners’ choice of bowl styles: one with a wing and breast, one with leg and thigh, and a whole chicken version. Starters like crispy chả giò packed with pork, shrimp, taro, and wood ear mushroom; gỏi gà xé phai, a shredded chicken salad; and Vietnamese coffee drinks complete the picture. Pickups happen at Crab Hut Mira Mesa.

Pho Ga Go

Playa Kitchen

Clique Hospitality (Serea, Lionfish, Joya Kitchen, Temaki Bar Sushi) opened a new daytime café, Playa Kitchen, in the Torrey Pines Science Park across the street from the iconic Torrey Pines Golf Course. The affordable breakfast and lunch menu spans coffee; smoothies; breakfast burritos with potatoes, eggs, and bacon; tuna poke bowls with seaweed salad; and curry chicken wraps with accompaniments like fries, salads, or half of each. Available for private events in their indoor and outdoor space as well as catering, the café will soon offer beer and wine to accompany their dishes.

Playa Kitchen

Hongdae Dakgalbi

Hongdae Dakgalbi, the first U.S. outpost of the popular Seoul-based restaurant Shin Mi Kyung Hongdae Dakgalbi, just landed in the Convoy District. Since 1996, Shin Mi Kyung Hongdae Dakgalbi has been slinging stir-fried chicken in a secret sauce at its Hongdae location in Seoul. Taking over the former Nice 2 You Chuan Chuan Hot Pot space, the restaurant specializes in signature spicy chicken blanketed in mozzarella and cheddar cheese fondue, cooked on a cast-iron grill in the center of the table. Servers assist in preparing the family-style meals. Finish off with a fried rice order to soak up all the flavors. For the best value, go for the set menus for two to four people.

4428 Convoy Street, #130, San Diego, California 92111, United States

Little While Cafe

Little While Cafe comes from the Sweet and Savory Collective, which runs Stella Jean’s Ice Cream and Pop Pie Co. Their philosophy combines all of their talents in one place with single-origin coffee, pastries, and a charming space for locals to linger awhile. The salted maple latte is a standout hot drink, but the LW matcha latte with maple syrup, coconut water, and milk is one that folks will return for, as well as the kouign-amann and classic butter croissant.

Little While Cafe

A L’Ouest

Chef Brad Wise of the Trust Group (Rare Society, Wise Ox, Trust, Fort Oak) debuted A L’Ouest, a French-California restaurant, on February 11 in North Park. Situated on a corner lot, the restaurant offers a bar that opens to the street, patio seating, and an indoor dining space brightened with illuminated columns and hanging trellis. Find dishes like homemade country harissa pate, steak frites, aged duck a l’orange, and wood-fired steaks. Along with French and American wines, the bar serves a robust cocktail program that includes drinks like the Loire Valley Girl, made with gin, pear eau de vie, salted cucumber, and rosewater.

Trust Restaurant Group

Sono

Taking over the former Seventh House astrology-themed restaurant in North Park, Italian restaurant Sono opened in March. It’s the second venture for husband-and-wife team Ocean Mohamadi and Nino Cusimano, who opened Flora in December 2024, located just a few blocks away. The sleek new restaurant serves a menu that encompasses regional dishes from Rome, Naples, and Sicily. While the format includes pizzas and prosciutto, it also features pastas made in house such as baked gnocchi and conchiglioni piccanti, a large-shell pasta dish made with ‘nduja paste and cacio e pepe mousse. Find deep-fried eggplant balls, potato croquettes stuffed with short ribs, and flat-iron pancetta and prosciutto skewers.

Sono

Bacari North Park

Occupying a century-old, French Quarter–inspired location in North Park, Bacari is the first San Diego location for the Los Angeles–based restaurant brand. The space spans two floors of dining rooms, warmly lit bars on both floors, an outdoor dining terrace, and a balcony filled with intimate tables, overlooking the streets. Executive chef Lior Hillel worked at Jean-Georges in New York City and serves a broadly Mediterranean menu featuring dishes such as Moroccan cigars; spiced lamb shakshuka pizza; and malabi, a rosewater and pistachio custard. Be sure to order a selection from the extensive wine list or a cocktail such as the Love Letter, made with honeyed whiskey, passionfruit, and toasted marshmallow.

Jakob Layman

Tijuanero by Tijuanazo

After relocating from Hillcrest to Little Italy, a popular Tijuana-style taco restaurant opened its doors on a busy corner on India Street and West Hawthorn Street. Started in 2011, Tijuanazo has seven locations in Tijuana and two branches in East Los Angeles, with a third one poised to open. Karyme Esquivel, the daughter of founders Antonio and Claudia Esquivel, runs Tijuanazo’s only San Diego shop. The iconic winking cowboy logo sits atop the compact, fast-casual restaurant with an outdoor stainless steel taco cart for grilling meats and covered outdoor seating. Known for pairing meats with a specific salsa, the taqueria slings fillings such as adobada, carne asada, beef birria, and chorizo. For the slow-cooked birria, the accompanying salsa uses roasted tomatoes, chile de árbol, and caramelized onions for an earthy, smoky flavor. The carne asada and chorizo get served with a salsa blend made from tomatoes, chiles, and habanero. Currently, the adobada is available after 5:30 p.m. due to the marination time required for it.

2102 India Street, San Diego, California 92101, United States

Tijaunero

Suzette

Suzette is now open on Third Avenue in Chula Vista, led by a star team that includes Wormwood’s executive chef, Omar Armas (Pujol, Quique Dacosta, Momofuku Ssam), and Jerome Gombert, who started the now-closed Vagabond Restaurant and Café Madeleine in South Park. Owner of Michelin-recognized Restaurante Amores in Tecate, Mexico, Marcelo Hisaki consults on the restaurant. The French café opened initially for breakfast and lunch and expanded with dinner service in April. Menu highlights include crepes topped with salmon, quiche Lorraine, egg and avocado croissants, and sweet crepe Suzettes.

Helen Hwang

Night Hawk at the Baby Grand

After much anticipation, CH Projects (Born and Raised, Quixote, Ironside Fish and Oyster, Morning Glory) debuted Night Hawk, a new maximalist Greek open-air restaurant, in Coronado. Anchoring the hospitality group’s second boutique hotel, the Baby Grand Crown City (after reopening the Lafayette Hotel in 2016), the outdoor restaurant features Greek statues, mosaic floors, and a waterfall, while the dining booths, carved out of rock, are shrouded with palm trees and illuminated with gaslit torches. Find hummus, baba ghanoush, tabbouleh, kibbeh, and whole wheat pita, as well as mains like lobster squid-ink linguini or souvlaki, spiced lamb kofte, and blackened shrimp from the open-fire grill. Highlights from the cocktail menus include Monkey Trees, made with tequila blanco, feta, and watermelon, and Purple Kisses, made with London dry gin, spiced gin, and butterfly pea flower foam. Hidden in the wall of the dark, moody lobby is a door that leads to Fallen Empire, a lavish oyster and Champagne bar that slings Kumamoto oysters, scallop crudo, and uni tartare. The reservation-only lounge is outfitted with red mohair booths with built-in Champagne buckets.

Baby Grand

Las Cuatro Milpas

Barrio Logan’s legendary taqueria, Las Cuatro Milpas, reopened in a spacious new indoor-outdoor location a couple blocks away from its original shop. First opened in 1933, the family-run restaurant was forced to close in December 2026 due to back taxes on the building. The new Cuatro Milpas offers the same menu that the Barrio Logan institution has been slinging for decades, with highlights like marinated pulled pork in rolled tacos and corn tortillas, fried in pork lard, along with steaming bowls of tamal, chorizo, rice, and beans. Find Mexican menudo made with beef tripe in a red chili broth, available only on Saturdays. Located on the ground floor of a modern apartment building, the new restaurant channels the same cozy aesthetic as the original dining room with communal tables covered in vintage green tablecloths as well as modern updates like new kitchen equipment and registers that now accept credit cards as well as cash.

Sugarfish

Sugarfish, the iconic Los Angeles sushi restaurant known for its Trust Me omakase, has finally landed in San Diego, making its debut in Little Italy. Located on a corner, the 40-seat restaurant has a sushi counter in the back and dozens of tables in the main dining area. Since opening the first Sugarfish restaurant in 2008, the team has set out to introduce high-quality, approachable omakase and sushi to the masses. (Nozawa first established his namesake sushi restaurant in a small Studio City strip mall in 1978.) Known for excellent fish sourced from its own fleet, the kitchen slings three different styles of toro, Japanese hamachi, New Zealand sea bream, pink lobster, and Southern California sea urchin, served on loosely packed warm rice, as part of the omakase and a la carte menu. Greenberg says Sugarfish is already looking to open a second location, possibly in North County.

Jakob Layman

Urban Matcha

Urban Matcha opened its first California location in the Convoy District, serving ceremonial-grade uji matcha from Kyoto in its teas and desserts. Located in the Convoy Point Plaza Shopping Center, the casual cafe takes over the Sizzling House and Noodle storefront, which closed after a two-year run. Sizzling House’s former owner, Mr. Lin, is now the general manager of Urban Matcha, working closely with owner Phil Zhang, who launched two Urban Matcha cafes in Las Vegas. Zhang will focus on expanding in California, including a soon-to-open Bay Area location. Find drinks such as a matcha latte topped with black sesame cheese foam, as well as desserts like matcha parfait layered with corn flakes, mochi balls, and small squares of matcha sponge cake.

Helen I. Hwang

Taconora

A Sonoran-style taqueria landed in Pacific Beach, slinging specialties from the northwestern region of Mexico. Taconora serves carne asada, grilled New York strip loin steak, pork belly, and chicken in street tacos, lorenza (a crispy corn tortilla with melted cheese), or costra-style with a crispy grilled cheese crust instead of a tortilla. Other highlights include Sonoran beans, taco pizzas, and the grilled prime steak burro Sonorense packed with a generous amount of protein rather than rice and beans. For a less flour-heavy alternative, tacos and caramelos can be ordered in a lettuce wrap instead of a tortilla.

Taconora

Dagu Miishiee

A new Chinese restaurant slinging noodles two different ways has landed in the Convoy District. One iteration focuses on Yunnan-style “crossing the bridge” rice noodles added to a tableside hot pot of broth, accompanied by nine condiments such as minced pork, tofu, black fungus, and quail eggs; soup options include original bone broth, spicy mala sliced beef broth, and tomato braised beef brisket broth. Diners can also build-their-own spicy pot filled with selections like beef, fish balls, spinach, bok choy, and mushrooms. The ingredients get cooked in the kitchen in either a hot pot soup or a dry stir-fried mala noodle dish. End the meal with a DIY shaved ice jelly dessert.