Experience Isabel’s Cantina, where cultures are thoughtfully integrated to create irresistible, modern taste sensations. Traditional Latin and Asian cuisines come together here, giving sustenance to a new kind of soul food.
Self-taught owner, cookbook author and chef Isabel Cruz brings her culinary Latin heritage front and center, adding to it the Asian influence she absorbed while growing up in Los Angeles. You can feel the passion that goes into each surprising new flavor combination, resulting in the bold and exotic – and surprisingly healthy- menu choices she proudly serves. By incorporating ingredients that range from spicy pork carnitas to tofu, our guests enjoy a vegetarian’s delight as well as a meat-lover’s paradise for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Our dining space fires off with a decorative dragon hovered mid-flight above our front door and continues with a gigantic 15-foot Buddha statue propped above the dining room. We’re dramatic and hip, with intimate booths and warm colors, resulting in an atmosphere refreshingly atypical of coastal Pacific Beach.
Isabel’s Cantina is among the top breakfast places in town (served until 3p.m.), with good reason, boasting Banana-Blackberry Pancakes, Breakfast Tamales, Scrambles and Coconut French Toast. Lunch and dinner options include Ahi Wontons, Chicken Lettuce Wraps and Grilled Salmon with house-made salsas. Escape from the rowdy Pacific Beach bars and end up at Isabel’s Cantina for desserts such as Bananas Cantina and sin-free (sorta) Flourless Chocolate Cake. Our drink menu shimmers with enticing options, too, like Mexican Mochas and Brazilian Mimosas. Or, embrace the fire with a Bloody Dragon.