A fresh batch of culinary names have been revealed for Katella Commons, the food hall at the incoming OCVibe. The newly unveiled roster includes an Anaheim homecoming for a Filipino restaurant lost to fire and an Orange County churro business built on a 57-year-old family recipe.
OCVibe announced Monday, Aug. 24, four new culinary partners slated to join its forthcoming market hall: Don Churros Gomez (which opened its first brick-and-mortar space in Santa Ana last year), MFK Filipino, chef Guoming “Sam” Xin’s Mojo and Pull & Roll and Gelato Paradiso.
Brothers Jamie and Ricky Nuñez Gomez will bring Don Churros Gomez and its churros to the Anaheim project. The third-generation family business dates to 1969, when their grandfather, nicknamed “Don Churros,” developed the recipe in Yahualica, Jalisco, Mexico.
The brothers continue to make the churros using techniques handed down by their grandparents and parents. Their Katella Commons menu will also include other traditional Mexican desserts.
For husband-wife duo Henry Pineda and Amanda “Panda” Pineda, Katella Commons will mark the return of MFK (Modern Filipino Kitchen), the Filipino concept the couple first opened in Anaheim in late 2016. After losing the restaurant to a fire in 2020, and later reopening a similar concept called MFK by Aysee in Bellflower, they moved forward with Lola’s by MFK, their brunch restaurant in Anaheim. The Katella Commons version will feature modern interpretation of familiar Pinoy dishes and a menu created specifically for the OCVibe location.
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Chef Guoming “Sam” Xin, known as “the Noodle Man,” will oversee two Northern Chinese-themed spots, Mojo and Pull & Roll. Together, the two will center on hand-pulled noodles and dumplings. Xin began his career in Zhengzhou, China, where he opened his first restaurant, Noodle City. He later trained in Beijing, earning certification as a senior noodle technician. He has more than 20 years of experience making noodles, including stretching and pulling dough by hand.
Gelato Paradiso, rounds out the new group coming to Katella Commons. Pedro Quevedo, the gelato artisan and longtime production manager, will take charge of the new Anaheim location. He has worked with the company since its founding in Newport Beach in 1999, helping produce its Italian gelato for more than 25 years.
The gelateria, which has expanded throughout Southern California and into Texas, makes its gelato daily in small batches. Flavors include pistachio, stracciatella and bacio, along with rotating gelato and sorbetto flavors made with seasonal fruit.
The five concepts will join the first wave of Katella Commons chef names announced in June. That gastronomic group includes a Mexitalian spot from Amiga Amore chefs Danielle Duran Zecca and Alessandro Zecca; Burritos La Palma from Alberto Bañuelos; Evil Cooks from Alex “Pobre Diablo” Garcia and Elvia “La Burja” Huerta; a khao soi-focused project from Manaao Thai Comfort Food owners Kanate Ungkasrithongkul and Anita Lin; and pizza and fried-chicken concepts from Chrysalis and Darkroom’s Zach Scherer.
Roy Choi’s Best Friend, an offshoot of his Las Vegas eatery, is also headed to OCVibe in a space separate from Katella Commons.
The roughly 50,000-square-foot, two-story market hall is slated to open in early 2027 as part of OCVibe, the 10-acre dining, entertainment, residential and commercial district taking shape around Honda Center in Anaheim.