Originally known as “Little Seoul” following a wave of immigration from the Koreas during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, the Koreatown business district in Garden Grove became Orange County’s first central gathering place for Korean-Americans, eventually spreading across Garden Grove Boulevard from Brookhurst Street to Beach Boulevard. Bordered by the plaza containing Oc & Lau at Brookhurst and Rodeo 39 Public Market at Beach, the area is now nearly as Vietnamese as Korean, overlapping part of Little Saigon. In between are plazas featuring A.R. Supermarket, H Mart, QT Golden Market Place, KBBQ spots Grams, Shik Do Rak and Mo Ran Gak, chains including bb.Q Chicken and BCD Tofu House, and indie restaurants like Yoon Busan Gukbap, as well as numerous Korean beauty, automotive, and health care businesses. Non-Korean restaurants in the area include A Nu Quan, Banh Cuon Thanh Tri, Da Vien Coffee, Happy Lemon, and The Vintage 1979.
Although Garden Grove’s Koreatown is decades older than the Koreatown in Buena Park, it’s clear that the latter has become a stronger center of gravity for local Korean businesses – including supermarkets, malls, and larger plazas – in recent years. That said, the roughly two-mile strip of Garden Grove Boulevard is fairly easy to explore by car, with free parking at every business in the area. Note also that this district shouldn’t be confused with LA’s Koreatown, which is of similar vintage and only somewhat more lively today.
