The stretch of Culver Drive and its surrounding blocks in northern Irvine contains one of the denser concentrations of Korean and Vietnamese restaurants in Orange County — a less-heralded rival to Garden Grove and Westminster, but worth knowing about if you're based in Irvine. Korean barbecue restaurants, tofu soup houses, Vietnamese pho shops, and bánh mì bakeries are all represented here, along with bubble tea shops, Korean fried chicken spots, and Taiwanese dessert cafes.
The restaurants are aimed squarely at the local community, which means pricing is reasonable and the food is generally the real thing rather than an adapted version for non-Korean or non-Vietnamese diners. It is not a single identifiable strip so much as a cluster spread across several shopping centres and plazas — the kind of arrangement that makes perfect sense once you know what you're looking for, but rewards some advance research. Look up current Korean barbecue and pho spots in the Culver Drive corridor before you go, as individual restaurants turn over, but the concentration of good options in the area is reliable.