![\"Award-winning](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784589369_871_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nIt has been over five years since chef Roy Choi\u2019s Kogi BBQ food trucks eliminated Orange County from their regular route.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the years we spent with Kogi in O.C. were very special,\u201d Choi said. \u201cThere was a lot of love there and we never forgot them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since then, locals have clamored for Choi\u2019s return. Now it seems O.C. residents will get their wish. On Monday, OCVibe announced the James Beard Award-winning chef and author will bring his Las Vegas restaurant concept, Best Friend, to Orange County.<\/p>\n
Choi\u2019s restaurant will open in fall 2027 and will be the first of OCVibe\u2019s collection of chef-driven signature restaurants at the100-acre mixed-use district in Anaheim. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Award-winning chef Roy Choi brings Korean barbecue concept Best Friend to Orange County. <\/p>\n
(Courtesy of OCVibe)<\/p>\n
For local fans, the announcement means renewed access to the bold, Korean and Mexican fusion flavors Choi is known for. For the celebrity chef, it means a return to his Orange County roots.<\/p>\n
Choi came to the United States from Seoul, South Korea, in 1972 and lived in Los Angeles with his family and later Villa Park in northern Orange County, where he attended Villa Park High School. His family owned Silver Garden, an Anaheim Korean restaurant for three years, and Choi graduated from Cal State Fullerton with a bachelor\u2019s degree in philosophy in 1994. <\/p>\n
An obsession with Emeril Lagasse\u2019s \u201cEssence of Emeril,\u201d along with formative culinary experiences in Orange County, inspired him to pursue the culinary arts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to go to South Coast Plaza, right around when I was 16 or 17 and the Armani Cafe had just opened up. Back then, we used to watch a lot of Hong Kong gangster movies and the dream was to have an Armani suit and a tooth pick in your mouth,\u201d Choi said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t buy the suit, but I thought if I could eat at the cafe, it would be like wearing the suit. I ordered the arugula salad with shaved parmesan and balsamic vinegar and olive oil. That, I have to admit, was probably 1-mile marker in my journey to becoming a chef.\u201d<\/p>\n
After working in some of New York\u2019s best kitchens, Choi launched gourmet Korean Mexican taco truck, Kogi BBQ, in 2008, which changed the narrative around food trucks. Over the years, Choi leveraged his culinary success into a career that celebrates food, culture and community. <\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the beginning, our vision for OCVibe has been to partner with chefs whose restaurants represent more than great dining experiences, they tell authentic stories, celebrate the communities they serve and create places where people genuinely want to gather,\u201d Anthony Olheiser, senior vice president of hospitality at OCVibe, said in a statement. \u201cBest Friend embodies that philosophy, and we\u2019re incredibly proud to welcome Roy as the first chef to join our signature restaurant collection.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2024, Choi received an honorary doctor of Fine Arts degree from Cal State Fullerton during the university\u2019s College of Business and Economics commencement ceremony at Titan Stadium, where he also served as the guest speaker.<\/a> He has written multiple books, including New York Times best-selling cookbook and memoir, \u201cL.A. Son,\u201d with Rancho Santa Margarita Library holding a book signing event<\/a> with Choi for its release. <\/p>\n He consulted on actor and director Jon Favreau\u2019s 2014 film, \u201cChef\u201d which led to a 12-year friendship and the Netflix series \u201cThe Chef Show.\u201d He opened a \u201cChef Food Truck\u201d parked at the Park MGM in Las Vegas. Choi also hosted the Emmy Award-winning PBS SoCal series \u201cBroken Bread,\u201d co-produced by KCET and Tastemade.<\/p>\n Roy Choi signed copies of his bestselling cookbook and memoir, \u201cL.A. Son\u201d, at the Rancho Santa Margarita Library on July 13. <\/p>\n (Sarah Mosqueda)<\/p>\n Best Friend opened in Las Vegas in 2018<\/a>, a mash-up of bodega, bar and restaurant known for creative cocktails and a Korean-Mexican fusion menu. <\/p>\n \u201cBest Friend has always been my poem to the Southern California and L.A. area. There have always been Easter eggs of Orange County there, especially North Orange County like Anaheim, Garden Grove and Orange where I specifically spent a lot of time,\u201d Choi said.<\/p>\n The menu in Las Vegas features some of Choi\u2019s signature dishes that were popularized at his various restaurants throughout the years, like Kogi short rib tacos and Chego pork belly bowl. Choi said diners can expect to see some of those favorites at Best Friend\u2019s O.C. outpost too, but he also looks forward to the second location finding its own identity.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are going to want the slippery shrimp, they are going to want the barbecue, they are going to want the kimchi fired rice, so I have to decide what stays and what goes,\u201d said Choi. \u201cThis restaurant is more than a restaurant to me because I have to go back and confront my whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n Chef Roy Choi\u2019s restaurant, Best Friend, at Park MGM in Las Vegas is known for creative cocktails and a Korean-Mexican fusion menu. <\/p>\n (Sarah Mosqueda)<\/p>\n Overall, Choi is excited about the homecoming.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are entering a new chapter and figuring out what it\u2019s going to be because I had the opportunity to translate L.A. and O.C. in another city to the rest of the world,\u201d said Choi. \u201cNow I have the chance to take that and come back home with it.\u201d<\/p>\n The announcement of Best Friend joining OCVibe is a second helping of culinary partners the entertainment and lifestyle district has assembled to fill its kitchens. Earlier this month, OCVibe announced<\/a> a group of highly regarded chef-driven concepts from Los Angeles and Orange counties to fill the stalls at the district\u2019s Katella Commons food hall, which will be separate from the signature restaurants, set to open in 2027. Among them are concepts from O.C. favorites Burritos La Palma<\/a>, Manaao Thai Comfort Food<\/a> and Darkroom<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has been over five years since chef Roy Choi\u2019s Kogi BBQ food trucks eliminated Orange County from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,162698,35235,16725,162699,162697,8138,162696,162695,63,1741,6210,10111,611,1457,72],"class_list":["post-405818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-armani-suit","tag-best-friend","tag-celebrity-chef","tag-chef-roy-choi","tag-chef-driven-signature-restaurant","tag-choi","tag-l-a-son","tag-las-vegas-restaurant-concept","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-lot","tag-o-c","tag-ocvibe","tag-orange-county","tag-restaurant","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Roy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784589370_949_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Chef](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784589370_773_.jpeg\")
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