{"id":517668,"date":"2026-11-04T00:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T00:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/517668\/"},"modified":"2026-11-04T00:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T00:02:08","slug":"orange-county-dining-juggernaut-kei-concepts-is-finally-expanding-into-la","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/517668\/","title":{"rendered":"Orange County Dining Juggernaut Kei Concepts Is Finally Expanding Into LA"},"content":{"rendered":"

What began 12 years ago as a single Buena Park pho shop<\/a> has evolved into Kei Concepts<\/a>, one of Orange County\u2019s most dominant restaurant groups. Co-founded by James Beard-nominated chef Viet Nguyen, the group\u2019s portfolio now spans nine unique brands \u2014 ranging from Italian-Japanese fusion to contemporary Chinese<\/a> \u2014 across 14 locations and 1,200 employees.<\/p>\n

At Culver Commons, the two OC imports will join a stacked tenant lineup that includes Wanderlust Creamery, Smog City Brewing, and El Moro Churrer\u00eda. While the partners behind Kei Concepts considered expanding beyond its Orange County \u201cbubble\u201d for years, Nguyen says, the group didn\u2019t take the leap until Regency Centers approached them about the opportunity in Culver City. Previously, the two companies partnered at Heritage Plaza, an Irvine shopping complex owned by Regency Centers, where Kei Concepts operates three restaurants: N\u1ebfp Cafe, S\u00fap Noodle Bar, and Rol Hand Roll Bar.<\/p>\n

\u201cCulver City is the perfect location for our introduction of Kei Concepts to LA residents,\u201d says Nguyen. He notes that the city\u2019s demographics and income levels closely mirror those of the group\u2019s most successful Orange County markets like Irvine, though with a smaller Asian population.<\/p>\n

Bringing Vox Kitchen to Los Angeles marks a full-circle moment for Nguyen. \u201cWhen I was working all over LA, the number-one restaurant I always went to every single week was Mario\u2019s Seafood,\u201d he says. The long-standing Hollywood Peruvian restaurant\u2019s signature ceviches and lomo saltado inspired Vox Kitchen.<\/p>\n

Vox Kitchen Culver City will seat 200 diners across a 5,000-square-foot dining room and a 1,000-square-foot patio, making it significantly larger than existing locations in Fountain Valley and South Coast Plaza. To further differentiate the restaurant from its predecessors, the Culver City menu is adding what Nguyen calls a \u201cNikkei flair\u201d to its Chifa standards, introducing a raw bar and a dynamic slate of cocktails.<\/p>\n

Three doors down, Rol, which currently operates in Fountain Valley, Irvine, and La Habra, will span 2,000 square feet, with counter-only seating. Its core menu of handrolls and donburi bowls will expand to feature a new lineup of traditional and innovative onigiri, including Korean-inspired variations like bulgogi and kimchi. Madrid-based architecture and experience firm Livit<\/a> designed the sleek interiors for both spaces.<\/p>\n

Nguyen views the dual Culver City openings as a litmus test for the brand\u2019s viability outside its home turf. \u201cCulver City will be the defining moment,\u201d Nguyen says. \u201cIf we open it and nobody shows up and they hate us, then we still have a lot of work to do. But if it succeeds and people love it, we\u2019ll be in 50 states.\u201d<\/p>\n

While it is too soon to say how the Orange County powerhouse will fare in a hyper-competitive market like Los Angeles\u2019s, Nguyen\u2019s underlying mission to foster connection within the Vietnamese diaspora through shared meals remains steadfast. \u201cWhen you sit around the dinner table, everything becomes softer; you find it easier to forget. I feel like my job is to bring people together at the dinner table,\u201d he says. \u201cEverything I\u2019m doing is for Little Saigon. Everything I\u2019m doing is for Vietnamese people to come together to share stories.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What began 12 years ago as a single Buena Park pho shop has evolved into Kei Concepts, one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,1698,8472],"class_list":["post-517668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-coming-attractions","tag-la-restaurant-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517668","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=517668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}