Westminster, California: Little Saigon, Food and Beaches

Quick answer

• Westminster is the centre of Little Saigon — the largest concentration of Vietnamese people anywhere outside Vietnam, with almost 200,000 residents across the district.
• The tourist district was officially designated on 10 February 1988 — a 1.5-mile stretch of Bolsa Avenue.
• The Asian Garden Mall (Phước Lộc Thọ), 9200 Bolsa Avenue — around 300 shops, a Vietnamese food court, and a summer weekend night market drawing about 3,000 people a night.
• The district is bounded by Westminster Boulevard, Bolsa Avenue, Magnolia Street and Euclid Street.
• Over 11,000 businesses operate in Little Saigon.
• It is a genuinely good, affordable base for the Orange County beaches — 15–20 minutes to Seal Beach and Huntington.

We stayed in Westminster because it was affordable and central for Orange County, and we did not fully understand where we were staying until we got there.

Westminster is the heart of Little Saigon. Nearly 200,000 Vietnamese people live across the district — the largest concentration anywhere outside Vietnam — and along Bolsa Avenue there are more Vietnamese restaurants, bakeries, jewellers and grocers than most people will see in their lives.

It is not a hidden gem in the way travel writing usually means. It is one of the most culturally significant neighbourhoods in California, and the food alone is a reason to plan a stop rather than just a night’s sleep.

Here is what to eat, what to see, where to stay, and how to use it as a base.

What Little Saigon actually is

The area was informally known as khu Bolsa — the Bolsa area — before it had a name.

On 10 February 1988, Westminster officially designated a 1.5-mile stretch of Bolsa Avenue as the “Little Saigon Tourist Commercial District.” Four months later, in June 1988, freeway signs went up on the I-405 and the SR-22.

The district spreads across Westminster, Garden Grove, Fountain Valley and Santa Ana, with the commercial heart in Westminster and Garden Grove. Its borders are Westminster Boulevard, Bolsa Avenue, Magnolia Street and Euclid Street.

As of 2023 there were 11,252 businesses in Little Saigon, employing nearly 50,000 people.

This is why the guide you are reading exists. Everything below sits inside those four streets.

The Asian Garden Mall — Phước Lộc Thọ

9200 Bolsa Avenue. Opened in 1987 by Frank Jao, and it is the anchor of the whole district.

Phước Lộc Thọ means fortune, prosperity and longevity — and there are statues of the three deities of those names at the entrance, along with a statue of Di-lặc. Point them out to children before you walk in; it turns an entrance into a thing to look at.

Inside, two floors:

• Upstairs: around 300 shops — Vietnamese cultural goods, cosmetics, luxury items, and rows and rows of gold jewellers, which is the sight people remember
• Downstairs: a Vietnamese food court — bánh mì, phở, rice dishes, sugarcane juice, Vietnamese iced coffee and fruit smoothies

Parking is at the front and back.

⭐ The night market. On summer weekend evenings the front car park becomes a night market selling Vietnamese street food, and it draws about 3,000 people a night. It runs roughly June to September.

If your dates fall in summer, plan a Friday or Saturday evening around this. It is free to walk into, it is the liveliest thing in Orange County that does not cost money, and almost no family travel guide mentions it.

Where to eat — and this section needed rewriting

I will be straightforward about this: the earlier version of this guide recommended a burger and a supermarket, in a neighbourhood with over eleven thousand businesses and some of the best Vietnamese food in the world.

Start with the Asian Garden Mall food court if you are unsure where to begin — it is easy, it is cheap, there are pictures on the boards, and children can see the food before choosing.

What to try:

• Phở — the beef noodle soup. Order it for a child plain and let them add things.
• Bánh mì — the baguette sandwich. Cheap, portable, and the easiest sell to a fussy eater.
• Cà phê sữa đá — Vietnamese iced coffee with condensed milk. Strong, sweet, and worth the detour on its own.
• Sugarcane juice and fruit smoothies — the children’s version of the same stop

Tết — the Lunar New Year festival

The Tết Festival was started in 1982 by Tony Lâm and now draws over 15,000 people.

It falls in late January or February, on the lunar calendar, so the date moves each year.

If your trip lands anywhere near it, plan around it. It is the biggest Vietnamese cultural event in the United States and it is on the doorstep of a hotel most visitors book purely because it is cheap and near Disneyland.

The Vietnam War memorials

Two of them, and they are quiet, serious places worth ten minutes.

The Vietnam War Memorial — a bronze monument by the sculptor Tuan Nguyen, unveiled on 27 April 2003 at Sid Goldstein Freedom Park, dedicated to those who died in the war.

The Boat People Memorial — dedicated on 26 April 2009 at Westminster Memorial Park, honouring those who left Vietnam by sea.

With older children this is worth explaining before you go. It is the reason the community is here, and it turns a shopping street into a piece of history.

Where to stay

We stayed at the Best Western Inn Westminster, which is central, affordable, and a sensible base for Orange County.

Internal link: our full review of the Best Western Inn Westminster

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Westminster as a base for Orange County

This is the practical argument for staying here, and your original article had it right.

Destination	Roughly
Seal Beach	15–20 min
Huntington Beach	15–20 min
Newport Beach and Balboa Island	~25 min
Laguna Beach	~35 min
Downtown Los Angeles	~45–60 min, traffic depending

Internal links:

• Seal Beach day trip
• Newport Beach, whales and Balboa Island
• our Laguna Beach day trip
• best beaches in Los Angeles for families

Is Westminster worth staying in?

Yes — and for a better reason than the one most people book it for.

Most visitors stay here because it is cheap and central for Orange County. That is true and it is a good reason. But you are also staying in the largest Vietnamese community outside Vietnam, and if you treat that as the point rather than the backdrop, it becomes one of the more interesting places you will stay in California.

Give it one evening on Bolsa Avenue. That is all it takes.