Cute Downtown Areas Near Irvine (San Francisco, Long Beach: apartment, houses, neighborhoods)

[gabby101]

My husband and I recently moved to Irvine and we love how beautiful and safe it is, but we are a little tired of all the chain restaurants and suburbia in general. Would love to mix it up a little by going somewhere a little different Friday/Saturday nights. Any cute neighborhoods nearby that might remind us of our old life in San Francisco? We are located near Jamboree and the 5 -wouldn't mind travelling anywhere that takes less than 30 minutes.

[EscapeCalifornia]

The Orange Circle isn't far away. Felix's is good for Cuban food.

[Podo944]

Originally Posted by gabby101

My husband and I recently moved to Irvine and we love how beautiful and safe it is, but we are a little tired of all the chain restaurants and suburbia in general. Would love to mix it up a little by going somewhere a little different Friday/Saturday nights. Any cute neighborhoods nearby that might remind us of our old life in San Francisco? We are located near Jamboree and the 5 -wouldn't mind travelling anywhere that takes less than 30 minutes.

A cute little town we like to go to is San Juan Capistrano. However, it's a bit sleepy at night (except for Swallow's Inn Bar), but during the day it's sweet!
Our fave breakfast place is Molly's and there's shops and an antique barn there, and the street behind the train station has little shops and a teahouse. It's pretty, and it's a different environment from the usual OC places. It can be little touristy, but it's nice to spend the afternoon there.

[capoeira]

Originally Posted by gabby101

My husband and I recently moved to Irvine and we love how beautiful and safe it is, but we are a little tired of all the chain restaurants and suburbia in general. Would love to mix it up a little by going somewhere a little different Friday/Saturday nights.

For nice places to walk around:

Belmont Shore in Long Beach.

Explore Belmont Shore

Belmont Brewing Company

Balboa Island and the Balboa Fun Zone.

Balboa Island Main Site

Balboa Fun Zone, Newport beach, California

Fullerton has a very small downtown.

Downtown Fullerton - Restaurants & Bars

For something different, Orange County and nearby parts of LA county have many very authentic ethnic enclaves. You can go to Koreatown in Garden Grove, Little Saigon in Westminster,Little Cambodia(Little Phnom Penh) in Long Beach,Little India in Artesia,Mitsuwa Marketplace & Japanese food court in Costa Mesa or stay in Irvine and get Chinatown style Chinese food at Sam Wo. I have eaten at more chain restaurants in San Francisco than I ever did in Orange County!

Welcome to Kaju Tofu Restaurant

Jinga

Asian Garden Mall

Vietnamese Fine Dining

Welcome to The India Restaurant

Cambodian Restaurant in Long Beach | Monorom Cambodian Restaurant

Mitsuwa Marketplace Costa Mesa

Dinner Menu for Darya Persian Restaurant (http://www.daryasouthcoastplaza.com/dinner-menu.htm - broken link)

Sam Woo Irvine - Chinese Seafood

[Coldjensens]

Sorry, you moved to suburbia. You will nto find places with hordes of people, street performers, hundreds of shops and cafes. OC residents go to Malls (with a few exceptions).

Old Town orange is your best bet. It is mostly antique stores and cafes, but there are some other neat places mixed in. Watsons is fun. Food is average (breakfast is best), but the place is really neat (1940s soda fountain). Felix's is cuban food. The Filling Station is good (high end burgers and fries, a bit slow at times). Bishop's cottage is good, but slow (if they are are still there). I drive by it regularly, but rarely even look). The Blue Frog is a neat bakery/Cafe wit nice owners. . Citrus City Grill (skip this one typical Irvine type place). The italian place accross from the old Citrus exchange is supoesed to be very good. I have only eaten there once, the rest of the times it was too crowded. It was fine. A bit pricy fror what you get IMO. I like to look around int he Army Navy store, they have some really neat stuff. There is a resale store right in the circle. It is small, mostly womens clothing more upscale than typical resale. THe various antique stores are great to poke around in. Many of them have specialties. If you want tolook at some neat houses the East side of Old town is the best.

Laguna Beach is a nice little town to walk around in. It is mostly art galleries, cafes and tourist shops.

Balboa is fun, but better for the younger crowd. Unfortunatley some of the better palces have closed. Not a lot of shopping unless you need a T shirt, but there are some great bars/cafes resturuants. The fun zone is fun even for adults. You can take a neat tour of the bay on a boat.

Santa Ana has some neat negihborhoods to walk around and lok at houses. French Park has some great homes, a little park and you can eat at Pop's cafe on Main and 8th (9th? I ate there every saturday morning ofr nine years and I cannot remember - I just walk to it).

Floral Park is one of the nicesest neighborhoods in Orange County. There are lots of neat houses. No shops or eateries.

The Mexican type shops on 4th street can be entertaining. Great place to by a hat or cowboy boots. Lots of wedding photogtaphy, shops and a small theater with lightly sticky seats and Spanish subtitles, or spanish dubbed movied with english subtitles. There is a farmers market on Wednesday afternoon. The artists villiage is neat, especially when there is an opening. There are some decent eateris in the artists villiage and on 4th near the civic center.

Tustin has a little bit of a downtown, but do nto walk fast when you walk around. You will run out of places to go/see in a few dozen steps.

[Nugget]

Originally Posted by gabby101

My husband and I recently moved to Irvine and we love how beautiful and safe it is, but we are a little tired of all the chain restaurants and suburbia in general. Would love to mix it up a little by going somewhere a little different Friday/Saturday nights. Any cute neighborhoods nearby that might remind us of our old life in San Francisco? We are located near Jamboree and the 5 -wouldn't mind travelling anywhere that takes less than 30 minutes.

You could probably get something close to an East Bay feel in San Juan Capistrano or Laguna Beach but other than that its basically suburbia and your right in the middle of it. And 30 minutes drive is about as short a drive as possible in suburbia.

One other place to go during the summer as there is still light is Dana Point and the marina but otherwise its pretty much what the OC has to offer.

[jorge112597]

south coast metro, block at orange, Mainplace, downtown irvine

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by jorge112597

south coast metro, block at orange, Mainplace, downtown irvine

How on Earth do any of those qualify as a "cute downtown"? South Coast Metro is a bunch of strip malls and apartment surrounding a huge mall. The Block (or whatever they call it now) is an outlet mall across the street from the jail and juvenile hall, which is convenient given who hangs out there. Irvine has a downtown? Do you mean the Knowlwood off Sand Canyon or one of the mega developments that's wall-to-wall people and cars like Diamond Jamboree, The Spectrum, The District, or the Irvine Marketplace?

[BVitamin]

Sorry, Irvine does not have a downtown.

Santa Ana and Laguna Beach have Art Walks, bunch of studios and galleries are open to the public late at night (by late I mean 10-ish, that's Orange County for ya), if you're into that sort of thing. I have to warn you, most of the "art" sucks but still it's fun to just walk around Laguna Beach at night.

Old Town Orange, if you look at Chapman's website, you can see if they have live performances open to the public, if you're into classical music.

[Nugget]

Originally Posted by BVitamin

Sorry, Irvine does not have a downtown.

Santa Ana and Laguna Beach have Art Walks, bunch of studios and galleries are open to the public late at night (by late I mean 10-ish, that's Orange County for ya), if you're into that sort of thing. I have to warn you, most of the "art" sucks but still it's fun to just walk around Laguna Beach at night.

Old Town Orange, if you look at Chapman's website, you can see if they have live performances open to the public, if you're into classical music.

And its also not likely to be "lively".