Blog

Oct 04, 2023

The South Bay's Pho Ha Noi is opening in Palo Alto.

Pho with rare flap meat, brisket, tendon, meatballs and short rib at Pho Ha Noi

Pho with rare flap meat, brisket, tendon, meatballs and short rib at Pho Ha Noi in San Jose in 2020.

A Vietnamese restaurant that draws lines in San Jose and Cupertino for its fragrant pho made with high-quality meat and fresh noodles is opening its first Peninsula location.

Pho Ha Noi will open at 185 University Ave. in downtown Palo Alto on May 25, occupying a prominent corner space that can seat nearly 200 people.

Pho Ha Noi's growth is somewhat of a surprise to owner Helen Nguyen, who never planned to open even one restaurant, but with her husband, Harry, now runs three bustling Bay Area spots and has three more on the way. The couple previously owned a shipping company, exporting cars from the U.S. to Vietnam and China, and he also worked as a software engineer. But they ended up opening their first restaurant in San Jose to help his family.

In 2012, 15 of Harry Nguyen's family members immigrated to the United States from Vietnam and ended up in low-paying jobs, including at local restaurants, where they worked long hours and were often victims of wage theft, Helen Nguyen said. When she told her parents in Vietnam that they were thinking of opening a restaurant in San Jose, they told her to stick to a more conventional, secure career.

Nguyen followed their advice — until she heard her sister-in-law had worked for four months without pay. She decided to "open a very tiny restaurant … so she can serve people and survive," Nguyen said.

They sold that first restaurant, but it paved the way for the original Pho Ha Noi in San Jose's food-filled Vietnam Town shopping center in 2016. At the beginning, their commitment to fresh, and pricey, ingredients, including meat from the notable Harris Ranch Beef Company, drove the business into the red — until word spread and the restaurant "exploded," Nguyen said. They expanded to Cupertino in 2019, and also added a second "elite" San Jose restaurant with a bar and fancier dishes like filet mignon and grilled lobster. More Pho Ha Noi locations will open in Milpitas by the end of the year and in Fremont next year.

All of the restaurants serve beef pho, the bone marrow broth simmered over 24 hours in a massive vat designed by Harry Nguyen, with cuts like rare flap meat, brisket, tendon and short rib. There's also chicken pho made with free-range birds and other Vietnamese dishes like bún chả (grilled pork patties with vermicelli noodles and herbs) and xôi gà roti with chiên dòn, a popular disc of crispy, garlic-laden sticky rice served with roasted chicken.

Chicken with crispy sticky rice at Pho Ha Noi in San Jose in 2020.

The Palo Alto location of Pho Ha Noi will be more upscale than the rest, with cocktails and some new dishes (such as salads, Nguyen said, for more health-conscious diners in the area, including one with green apple and sauteed beef). The restaurant will be open all day, with simple lunch specials meant to serve workers in the area.

Since her in-law's experience in restaurants, Nguyen has tried to make Pho Ha Noi a healthier workplace. Last year, Pho Ha Noi added a 20% service charge to increase pay and cover health insurance for employees. Nguyen's husband designed special machines to wash and cut vegetables to save workers that labor.

So why open in Palo Alto? An advisor told Nguyen that having a presence in the Silicon Valley city would be a boon for the fast-growing business.

"It's a billboard. Everyone in the world comes to Palo Alto," she said she was told. "If you can put your name there, your name can go farther later."

Reach Elena Kadvany: [email protected]