A new Vietnamese restaurant opened on Thurland Street this Monday after a short delay due to Covid. Jade Nguyen and her husband Jinhai Chen will offer traditional foods such as Banh mi, Pho and vegetables fried rice dishes among many other classic meals at Wonder Pho.
The diner created a stir when it opened as Nottingham's Vietnamese community, Pho fans, friends and family gathered to show support for the couple's new restaurant. The restaurant offers classic Vietnamese foods such as pho which is one of the best known Vietnamese soup dishes consisting of broth, rice noodles, herbs, and meat. The meat is simmered for 24 hours before being added to a secret combination of herbs, spices before being served on a bed of noodles.
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They are also hoping to serve the popular lunch time treat, Banh Mi which is a crusty bread roll filled with pickled vegetables, coriander, chilli and seasoning with meat such as ham or chicken. Banh Mi will join their already diverse menu of slow cooked beef and chicken dishes.
Jade and her husband have experience working in restaurants across Chinatown in London but they were determined to open their own business. They fell in love with Nottingham after visiting their friends and family based here but they noticed at that time, there were no Vietnamese places in the city.
"Myself and my partner have worked in restaurants in London in Chinatown there. Its a dream come true for me to open a food business. We started thinking about opening the restaurant about ten years ago," she said.
"It is the first time owning a business for both myself and my partner so we are both learning at the same time together."
She added: "I have a lot of friends and family living in Nottingham. I travelled to see them a few times and fell in love with the city. I love the area as its a mix of the city and the countryside. When I came to visit, I noticed that there were no Vietnamese restaurants. In London, it is very developed so we have a lot of Vietnamese restaurants."
Vietnamese food has becoming increasingly popular especially in Nottingham. There have been two other Vietnamese locations opened in recent weeks including chain restaurant Pho on Carlton street and Viet 80 on Friar Lane.
Vietnamese food is known to both healthy and also full of flavour thanks to the combination of fresh herbs, spices and greens. It pairs healthier options such as rice noodles with meat or tofu and light soup options.
"We do traditional foods such as pho which is a flat rice noodle soup where the broth cooks for 24 hours that brings the flavour out really nicely. We have bún thịt nướng which is grilled pork marinated in lemongrass which is very popular and we do a spicy version too. We have salads and vegetarian options too. We are planning to offer bahn mi, which is a Vietnamese sandwich."
The restaurant opened with a soft launch on Monday as Jade wanted to make sure everything was perfect before she started advertising. They are also hiring students and workers from local communities including Nottingham's Vietnamese population.
Jade was delighted by the response to the launch which saw a strong opening day. She is excited to see how the business will develop especially after they begin advertising.
"Its the first time I have run a restaurant by myself and everything is new. I haven't started advertising yet as we wanted to make sure the place was operating smoothly before we launch. I have a lot of support as friends and family here who are happy to support. Although I haven't started advertising, the Vietnamese community has come to support me as they know I'm opening so its becoming very busy."
