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Kayden, the 6-year-old son of Angie Nguyen and Kenny Tran, played a pivotal role in the serendipitous sequence of events that culminated in the opening of Phở Nhà, Hollister’s newest Vietnamese restaurant.
His birth was a factor in the couple selling their previous restaurant, while a connection made in his Taekwondo class helped secure the lease for the Airline Highway location.
The story begins in 2015, when Tran, a Honda and Yamaha certified technician, and Nguyen, an accountant, founded the popular Noodle Palace in Carmel’s Barnyard Shopping Village.
“We decided to do something for the family,” Tran said. “So we opened up a restaurant to help out the family. My mother-in-law, My Han, cooked, and a lot of people in Monterey Bay enjoyed her food.”
The success of the Noodle Palace set off a winning streak of local “Best of” awards, but the work began to become a grind, particularly with the couple’s two-hour commute from their home in Foster City. They moved to Hollister, but her doctor’s order to rest during Nguyen’s pregnancy was the final straw, and was a factor in the eventual sale of the restaurant in 2021.
“We had still been working our regular job,” Tran said, “and we were taking our two days off, wherever we had days, and going to the restaurant. We were working seven days a week, and it was too much.”
They thought they had left the restaurant business for good, but it turned out that many of the people they met in Hollister knew them from having dined at the Carmel location, and encouraged them to open another place locally.
“They kept saying for us to hurry up and open something,” he said. “They said they needed something new. We really didn’t want to get back into this business because it’s tough. But they were right. Hollister needed a spot like this.”
The chance came when they met someone at Kayden’s taekwondo class who was friends with Kin and Meiling Wong, the owners of Wong’s Restaurant. Tran was told they wanted to retire and, after a year of negotiations, a deal was struck and Phở Nhà was born.
Used to the ebb and flow of the Carmel restaurant, Phở Nhà launched its soft opening in July with a similar menu. It has been scaled back while they find their footing again, notably not yet offering bánh mì sandwiches, a Vietnamese staple. Instead, the couple is focusing their attention on phở, a wide-ranging and much more traditional dish.
“Phở is pretty much an all-day food,” Tran said. “It’s not a breakfast or dinner thing. It’s an eat-it-anytime food. Anytime is the right time for phở. It’s not like rice—it can fill you up without making you feel lazy.”
The bánh mì will be coming, however, as the staff adjusts to the increased busy-ness of the restaurant since its launch.
“If we start moving the sandwiches,” he said, “it’ll take them away from the other things and slow down the noodle side. We want to avoid making any unhappy customers.”
For Tran, the size of the menu is of less concern than nailing down the finest ingredients possible for the dishes they do serve. Everything has to be fresh and up to par, he said, and they’re being very picky about what they are buying for the restaurant.
“Like with our basil,” he said. “We have to turn it down some days, if it doesn’t look good enough to sell or good enough to give to our customers. We would not eat it ourselves, so why would we try to sell it?”
The food of Phở Nhà
Mango Passionfruit Fruit Tea – Phở Nhà offers an extensive range of fruit teas, including pineapple, strawberry lychee, guava, honeydew, peach and dragon fruit. I tried the Mango Passionfruit, made with fresh fruit juices and jasmine tea, and topped with mango puree. (They can also be made with green tea.). Sweet and flavorful, it’s almost a dessert in a glass. There are also milk teas, which Nguyen said are made fresh daily. “I love these so much I drink them every day,” she said. “So I want them all to taste good and be healthy.”
Egg Rolls – Popular enough that Phở Nhà has a dedicated “Egg Roll Lady” who does nothing but make these appetizers. “She can’t keep up,” Tran said. Packed with chicken, cabbage, and carrots, these crispy rolls are familiar to anyone who has ever had Asian food. However, the freshness of the veggies and the taste of the chicken, seasoned with a hint of lemongrass, make these a must-try. As with the following dish, the egg rolls make an appearance in several other menu choices.
Vermicelli with Grilled Pork – I can’t imagine looking at this colorful and complex bowl of vermicelli, topped with lettuce, cucumbers, daikon, carrots, garlic chips, and grilled pork, without wanting to dive in. Nguyen said the meat is marinated in a combination of lemongrass, Chinese five-spice, soy sauce, and other ingredients, which gives the dish a deep, dark and rich flavor. I loved the addition of the garlic, which added a slightly bitter tone that balanced the sweetness of the meat. It’s a kaleidoscope of flavors in a dish that is both refreshing and filling. This was my favorite of the dishes I tried.
Beef Phở – Made with beef ribs, it’s as classic as Vietnamese food gets. On my recent trip to the country, it seemed like there was a phở shop about every 15 feet on some streets, with people sitting on tiny chairs outside eating the dish from the early morning until past midnight. The original recipe for the broth at the Noodle Palace was modified over the years to suit the taste of its Carmel customers better, resulting in a clearer broth by reducing the usual amount of oil used.
Bún bò Huế – Served in a huge bowl, this dish is made with beef flank and tendon, with optional meatballs, and packed with noodles and green onions. The deep red color of the broth comes from chili oil, and it is one of the hotter items on the menu. “We can add more chili oil,” Nguyen said, “if the customer wants it. But we don’t want it too spicy because it kills the taste. It’s a complex mix of spicy, salty, and savory with an aroma of lemongrass that makes your mouth water even as it’s placed in front of you. It’s a switch-up from the more familiar phở, but just as satisfying.”
Phở Nhà
1709 Airline Hwy, Hollister
(831) 637-2888
Hours:
Sunday – Thursday 11 a.m.–8 p.m.
Friday-Saturday 11 a.m.–8:30 p.m.
Phở Nhà on Instagram and Facebook
Recommendations for future Eat, Drink, Savor articles can be emailed to roberteliason@benitolink.com.
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