New restaurant: Vietnamese family serves build-your-own-pho bowl, pad Thai, fried rice

A family from Vietnam is making a second attempt at a restaurant serving authentic Vietnamese cuisine, only they've moved it from Vero Beach to Fort Pierce.

Xuan Binh “Briana” Tran and her husband, Phong “Tony” Tran, opened Viet Bowl in the new Harbour Cay plaza on South Hutchinson Island in Fort Pierce on Aug. 20. It’s next to the new Island Pig & Fish, which opened in June.

The menu features a build-your-own pho bowl ($13.25):

• Choose a Vietnamese pho broth: beef, chicken or vegetarian

• Pick two proteins: eye round steak, brisket, beef meatballs, chicken, tripe, tendon, shrimp, tofu or vegetables

• Served with fresh basil, cilantro, bean sprouts, jalapeno and lime on the side

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It also features a build-your-own rice or noodle bowl ($13.25):

• Choose a base: jasmine rice, vermicelli noodles or lettuce

• Pick a protein: chicken and vegetables, grilled pork, crispy tofu and vegetables or shrimp and vegetables

• Top with a sauce: Viet-mam house fish sauce, Viet-soy sweet soy sauce or garlic-lime dressing

• Served with lettuce, cucumber, tomato, pickled carrots and daikon on the side

The most popular dish has been pad Thai ($13.50), Tran said laughing — because they’re not from Thailand.

The menu also has a variety of fried rice, including vegetarian, chicken, beef, shrimp or a combination ($11.95-$15.95).

Fried rice is Chinese, but many foods across Asia is similar, she said.

“The way we cook, it is healthier,” Tran said. “We use less oil.”

Drinks include “ca phe sua da,” or Viet iced coffee ($4.75), made with condensed milk.

Don’t miss the off-the-menu fresh sugarcane juice. She said it can be found everywhere in Vietnam, but the closest places to the Treasure Coast to find it would be Orlando or West Palm Beach.

“If you try it,” Tran said, “you will get into it.”

It’s a family-run restaurant. Both Tran and her husband cook, and their five children and extended family work at all their businesses.

They’re from central Vietnam and moved to the U.S. in 1988. They lived in California and then Kansas City, Missouri, before they moved to Florida in 2012 to open Foxy Nails & Spa in Vero Beach.

They originally opened Viet Bowl in Miracle Mile Plaza in Vero Beach in February 2020, just before the coronavirus pandemic hit. They also had opened the Oriental Market next door to the restaurant.

They sold the business in July 2021 to her aunt, who rebranded the restaurant as Mama Hue in October 2021 but still serves Vietnamese food.

Tran said the previous space was too small, and she found a location more than twice the size in the new plaza in Fort Pierce. She announced the new restaurant coming to Fort Pierce in May 2023.

They opened a second location of Foxy Nails & Spa in the same plaza on Hutchinson Island. Tran said she hopes to open another Oriental Market in the space next to her new restaurant.

Viet Bowl

• Address: 835 Seaway Drive, Fort Pierce

• Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily

• Phone: 772-242-8697

• Online: facebook.com/VietBowl

Laurie K. Blandford is TCPalm's entertainment reporter and columnist dedicated to finding the best things to do on the Treasure Coast. Follow her on Twitter @TCPalmLaurie and Facebook @TCPalmLaurie. Email her at [email protected]. Sign up for her What To Do in 772 weekly newsletter at profile.tcpalm.com/newsletters/manage.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: New restaurant: Viet Bowl in Vero Beach reopens in Fort Pierce