The restaurant is located on Lazimpat road opposite the Shangrila Hotel - a favourable position inside the capital's ‘diplomatic’ zone.

It is situated in a three-storey villa and has room to park about five cars and a number of motorbikes. Land is very expensive in the city and most local restaurants do not have their own parking lots.

Saigon Pho restaurant in Kathmandu

Its owner has a simple, purely Vietnamese name - Nguyen Thi Ut - and she originated from Ho Chi Minh City but grew up in France. She married a Nepalese student and followed him to the US for six years before returning to his homeland about two years ago.

Ut said at first she felt very uncomfortable in Nepal because she was not familiar with the local food, which she says is very simple. There are also Chinese, Japanese, and Korean restaurants but their dishes are often seasoned in a Nepalese style using only salt and no sugar or monosodium glutamate.

Given this, Ut discussed with her husband a plan to open a Vietnamese restaurant to do business and also be able to eat proper Vietnamese food.

Naveen Saru, Ut’s spouse, is an information technology engineer but he loves business and he immediately agreed with his wife. He even decided to lay aside his degree to work for Ut as a managing director. Saru is now a key member of a board lobbying to establish a Nepal-Vietnam Commerce Chamber.

Saru said he did not like the taste of pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) with ‘rau thom’ (fragrant fresh herbs) at first, but now he has become addicted to them.

The restaurant's owner Nguyen Thi Ut

The menus at Saigon Pho are written in Vietnamese and accompanied by English translations or explanations. The restaurant offers almost all the most popular dishes in Vietnam such as nem ran (fried spring rolls), goi cuon, goi du du, thit lon quay (roasted pork), thit kho trung (meat cooked with egg), ca loc kho to (a fish dish), and of course, pho.

Many Vietnamese desserts such as che chuoi, che bap, and che dau den are also served and are quite new to the Nepalese people.

Last year Ut’s family opened a small Vietnamese restaurant called Upstairs Café near the US embassy in Katmandu. It only had about eight tables but it attracted a lot of embassy staff, which prompted them to proceed with opening Saigon Pho.

VOV