When I first interviewed Tom Hoang at his original Pho Hoang back in 2013, he had worked 365 days for the past year and had only two people working with him – including his wife, co-owner and co-restaurant designer Heather.
Fast forward to 2020, Tom and Heather have just opened their third Pho Hoang location. It's their largest one yet and is located in Osborne Village, while the couple now has 45 employees.
What’s stayed the same? The Hoangs are still working seven days week.
Pho Hoang is consistently rated as one of the city’s best Vietnamese restaurants – and Winnipeg has no shortage of great pho and banh mi shops – while you can always expect fast, friendly service served in a darling room.
This new location in particular, with its Vietnamese tiles, skylights and room divider utilizing huge plants is quite stunning.
In the above video Heather talks about the design – which came together through Lynn Fenwick– along with their concept within a concept, Rollesque ice cream (Winnipeg’s first rolled ice cream; available at both the original Sargent and Village locations), while Tom and kitchen manager Danny Luong make pho and chow mein, two of the most popular dishes. (For our two cents, we also highly recommend the deluxe vermicelli, as the selection of grilled meats you get are so flavourful).
Pho Hoang is located at 794 Sargent Avenue, 235 Portage Avenue and now at 117 Osborne Street. For hours and menus click here.
