One of Oakland’s Most Popular Phở Restaurants Is Closing

For the past nine years, Phở Vy has built a dedicated following for its soul-warming noodle soups and trendy fusion tacos. Many Vietnamese food connoisseurs regard it as the very best phở restaurant in Oakland and possibly the entire East Bay.

But now, the restaurant is closing, Phở Vy’s owners announced on Instagram last month. Its last day of business will be May 18.

Tuan Nguyen and his wife, Trang Truong, opened Phở Vy in 2016 after closing the smaller phở shop they used to run in Livermore. The new restaurant’s name and logo were inspired by the couple’s young niece, Vy, who, as a toddler, was a constant presence in the dining room during those early years. (Now 9, Vy — along with her mom — currently runs a cupcake pop-up out of the restaurant.)

As Nguyen recalls, the restaurant got off to a slow start but soon cultivated a loyal, diverse base of customers who appreciated Phở Vy’s family-friendly atmosphere and, of course, the delicious food. The phở alone was light years ahead of the vast majority of Vietnamese spots in Oakland, especially in terms of the richness and clear flavor of the broth. Phở Vy was also one of the only phở restaurants in the East Bay that offered nuoc beo, the scallion-infused rendered beef fat traditionally added to give the soup an extra boost of fattiness, by request.

I’ve often said that Bay Area phở lovers really need to drive down to San Jose to get their hands on a truly excellent bowl of noodles. Phở Vy has the long been the one exception to that rule — the only phở spot in the East Bay I was willing to make a special trip for.

During the pandemic, Nguyen also started to experiment with fusion recipes inspired by the burgeoning quesabirria trend, as well as his own lifelong love of Mexican food, born out of his childhood in Oakland. Eventually, he started serving a riff on quesabirria that incorporated the restaurant’s other signature dish: bò kho, or Vietnamese beef stew, made using a family recipe from his mother’s hometown of Mỹ Tho in Vietnam. Garnished with fresh herbs and the kind of sweet pickled vegetables you’d put on bánh mì, those beef stew tacos went on to become one of the restaurant’s most popular dishes.

“There are times where people would order party trays of it with 300 to 400 tacos per order,” Nguyen says. “It’s been selling like crazy.”

Nguyen describes Phở Vy’s closure as “temporary” and says it was largely motivated by his family’s desire to slow down and take care of their aging parents. Apart from that, the decision was driven by the usual mélange of reasons that have caused other restaurants in Oakland to shut their doors in recent years. A lot of it, Nguyen says, was a growing sense that the stretch of International Boulevard where the restaurant sits might no longer be the best fit: The canopies on their outdoor patio keep getting stolen. The sex work trade on International Boulevard has crept closer to the outside of the restaurant, making some of the young families who dine there uncomfortable. And customers are always telling Nguyen they’re in a rush because they’re worried about car break-ins.

“Everything adds up,” he says.

Through it all, Nguyen says the restaurant has continued to do brisk business — but even then, their margins have gotten thinner as ingredient prices have gone up. Meanwhile, the restaurant’s lease expired last month, and Nguyen and Truong haven’t been able to come to an agreement with the landlord on rent.

For now, Nguyen says he feels like they just need to take a break, reset, and then begin looking for a new location — ideally still in Oakland. While the shop is closed, he’ll probably still do some catering and pop-ups (maybe a bò kho taco side business?) to keep himself busy. All told, he imagines the restaurant will stay closed for a year or longer.

“It’s all about timing,” he says. “But I have a really good feeling that there’s going to be a reopening.”

Phở Vy is open 10 a.m.–8 p.m. every day except Thursdays, when the restaurant is closed, at 401 International Blvd. in Oakland. Its final day of business will be Sunday, May 18.