Restaurant Story
Phở Yến: From Hanoi to Auckland
Julie Vu’s mission to share her mother’s phở with New Zealand.
When Julie Vu first moved from her native Vietnam to New Zealand in 2014, she had two items in her luggage: a packet of phở seasoning and a noodle bowl featuring the logo of her mother’s restaurant — a clear sign of her intention to continue her mother’s legacy in her new country.
Soon after arriving in Auckland, Julie’s husband and business partner, Bodi, joined her, and they began working in hospitality at various cafés and restaurants across the city, including Amano. While waiting for her residency visa to come through in 2023, Julie returned to Vietnam for six months and knew that as soon as she got back to New Zealand, she would take the leap and start selling phở at night markets.
Julie and Bodi chose the Botany Night Market in East Tāmaki as it had the right vibe and established Southeast Asian food stalls. They used the weekly market to refine the recipe through trial and error while learning how to cook on a much larger scale than when cooking for just friends and family.
Their food started to gain some attention, and someone in the Lazy Susan Facebook group (a popular place for Auckland food recommendations) suggested Kitchen Project, an Auckland Council mentoring programme set up to help emerging food entrepreneurs. Julie applied and was mentored by Connie Clarkson during the 20-week programme — and beyond! Connie’s very first “cohort” as manager of Kitchen Project included Julie and three others, who have all gone on to open successful food businesses.
Connie was one of the few people to believe in Julie’s ambition to open a restaurant that only sells one dish — something that’s not only common in Vietnam, but also a sign of confidence in doing one thing exceptionally well. Even with Connie’s help, it still took two years of hard work and lots of night markets before they were able to open the restaurant.
Julie’s plans reach beyond phở: her next dream is to open a restaurant for bún chả, perhaps Hanoi’s most internationally famous dish — thanks in part to Barack Obama and Anthony Bourdain. But for now, Julie doesn’t have time for anything else. There’s not even time to have cà phê phin (Vietnamese drip coffee) or trà đá (iced tea that’s served in almost every restaurant in Vietnam) on Phở Yến’s menu, despite Julie’s wishes. Mondays are currently her only day off — though even that may not last, with a Newmarket branch on the way.
Hanoi is central to everything Julie does. Her passion for Vietnam’s capital is evident as soon as you walk in the restaurant and see the shrine-like wall display dedicated to the city of her birth. She says most Kiwis she speaks to don’t know much about Hanoi, but she wants to change that, and to make clear the phở they serve is Hanoi-style. Northern, or Hanoi-style, phở is more broth-focused, with minimal herbs and traditionally no hoisin, sriracha, lime, or beansprouts. Southern, or Saigon-style, phở is more common internationally, so some customers are surprised at the lack of beansprouts — however you will find hoisin, sriracha, and lime on the table (along with the northern-style condiments of pickled garlic and fresh chilli) if you wish to experiment.
On my first visit to Phở Yến, the first thing I noticed was the queue, despite it being a weekday lunchtime. Then the unmistakable aromas of slow-cooked beef and spices. It was also notable that most of the customers were Vietnamese, which I took as a good sign.
Once I was seated, the ordering and service were surprisingly quick, helped by the small, efficient menu. There’s only one broth (which is patiently simmered for 24 hours), but there are a few meat choices, and most people seem to go for the rare beef option, so I followed suit. The beef was tender, and the broth had a deep, rich flavour and didn’t need anything else, although I did add some chilli and pickled garlic once I’d had enough of the pure broth to fully appreciate it.
On another visit, I had the oxtail version — bone-in pieces of the same slow-cooked oxtail used to enrich the broth. There are a limited number of portions each day, and they usually sell out early. I can see why; although more work than the rare beef, the payoff of pulling the succulent meat from the tricky bones is well worth the effort.
The only other food item on the menu is quẩy, a deep-fried dough stick and a popular phở accompaniment inspired by the Chinese dish youtiao. Dipping the stick into the soup adds fun and texture.
The restaurant is small and crowded, but Julie likes it that way: “Because we are small, we can bring the Hanoi vibes here — people are free to talk!” Aside from the lack of tiny plastic stools and stifling humidity, it felt like being back in Vietnam.
The restaurant’s origin can be traced back to Julie’s mother, Yến, in postwar Hanoi. After reunification in 1975, Vietnam went through an era called “thời bao cấp” (Subsidy Period), when most private merchants were eliminated and families received ration coupons for government-run stores. Yến worked at one of the many state-owned phở eateries, where she learnt the craft and the recipe. In 1989, she opened her own restaurant, Phở Yến Gia Truyền, in their local area of Đông Anh Town (now called Phúc Thịnh) in Hanoi. The original phở recipe remains unchanged and is served at both the Hanoi and Auckland restaurants today.
When Julie opened her restaurant on Dominion Road in Auckland, she used the same name, and the sign even says “Est 1989”, a nod to when the recipe was created and just how long it’s been a part of the family. Even the colour schemes of the two restaurants match: vibrant yellow walls paired with green seating. By complete coincidence, the new restaurant took over from “Le Musang”, a durian dessert shop which used yellow and green in its decor in reference to the colours of durian, so Julie didn’t need to repaint!
The original restaurant in Hanoi is still going, and some of Julie’s Kiwi customers have visited her mother’s shop and used Google Translate to have conversations. A week after opening on Dominion Road, the restaurant was so much busier than expected that Julie ran out of phở seasoning — the secret family recipe she’d brought from Hanoi. Yến flew over to lend a hand, bringing a suitcase full of seasoning.
Julie credits her strong work ethic to her mother: “She never gives up.” Julie gets told regularly that she works too much, but she doesn’t want to get complacent: “You need to work hard to keep it right — the quality of the phở comes first.”
Find Phở Yến on Dominion Road from Thursday to Sunday; at Botany Night Market on Wednesdays; and soon at a takeaway-only Newmarket branch serving lunch from Monday to Wednesday.