APD | Famous Hanoi noodle soup now present in Tokyo

By APD writer Alice

Tokyo, Mar. 13 (APD) – Together with the increasingly strengthened relations between Vietnam and Japan in recent years, many restaurants serving Vietnamese foods have become more popular in Japan, especially the capital city of Tokyo.

Therefore, the inauguration of a Pho Thin (Thin noodle soup) restaurant in Tokyo on March 9 drew special attention of local residents as well as Vietnamese people here with a wish to enjoy one of the most famous noodles of Hanoi which has been existed for about 40 years.

The new restaurant has been greeting hundreds of guests each day. Outside the shop, there is a permanent long line of people waiting patiently for a seat.

The famous noodle soup has retained its authentic flavour and presentation. The thin beef slices are flash-fried before topping the noodles together with sliced spring onion and boiling beef broth. 

Within a half hour of opening, the restaurant had sold out. While a bowl of Pho Thin in Hanoi costs 60,000 VND (2.6 USD), its Tokyo version is sold for 840 JPY (7.5 USD).

At present, the restaurant, which can be found at B1, Hayakawa Building, 1-12-14, Higashiikebukuro, Toshima district, is open from noon to 2pm.

Owner of Pho Thin Tokyo, Kenji Sumi, is a former office worker who travelled regularly to Hanoi for business and was amazed by the unique flavour of the famous dish.

He said it was completely different from any kind of pho that he had tried before.

“The broth is flavourful, the green spring onions cover the white noodles, and the smell is so good. Even the chili sauce is also very different,” he said.

Haunted by this traditional dish, in March 2016, Sumi decided to quit his job to pursue his “dream” – to open a Vietnamese noodle restaurant in Tokyo.

In January 2018, he flew back to Hanoi to meet the owner of Pho Thin, Nguyen Trong Thin, to convince him to share his family recipe. After long negotiations, Sumi received the nod from the owner to start his business in Tokyo.

Before the March 9 opening, Thin also flew to Tokyo to make sure every step in the new restaurant replicated the authentic version. 

Sumi shared that the restaurant opening aimed to help Japanese enjoy the special dish of Hanoi and build a pho savouring culture. He said he and his colleagues plan to increase the number of pho restaurants in Japan in the coming time.  

Tokyo is now home to nearly 200 restaurants serving Vietnamese dishes, including nem ran (fried spring roll), pho (noodle soup), bun cha (grilled pork with rice vermicelli noodles) and banh xeo (sizzling rice pancake with pork and shrimp).

More and more Japanese know Vietnam as a country with many delicious dishes, showing that the Vietnamese cuisine is very attractive to people in the Land of the Rising Sun.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)