Family-run
My grandmother's recipes, passed down to my mother. We still cook them here.
One family. Two restaurants. Since 2018.
My grandmother's recipes, passed down to my mother. The first batch of broth went on the stove in 2018. Same broth, same hands, two restaurants now.
In 2018 we set out to give Birmingham a proper family-run Vietnamese kitchen. Birmingham already had Vietnamese takeaways and a couple of chain bowls — what it didn't have was a family-run restaurant serving the food the way you'd eat it at home in Hanoi: share three things, pass them round, top the broth up.
Seven years on, the recipes haven't moved. The pho still simmers for twenty-five hours. The bun cha is still grilled on cast-iron, not in a salamander. The bao buns are still proved in-house overnight. The only thing that's changed is we have two restaurants now.
Founder
We opened in 2018 with nothing but my grandmother's recipes and one goal — prove to Brum that Vietnamese food belongs on the map. Five kitchens later, still family-run. Still independent.
Two you can book today: the Bullring flagship, and Resorts World where we first went full-service. Same broth, simmered overnight. Same hands grilling the bun cha. Growing never made the food easier — only made getting it right matter more.
Oliver Ngo · Founder, Vietnamese Street Kitchen
The goal
Vietnamese food is the best in the world.
I've always known that. The hard part was never the food — it was getting people to try it.
Vietnamese food can feel unfamiliar: a menu you don't recognise, a room that doesn't feel right, and people walk past. So we built the opposite — top locations, a room you actually want to sit in, service that makes it easy. Get people through the door, sit them down, put the food in front of them.
Because once you taste it, there's nothing scary about it. It's the best food in the world, and our job is to prove it one table at a time.
What we stand for
Three pillars
Since 2018
We've cooked the same broth in Birmingham since 2018. Same recipes. Same hands.
Original
The first independent family-run Vietnamese restaurant of this format in central Birmingham.
Where we've been
The restaurants, in order
- 2018
Where it started
A tiny kitchen in Brindleyplace — my grandmother's Hanoi recipes, passed down to my mother — a handful of tables and more demand than seats.
- 2019
Our first full-service — Resorts World
We opened our first full-service restaurant at Resorts World, the complex beside the NEC — where we proved to Birmingham who we are.
- 2020
The flagship — Bullring
Mid-pandemic, we opened our biggest restaurant yet: the UK's biggest Vietnamese restaurant, at the Bullring. The city-centre kitchen moved here from Brindleyplace.
- 2023
Going express
An express counter at Resorts World — quick bowls and bao, a nod to the small kitchen we started in.
- 2024
The family grows — Seafood City
We opened our sister restaurant, Seafood City. Same family, a new table.
