Inside Món Việt Cafe’s modern, wood-accented dining room, diners slurp their way through the Phan family’s past. Rich, aromatic phở broth arrives steaming-hot in stone bowls, with noodles and meat served on the side.
Arlington has no shortage of Vietnamese restaurants, but the family behind Món Việt — which translates to “Vietnamese dishes” — takes pride in its recipes’ origin. A portrait of Kimem “Mama” Duong hangs beside the story of more than 200 recipes she memorized and passed down to her five daughters.
In 2016, the sisters opened one of Bến Thành Plaza’s first few businesses on East Pioneer Parkway to share their mother’s recipes. The shopping center has since grown into a thriving Vietnamese market.
Món Việt Cafe serves Vietnamese food Aug. 25, 2026, in Arlington. (Christine Vo | Fort Worth Report)
Manager Bảo Anh Phan, one of the sister’s daughters, arrived in the U.S. that year at 15. She spent weekends wiping utensils, cutting vegetables and toasting bread in the kitchen’s heat. Phan didn’t know how to cook, but watching customers enjoy the food made her want to learn, she said.
Phan learned at home, then studied culinary arts at Dallas College. After she graduated, Phan’s mother and aunts, too tired from running Món Việt, gave her one year to try.
“I did not want to ruin what my grandmother, aunts and mother had built. The first year was very stressful. So stressful that I got a lot of gray hair,” Phan said, laughing.
Team leader Anh Bùi, left, manager Bảo Anh Phan, center, server Tường Giáng work at Món Việt Cafe on Aug. 25, 2026, in Arlington. (Christine Vo | Fort Worth Report)
Last year, the restaurant reached record-breaking sales, Phan said. She has made changes, including increasing the portion size and balancing the traditional sweeter flavors of dishes from southern Vietnam, from where the family came.
Those dishes now lean more balanced between sweet and salty. She also created a salty-sweet house sauce for one of their signature dishes bò né — sizzling steak and eggs with bánh mì, housemade paté and butter — to replace the salty soy sauce and enhance the beef.
But the base of the family recipes remains.
As does the idea that this is a family business. During the interview, Phan’s husband watched their 6-month-old baby, while her mother held down the kitchen.
“I’m most proud of being able to preserve what my grandmother and the whole family wanted.” Phan said. “And I’ve been working very hard to make the restaurant better and better.”
This interview was conducted in Vietnamese and translated into English by the reporter. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Dang Le: Why did you decide to open the restaurant?
Bảo Anh Phan: The story started a very long time ago. My grandmother was a homemaker who really liked to cook and was a very good cook.
When the whole family moved to the United States, my mother and aunts did not want my grandmother’s recipes to be lost. So the whole family decided to fulfill a small dream of hers by opening a restaurant.
Cooking for a family is different from cooking in large quantities and selling food, but we figured it out. There were no Vietnamese restaurants around here yet, and Bến Thành had only been built a few years before we opened. It was fairly difficult at first, but everyone was determined to fulfill that dream.
Kitchen assistant Ly Nguyễn plates cơm tấm Long Xuyên at Món Việt Cafe on Aug. 25, 2026, in Arlington. (Christine Vo | Fort Worth Report)
Le: Which dishes at the restaurant came from your grandmother, and which did the family add?
Phan: My grandmother had about 200 recipes, maybe more than that. They were family-style dishes, such as sweet-and-sour soup, fish braised in a clay pot, pork ribs in caramel sauce or bún mắm.
In Vietnam, food from the Mekong Delta, from Long Xuyên, where my grandmother was from, is a little sweet. When we came here, that sweet flavor did not suit most people here. So my mother’s older sister began adjusting the recipe a little to suit customers’ tastes.
Le: When you first opened, there weren’t that many places around. With Bến Thành’s growth, how do you maintain your restaurant’s brand amid so much competition?
Phan: We have to do it with our heart. We cannot change everything just because we want to compete with other people.
Customers can choose us, but they can also choose another restaurant. We cannot change our recipes just to draw those customers in. If we bring those customers in but lose our loyal customers, that does not work either. We always have to hold firmly to what we have done. We can change how we provide service, talk to customers and increase our portion sizes.
But we never change our recipes.
Kitchen assistant Ly Nguyễn plates bún đậu mắm tôm at Món Việt Cafe on Aug. 25, 2026, in Arlington. The dish is made of rice vermicelli noodles, crispy fried tofu and a fermented shrimp paste dipping sauce. (Christine Vo | Fort Worth Report)
Le: What does a workday look like for you?
Phan: My day starts at 6 a.m. because that’s usually when my baby boy wakes up. I feed the baby milk and change diapers, then leave him with my husband. I leave home around 7 or 7:15 and arrive at the restaurant around 7:40.
No one else has arrived yet, so I go into the kitchen and prep, starting with cutting cucumbers, scallions and cilantro. Then I prepare the food we will sell that day, such as phở or different kinds of soup. We open at 8:30 a.m.
Kitchen staff come in at 10 a.m, and I work at the bò né station until about 1 or 1:30. Then I mix stir-fry sauce or fish sauce for rice dishes and prepare items for the next day.
We close at 8 p.m. I clean and make sure everything is ready for the next day. I leave around 8:30 or 8:45, and by the time I get home, it is after 9.
Then I spend time with my baby. I have worked all day, and the baby has not seen me. I play with the baby, give the baby milk, change the diaper and get the baby ready for bed.
Manager Bảo Anh Phan laughs with co-workers during lunch rush at Món Việt Cafe on Aug. 25, 2026, in Arlington. (Christine Vo | Fort Worth Report)
Le: The restaurant began operating through the family, it is a family restaurant, and the hope is that the people around it are family. How important is that word “family” to you?
Phan: It is truly very, very important. I grew up in a very large family, and now I have my own small family. For me, family is everything. My dream is for the entire family to sit down and eat together every day.
Family is just as important to everyone — because everyone needs a family. Many people here attend school far from home. If you are a student and cannot be near your parents, you will really miss the feeling of sitting down to eat with them. You really want the feeling of someone asking how you are.
After a tiring day, when you come home, you always want to hear, “Have you eaten yet?” or, “How was your day today?” That is what I want for myself, my family and everyone.
That is why, when people come here, the employees and I always ask, “How are you today? Did you work today? What would you like to eat today?”
Those may be very simple questions, but sometimes, you could say, they offer a little motivation or encouragement after a day at work.
Dang Le is the higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at dang.le@fortworthreport.org.
The Fort Worth Report partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
The Report’s higher education coverage is supported in part by major higher education institutions in Tarrant County, including Tarleton State University, Tarrant County College, Texas A&M-Fort Worth Christian University, Texas Wesleyan University, the University of Texas at Arlington and UNT Health Fort Worth.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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