From fundraising projects to restaurants
The burger shop named Ngoan originated from a charity idea in 2020, when Mr. Phan Le Anh Tu - one of the two founders, had just returned to Vietnam. Instead of calling for charity donations, Mr. Tu decided to take advantage of his cooking hobby to sell burgers, at that time, each burger sold is equivalent to a portion of rice given to people in difficult circumstances.
After only three days of opening for sale as a pop-up in January 2020, the project has converted 300 meals. From there, Anh Tu and his colleagues came up with the idea of opening the restaurant in September 2020 and officially opened the restaurant at 19 Chan Cam Street in December 2020.
The name "Ngoam" comes from the word "Ngoam", creating the feeling of "eating a big piece for a plate", but the special thing is that the writing style has the word "eat", not only attracting attention visualally but also carrying a very meaningful message.
The word e is a reminder that wherever I go, I am still Vietnamese. I hope that one day, international facets will fully support Vietnamese Mr. Tu shared.
Located in a French-style house on Chan Cam Street, Ngoam's space was designed with inspiration from Hanoi during the French colonial period. The restaurant uses bright colors taken from the festival flag - a symbol of excitement, joy, and holidays.
The Burger is displayed on a special dish of lacquer, fried potatoes contained in a basket of red fried dough sticks, a typical feature of Vietnamese street food.
A special detail is packaging and civil servants' lining designed with paper cut from the leftover when creating the shape of the letter " serve", carrying the message "zero wasted", limiting waste in the restaurant's cooking.
A menu for each season
The restaurant does not have a fixed menu. Instead, new menus are launched each season, each menu is created with different stories and decoration.
"We don't want to do anything again. Continuously creating menus makes us always have something to think about, to feel excited, Mr. Tu shared.
In addition, changing seasonally also helps choose fresh and more suitable ingredients, while keeping diners curious.
The experience at this khach restaurant is not just about the dishes, but the combination of space, creativity and storytelling through every detail.
The space is already very special, but what impressed me most was the creativity of the dishes that were also combined with that space. It feels like I'm not just eating a burger, but experiencing new things," Do Thu Trang (19 years old, Hanoi) excitedly shared.
menu No. 12 "The Beautiful Game" was used by Ngoom as the theme. According to Mr. Tu, football is a big passion for many members of the club. This is also his gratitude to his father - who passed on his love for football to him.
menu does not write captions for each dish, but each name contains a very subtle hidden message. Especially the " El Pibe De Oro" cake - nickname of legend Diego Armando Maradona, meaning the golden boy.
The meaning of the dish is not only through the name that evokes the legend of the pitch, but the price of the dish also coincides with the number of goals he scored in his career.
Another dish on the menu that also received positive feedback was Ga Son - Victoria Concord Crescit, inspired by the famous slogan of Arsenal club.
I have never eaten a dish with a topping of beef stew sugar, the sweet and crispy sugar flavor makes the spicy chicken very impressive and memorable for me, Vo Ngoc Giang Linh (19 years old, Nghe An) shared after the meal.
Different from previous menus that often use many Vietnamese ingredients, this menu is more international, in line with the global spirit of football and the increase in foreign visitors in the summer.
After 5 years of operation, the restaurant still retains a large number of loyal customers and great attention from the community. What Mr. Tu and his colleagues always aim for is the image of a "thinking, daring to do" restaurant that always has something new.
If I had to choose two words to describe the current Ngoan spirit, I would choose coordinate and create. He said that like a team, the restaurant only operates smoothly when everyone is confident and coordinates well. And as long as there is more inspiration, the restaurant will create many more interesting things.
