December 31, 2017

The Weekly Bite: Ha Noi Corner in Garden Grove

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Garden Grove’s Ha Noi Corner.

Every restaurant has its own history, backstory, etc. We’d love to hear yours.
I was born and raised in Ha Noi, Vietnam by my mother. There, we owned a successful restaurant in which my mother was the main cook. In 2006, we immigrated to the United States of America to be with my mom’s sister and so that I could have a better education, While I was working on my Chemical Engineering Degree at University of California, Irvine, my mother worked as a cook in a number of restaurants. I always loved doing business during school, so I started to learn to sell items online and had my own store on Amazon, etsy, and ebay. After I graduated, I got an engineering job and was slaving away; meanwhile, my mother was homesick for Northern Vietnamese cuisine with the taste form our hometown. There were no restaurants that served authentic Northern Vietnamese food in the area and since my mother was good at making the food, she wanted to introduce it to the community. After spending roughly 8 years as a cook and chef assistant at different style restaurants, my mother was finally ready to have her own kitchen. As a result, I decided to quit my job and help her with her dream of opening our first restaurant in America, and also to achieve my dream as becoming a real business man. She runs the kitchen and makes food the same delicious taste she did back in our restaurant in Vietnam, while I am in charge of all other business matters as well as the drink menu. Having experience with chemical reactions during school, making boba and other creative drinks has become my passion and I learned it very quickly. All the dishes and drinks on the menu was completed after days of practicing and experiencing from the taste to the presentation. Together, my mother and I make a great team and have been able to create a successful restaurant that is reminiscent of our hometown.
PS. Although we only started Ha Noi Corner 6 months ago, we used to have a similar restaurant before named Pho Co Ha Noi in Santa Ana, which was also a success. But due to high demand in parking lot and bigger space, we sold that one and moved to this new Ha Noi Corner with a much bigger parking lot and space and nicer decoration, and double the employees.

Tell us about the challenges of running a food service / restaurant business.
The path to where we are today was not easy. As with most businesses, we started out very slow. We were unfamiliar with the processes of getting permits and whatnot to even open the restaurant, but was ultimately able to figure it out. Once we were able to open, we had issues of staffing and efficiency, but as time went on we were able to address these problems. The most difficulty for us I guess was the language barrier and poor social connection. Since there were only my mom and I came to the US, beside my aunt, we did not have any friends or any relative working in the restaurant field to help us with process and paperworks. We also had pretty low budget when we first started, so we had to cut corners on decorations and equipments and employees. As I mentioned earlier that before opening Ha Noi Corner, we used to own Pho Co Ha Noi in Santa Ana due to low rent and low budget. First 2 months was the most exhausting time since my mom was the only chef with only 1 helpers, and I was the only waiter, bus boy, and I also made drinks, all that at the same time. But we were able to overcome the most difficult time and started to hire more employees to improve our quality and customer service. From all the experience that we got from Pho Co Ha Noi, we were confident to sell that place and open Ha Noi Corner.

What separates Ha Noi Corner from the other similar spots?
Our restaurant is unique in that it offers a large variety of dishes that you could only find in Ha Noi, Vietnam. Some of the dishes are even no longer existing nowadays. For example, Bánh Đúc nóng, Bún Chả Hà Nội, Bún Đậu Mắm Tôm, Chả Cá Thăng Long, Bún Thang, Bún Cá rau cần, etc.. We have also brought a few decors from Vietnam to decorate our restaurant in order to make it feel like you are dining in Ha Noi’s old town. Here you will find the old street names, the hand drawn pictures of old Ha Noi, and pictures of street style food and beer which was also a beautiful culture that we used to see in everyday lifestyle. We even present the food on the bamboo plates layered with banana leaf as we did in Vietnam. We believe the banana leaf helps enhance the flavor and aroma of the food that we serve on.

Most Popular Items

Bún Chả Hà Nội

Vermicelli with Ha Noi Style gilled pork and pork patty, soaked in house fish sauce and pickles. Service with green veggies.
Bún Đậu Mắm Tôm

Ha Noi style packed Vermicelli with fried tofu, sliced pork shoulder, fried patty with young rice, and served with house fermented shrimp paste.

Bánh Đúc Nóng

Ha Noi rice flour cake with ground pork, cubic ham, cubic fried tofu, and house fish sauce.Parking Advice:
We have parking in front of our restaurant as well as in the rear, In addition, there is additional parking on the street side.