An award-winning Asian experience is on the menu in Okotoks.
Ten years after opening in Okotoks, local business Pho Hoai has taken the title for Best Asian/Ethnic Food in the 2024 Western Wheel Readers’ Choice Awards.
Manager Lyndsey Tran, who runs the business alongside her husband Roger, is happy to see the restaurant continue to get recognition from the community.
“We're actually bringing authentic Vietnamese food to Okotoks,” she said.
The restaurant’s signature dish, beef sate pho, is one of many that continue to be a hit with customers.
“It takes all day, all night to make [the food], we're not cutting corners, we're doing everything from scratch,” said Tran. “I believe that sets us apart from some other places.”
While the Okotoks restaurant opened its doors in 2014, Pho Hoai’s story began in 1987 with Theresa Nguyen — Tran’s mother-in-law — opening Pho Hoai Vietnamese Beef Noodle House in Calgary’s Chinatown.
“She escaped from [the Vietnam War] in the ‘70s and then came over to Canada, and started from the bottom with cleaning office buildings… raised enough money to buy a video store in Chinatown and then saved the last money from there to actually buy the unit next next door to her video store and ended up opening up her restaurant back in 1987,” explained Tran.
The original Pho Hoai, Calgary’s first Vietnamese restaurant to specialize in pho, was such a hit that Nguyen’s son Roger and daughter-in-law Lyndsey found themselves opening their own location in 2014.
With the business celebrating its 10th anniversary in May, Tran is happy to see the place continue to get positive feedback from the community.
“It just makes us understand that we're doing a good job and people enjoy our place,” she said on winning the award. “We have some really great customers that give us feedback on a regular basis, but this just makes you feel extra special.”
Pho Hoai is located at 71 Riverside Dr. in Okotoks. Learn more on the restaurant’s website.
