Grilled Ginger delivers authentic Vietnamese cuisine.
Owner Han Nguyen and her husband, Thanh Vo, who serves as the manager, ran a restaurant for about five years in their native Vietnam before coming to the United States. The couple lived in Northern California before moving to Fayetteville about a year ago.
They opened Grilled Ginger in a strip mall on Yadkin Road about three weeks ago.
Vo, 35, and Nguyen, 30, have been married for eight years. The couple has a 7-month-old baby. Vo, who learned to cook while running the restaurant in Vietnam, said they wanted to give residents a bona fide taste of their home country. Since ginger is a common ingredient in their food, Vo said, they wanted the name of the restaurant to reflect that.
"We want to introduce authentic Vietnamese cuisine," Vo said. "We love to have customers come here, sit down relax and enjoy our food."
The Vietnamese are known for their noodle soup called "pho." Soups are made with a selection of meat served over noodles in an aromatic broth.
The combination beef noodle soup is a mix of rare beef, brisket, flank steak and beef balls. Soups are $7.50 for a small portion or $8.95 for a large serving, with the exception of combination seafood noodle soup, which is $1 more.
Noodle dishes come with peanuts, mixed vegetable and fish sauce. Choices include the chicken, which is a Vermicelli noodle stir fried with onion, for $7.25. The chicken fried rice is a deep fried chicken quarter prepared Vietnamese style for $7.50.
Shrimp dishes include the ginger shrimp, which is stir fried and served with rice or the hot chili sauce shrimp stir fried with chili and lemongrass. A lunch portion is $9.50, and the dinner serving is $11.50.
Beef dishes also come with rice and feature the lemongrass beef, a spicy blend of hot chili and lemongrass for $8.50 during lunch and $10.50 for dinner. The "Shaken Beef" is steak chunks sauteed with onion and potato cooked in a mix of spices for $9.50 for lunch and $11.50 for dinner. Vegetarian entrees include golden tofu tossed in tomato sauce with assorted vegetables for $7.50 for lunch and $8.95 for dinner.
The restaurant's decor reflects the cuisine's roots. Framed painted portraits of beautiful Vietnamese women decorate the walls. The pictures came from Vietnam. The tables have cool marble tops, and tile floor gives the space a breezy feel. A red accent wall along the bar area adds a pop of color.
"We had an architect to draw plans for us," Vo said. "We were looking for a very charming and nice place."