“I don’t want to alter too much,” Lee said. “We have customers who say they’ve been coming here since they were 5 [years old]. Some move away and then come back to enjoy Pan Acean food, and they say, ‘Oh you didn’t change much.’ I figure that is a good thing for this restaurant.”
Lee said the menu represents a variety of Asian food, including Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese and Korean.
Lee’s brother-in-law, Max Kim, is the head chef and is often the object of customer fascination, Lee said. When the chef stir-fries menu items, such as Sichuan Kung Pao and Thai Coconut, by pan searing, the flames create a culinary and visual sensation.
Lee said she is grateful to the community who supported her business during the pandemic.
“Right now, in the restaurant industry, there have been a lot of cost spikes. Our margin is very thin, because the costs and salaries are going up, “ she said.
Lee said the business concept of Pan Acean allows her to explore other flavor profiles.
“Other restaurants say this is a Chinese restaurant, so they can only create dishes based on Chinese [food],” she said. “But [with] our name being ‘Pan Acean,’ I can add. I have a chef who is Indian, and he asked to add some Indian food,” she said. Lee said she has lived in Coppell since 2000 and ate at Pan Acean before she bought it five years ago.
“I was a local resident first, then I bought this restaurant,” she said. “I love Coppell; it’s a small and family-oriented city.”
Pan Acean Noodles, Grill, Stir Fry
777 S. MacArthur Blvd., Ste. 401, Coppell
972-745-7788
www.panaceancoppell.com
Hours: Mon.-Sun. 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m.
