“We don’t do fusion, and we don’t do Vietnamese and Asian or Vietnamese American style. It’s just authentic Vietnamese,” Mac said.
The menu features staples from the Southeast Asian nation, such as banh mi, the ubiquitous Vietnamese sandwich with choice of protein, fresh cut veggies and pickled carrots on a toasted French baguette. Other familiar offerings are egg and spring rolls and specialty noodle soups.
Pho Mac’s top seller is its pho, a savory rice-noodle soup with broth simmered in herbs and spices, a choice of beef, chicken, shrimp, combination, or veggie, along with fresh bean sprouts, basil, cilantro, sliced jalapenos and garnished with a sliced lime wedge.
“In Vietnam, everyone had [pho] in the morning. It’s like breakfast,” Mac said.
Pho Mac also offers a full line of soft drinks, tea, coffee and smoothies in the restaurant and next door in the adjoining Mac’s Boba Café. The cafe opened in August 2020. Its Black Milk Tea is a best seller, Mac said.
Nguyen runs this Pho Mac location, which opened in 2018, but gives credit to his parents who started Pho Mac in 2005 at Independence Parkway and Parker Road in Plano. That location operated until 2017. Mac said it showed him all he needed to know to one day run his own restaurant.
His parents still work in the kitchen as he and other family members work the front of the house.
“We’re a family-owned restaurant,” Mac said. “This community is very great because we get to know everyone. It’s just like a family here.”
Pho Mac
8420 Preston Road, Ste. 180, Plano
469-362-8676
https://pho-mac.square.site
Hours: Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.-9 p.m., closed Sundays
