For EAD Vietnamese Restaurant owners Benjamin and Chelsea Dang, their Shenandoah restaurant is the culmination of the couple’s lifelong dream. After almost 20 years of wanting to open an eatery, the Dangs opened EAD Vietnamese in November 2017 with a menu featuring recipes and flavors popular in south Vietnam.
The Dangs, who are both self-taught chefs, are the restaurant’s main cooks, preparing Vietnamese dishes from scratch daily, such as Pho Tai Bo Vien, a pho with beef meatballs and Com Bo Luc Lac, a stir-fried beef dish.
“A lot of people know Vietnamese food as pho, but I want to bring something new—not just pho,” Benjamin said. “We want to introduce customers in Houston to different dishes like pork chops, barbecue beef and cabbage salad made the way it is in Vietnam. People in Vietnam eat like this.”
Family history
Benjamin said he grew up in the city of Quảng Ngãi, a province in the country’s south central coast region. He moved to the U.S. 28 years ago and joined the U.S. Navy after graduating high school. Benjamin retired from the Navy and came home in 2002, when his love for cooking prompted him to join his family’s restaurant business.
Benjamin said he has spent the last 15 years working at Hyunh Restaurant, his family’s business in downtown Houston. When he and his wife decided to open their own restaurant in Shenandoah, they said they wanted the restaurant’s name to represent their family. The letters in EAD stand for the Dangs’ three children: Eaden, Aaron and Donny.
“We have a lot of Vietnamese people and restaurants here in The Woodlands area, but it’s fusion food—they mix Vietnamese and Chinese,” he said. “Ours is traditional food. We focus on our culture.”
Vietnamese cuisine has been strongly influenced by colonial French and Chinese cultures, Benjamin said. Vegetables are usually eaten raw with a dipping sauce or lightly stir-fried. Broths, especially bone broths and stocks, are a common feature in all three traditions.
For example, the eatery’s pho is made with a rich beef bone stock that simmers for up to 16 hours and can take years to perfect.
Secret to success
In addition to timing, consistency of food quality is important at EAD Vietnamese, Benjamin said.
“We don’t have any secret [to success], but I want consistency in my food,” he said. “We keep control and try not to do too much at once.”
EAD Vietnamese’s menu features lunch and dinner items as well as appetizers, such as spring and egg rolls, Banh Uot Tom Chay—char-grilled pork wrapped in rice paper—and Goi Ga—a chicken or shrimp salad served with ginger sauce.
Chelsea said EAD Vietnamese’s most popular dish is the beef rattle, which is filet mignon served with stir-fried scallions, bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, lettuce and a homemade lemon-pepper sauce.
The restaurant’s menu also has several vegetarian options, such as stir-fried bok choy and tofu dishes, and many of the traditional Vietnamese dishes are naturally gluten-free. While EAD Vietnamese does not serve alcohol, the business allows patrons to bring their own wine, Benjamin said.
Since opening last year customers have spread the word and increased the restaurant’s popularity on social media, Benjamin said. To meet the demands of the area’s growing palate, the Dangs said they are already considering adding to the menu.
“I know a lot of people come here asking for a lot of food they want that we don’t have,” Benjamin said. “Maybe in another month we’ll review the whole year and take stock. We focus on our food—not our profits. We just want people to come here enjoy our food.”
EAD Vietnamese Restaurant
17947 I-45 S., Shenandoah
281-651-2208
www.facebook.com/ead-vietnamese-restaurant
Hours: Mon.-Thu. 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., closed Sunday
