Vietnamese friend wants to open pho restaurant

There are many places to find equipment for a restaurant. Just type in a search "commercial kitchen equipment" or "restaurant equipment" or something similar. You'll find plenty of info.

However kitchen equipment should be the least of her concern right now imo. I think your friend should do the following:

• Get herself a Food Manager Certification or something similar. This way she learns what's important and expected if she is to cook for public consumption in the U.S. It will help her better formulate how she'll run her business.
• Read up on how businesses should be conducted (customer service, food safety, hiring and firing, tax and legal considerations applicable to a restaurant, lease negotiation, etc.)

There are many other things she can also do, but the most important one is she should search out the info herself as opposed to having a friend like you do it for her. Sorry this may sound harsh but from personal experience, restaurant business is tough, and one needs to be independent enough to pursue it and survive it.

I tend to agree with @FoodChick89 especially the part about your lady friend being independent and learning by herself the ins and outs of opening and running a restaurant. Also the Food Manager Certification will do several things:

• It will force the owner understand numerous factors and areas that are required or at least impact a foodservice business, so that she can plan for it.
• Obviously whichever areas she needs help with from the certification process, they are areas which she should beef up her knowledge on.
• It's also the best way to learn and understand the lingo, safety considerations, and various other factors that will either help her be successful or cause her to fail in the new business.

There are many other things to consider with respect to planning, recipe and menu development, floor plan design, construction, hiring, training, etc. Selecting the right equipment should be an integrated part within many of these activities.

Also from my experience, new owners oftentimes add numerous other dishes to the menu. So while they may call it a pho restaurant, more than half of their menu consists of non-pho items. All of this will determine what kitchen equipment should be selected.

I'll be happy to provide further answers as you have them. However in order to get the most accurate and relevant information for starting up a pho restaurant that will work for you, please upgrade to Premium level.

Hmmm talk about potential problem of loss in translation. I think the lady friend should come and ask the questions herself. This way when we try to help her with additional clarification questions, she can provide accurate replies instead of having to go through you, and she can always say " not sure" or "I don't know" herself and we can go fro there. I get weary about these "asking for a friend" questions.