How To Design, Build and Operate Vietnamese Pho Restaurants

Updated 05-22-19. I love pho and love to talk about eating pho just like many pho zealots out there. With my special knowledge and experience with pho restaurants, I also reach out to help aspiring restaurateurs successfully open and operate their own Vietnamese pho restaurants.

A question I often get from people goes something like this: "What does a pho restaurant consultant do?"

The answer is, if you want to acquire knowledge and experience quickly without making expensive and avoidable mistakes to properly build and operate a pho restaurant, then I can help in 2 ways:

1. For existing pho operators: Focus on fixing specific issues in areas that you need help in; such as fixing or improving pho broth recipe/production; implementing effective employee hiring and training program; ensuring proper customer service practice is in place; or maintaining a solid inventory system to minimize food waste. Each business has its own issues and the possibilities to resolve those issues can be endless.
2. For new, aspiring pho entrepreneurs: Create a new pho restaurant concept that meets your goals and guide you through the complete process to design, build, open and operate a profit-generating pho restaurant.

Regardless of level of experience of the owner and the complexity of the pho restaurant you want to build, I provide coaching in a number of key areas including:

• Business plan, financial projection/pro forma, financial feasibility, profit/loss analysis, and payback strategies,
• Pho kitchen design, floor plan drawing, kitchen equipment selection,
• Training on how to make pho for profit, how to find and train FOH and BOH staff, how to reduce food & labor costs,
• Menu design, inventory control, cost control, customer service,
• Marketing, promotion, customer loyalty programs.

My single aim is to help an owner resolve both strategic and tactical issues that prevent a pho restaurant from achieving the profit potential that it can really achieve.

Check out the gallery below showing the many different tools that a pho restaurant owner can take advantage of during the design, plan and build phase; during pre-opening and grand opening phase; and then during ongoing operation phase. If a restaurant does not have or utilize things such as checklists, detailed processes, tracking and analyzing of staff, quality and financial performance, then either the owner doesn't know how to do it, or the owner doesn't know that he/she needs it. I will help coach you in all these areas.

Also I just want to point out that, while many people can draw and sketch up stuff, every single drawing (both by hand and by computer) in the gallery below had a very specific purpose for it to be created. From illustrating specific things to be specially fabricated, to quickly fit-checking several different equipment options, to verifying a view of customers standing at a specific point in the dining room (to only allow viewing of something and not other things), these are all tools to aid an owner in making important decisions during design and construction of a restaurant.

Leave a comment in the comment section and let me know if you have any question.

For help with your pho restaurant, book a one-hour pho restaurant consultation and get your questions answered.