Green Garden Pho, a Vietnamese restaurant, has been open in Silverdale for less than two years, and already it’s a popular choice.
Open seven days a week, Green Garden Pho offers a variety of healthy dishes, many of which include choices between pork, chicken, beef or tofu.
“I like to cook healthy,” said the owner and chef of Green Garden Pho, Anh Dung. He said he opened the restaurant in Silverdale because he wants to share healthy food with the community, and provide a place for people to get traditional Vietnamese food that is also healthy.
“We’re similar to other restaurants, but I think our foods are healthier,” said waitress Kayla Luong. “We also have vegetarian dishes.”
Both Dung and Luong say the Pho, a rice noodle soup dish, is their favorite dish, and is the first thing they recommend to customers.
“That is actually my favorite,” said Luong. “I eat that every day.”
According to the Green Garden Pho website, “Vietnamese cuisine features a combination of five fundamental taste elements in the overall meal: spicy, sour, bitter, salty and sweet.”
Every dish on their menu is created to feature one or more of those elements, so there’s something for everyone at Green Garden Pho.
Most of their dishes have a lot of vegetables included in the meal, an important factor to Dung who insists on making healthy food. He purchases fresh vegetables himself for his restaurant to help ensure that everything he serves is healthy and tastes good.
Dung wanted to open his own restaurant from the time that he was young, and has loved to cook his entire life. Around 15 months ago, he said, he finally got the chance to open Green Garden Pho, and even though it’s a lot of work, he’s happy.
“I work a lot of hours, but I’m happy,” he said. “I love to cook. I cook from my heart.”
Dung has just been in Kitsap County for a little more than a year. He and his family live in Tacoma where he recently purchased a home for his parents, himself, his wife, and his 8-year-old daughter.
Dung was young when he came to the United States. His father served in the U.S. Army and in the Vietnam War where he was taken as a prisoner of war. He was later released and returned to be with his unit and his family in the United States.
When Dung was very young, he would cook for his sister and two brothers while his mother worked full time outside the home.
“I would watch my siblings’ faces when they tasted my food, to see if they liked it,” he said.
He knew early-on he wanted to have his own restaurant, and learned the business from three friends who had restaurants.
“They took me under their wings and taught me all the culinary skills I know today,” he said.
Dung has traveled back to Vietnam since becoming an adult.
“I visit family and I take in the culinary arts throughout the cities,” he said.
When he’s not working, Dung enjoys spending time with his family, some one-on-one time with his daughter and watching football. He also likes to try out other restaurants.
For more information on Green Garden Pho go to www.greengardenpho.com.
Green Garden Pho is located at 10516 Silverdale Way NW, Suite 110A, Silverdale. The phone is 360-516-6746. Restaurant hours: Monday – Friday: 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
