Viet Nguyễn, the co-founder and executive chef of Kei Concepts with seven restaurant brands under his belt, has held a unique strategy when growing his portfolio — he chooses the location of his next restaurant first before deciding on the cuisine.
With his initial concept SÚP Noodle Bar in 2014, Nguyễn said he found a high-traffic plaza in Buena Park with an H Mart grocery store, Daiso and 85°C Bakery, which led him to sign a 600-square-foot lease.
“At that time, I did not even know what I’m going to sell yet, so I simply signed the lease and said, ‘Hey landlord, you’re just going to have to trust me. I’m going to do something amazing. You just don’t know it yet,’” Nguyễn told the Business Journal.
After surveying locals in a three-mile radius from the store for three months, Nguyễn said local business owners and residents identified the need to open a premium pho soup restaurant.
“All the pho restaurants around me at that time were selling a large bowl for about $8, and we set out to sell a bowl at $12,” Nguyễn said.
This strategy was Nguyễn’s answer to a problem he said entrepreneurial restaurateurs and chefs have: “Do you have a crazy good recipe first and then you build a restaurant? Or do you build a restaurant with a beautiful location, and then you figure out what people want?”
Nguyễn decided to find the best location first.
“Do not sell what you have. Sell what people want,” he said. “It’s 11 years now and one single location, less than 2,000 square feet, is doing $6.5 million.”
Kei Concepts, based in Huntington Beach, now operates 12 restaurants in Orange County and Los Angeles. Since SÚP Noodle Bar, the company has added fusion concepts such as a Vietnamese French café and a Japanese-inspired Italian eatery along with a hand roll sushi stop and a Japanese izakaya spot. Its most recent opening was the second spot for the Peruvian Chinese Vox Kitchen, which arrived at the luxe shopping center South Coast Plaza in late 2024.
The founder always planned to have multiple kinds of cuisine in his company’s portfolio.
Nguyễn’s newest concept will serve contemporary Chinese cuisine under the name QUA and is scheduled to open in Fountain Valley on BrookhurstStreet by September.
Finding the Fundamental Cuisines
Nguyễn lived in South Saigon until he was 16 years old.
In 2002, Nguyễn said he wanted to get out of Vietnam because it wasn’t a place for growth, and he didn’t think he was good at school. After landing in the San Fernando Valley, he bought a bike and started working at a pho restaurant as a busboy on his second day in the U.S.
While working, he said his love for food helped him learn that there were a few fundamental cuisines that made up the top foods in the country. Nguyễn zeroed in on Chinese and Japanese cuisines along with Italian, French and Neo American foods, categories where his menus draw inspiration.
“Understanding all of those major cuisines would be the way to unlock flavor,” he said.
Starting with three foundational cooking classes at Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena, Nguyễn said he taught himself to cook by reading and watching videos online.
Working in the industry led him to eventually help his family run a mom-and-pop style restaurant in Rosemead in 2009, where Nguyễn learned he wanted to do more “elevated” dining.
He later worked under professional chefs such as Jimmy Wang, the current executive director of culinary and product innovation at Panda Express, and at restaurant brands like The Fat Cow by Gordon Ramsey to pursue “a more formal path in hospitality.”
The millennial was 28 when he opened his first restaurant, SÚP Noodle Bar. INI Ristorante, ROL Hand Roll Bar, Kei Coffee House and others followed. Now a decade later, he said the upcoming QUA restaurant is the missing piece to having all “the cuisines in his back pocket.”
Nguyễn revealed that his next venture will be focused on diet instead of cuisine.
“How do we eat healthier?” he said. “What if we can do Asian-forward flavor, but in a very healthy diet for people that later on have to deal with all these health issues?”
Close to $90M
Nguyễn said the craziest part of his career was when the pandemic hit and instead of putting growth on hold, he decided to double down on his business.
“80% of our sales were gone overnight,” Nguyễn said, adding that when the five restaurants at the time turned to delivery, he was out with his employees driving and dropping off food.
Nguyễn then chose to go all in.
“I raised about $5 million, and I bought every single restaurant I could put my hands on,” Nguyễn said.
He ended up buying three stores to open his restaurants in. Kei Coffee House launched this year at the Westminster location he acquired and QUA will debut in the Fountain Valley store. A third VOX Kitchen & Bar will open at the spot in Aliso Viejo in 2026.
“At that time, I think we were doing $18 million a year total. I think next year, we’ll be closer to $90 million and over 1,000 employees,” Nguyễn said.
A casualty from COVID-19 was the Michelin-honored GEM Dining in Fountain Valley; however, Nguyễn says the upscale restaurant is a brand he still believes in.
“I hope to bring it back one day under the right leadership and location. The landscape for fine dining and fine casual has shifted post-COVID, but I believe there’s still a future for it,” he said.
Largest Vietnamese Community in the U.S.
As for his base of operations, Nguyễn points to Orange County being home to the largest Vietnamese population in the U.S. The county’s Little Saigon area encompasses parts of Westminster, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove and Santa Ana where many people immigrated to after the fall of Saigon in 1975, according to economists from California State University, Fullerton.
“I came here with the mentality that in Vietnam, I’m just one person out of 100 million people, like a drop in a bucket,” he said. “I don’t know what I could do. I’m not adding value to anything.”
Nguyễn said that now he sees the possibility to “open a path for Vietnamese people in Vietnam to understand the Vietnamese population here in the U.S.,” and vice versa, through his restaurants.
“I felt like it’s my obligation as a Vietnamese person to do something for my community, to do something for my country.”