Hong Kong Restaurant Gets Three Michelin Awards for Vietnamese Food

An Choi restaurant is run by Kay Mai and her husband Lewis Dai. They started it in 2023 after quitting their jobs.

Kay Mai was born in Ho Chi Minh City. She grew up in the Mekong Delta and loved Vietnamese food. She and her husband met in 2018 and started the restaurant to serve real Vietnamese dishes.

When Kay Mai was abroad, she looked for Vietnamese food when she felt homesick.

But the Vietnamese food outside Vietnam didn't taste like the real thing. It was changed to suit local tastes.

Kay Mai and her husband are in front of their restaurant An Choi in Hong Kong.

In 2018, Kay Mai went back to Vietnam and met her husband. He didn't know much about Vietnamese food then, but she taught him.

Kay Mai and her husband traveled around Vietnam to try different foods. They found that Vietnamese cuisine is very rich and diverse.

After getting married in 2020, they moved to Hong Kong and worked for a food company. They helped open seven restaurants during the pandemic.

Working for the food company gave them experience and the idea to start their own restaurant.

In 2023, they opened An Choi restaurant in Hong Kong. They wanted to serve real Vietnamese dishes, not just the famous ones.

The restaurant is designed to look like the street food stalls in Vietnam.

An Choi has stainless steel tables and plastic chairs to make it feel like Vietnam.

Kay Mai prioritized southern Vietnamese dishes for the menu, and they change the noodle soups every day.

Kay Mai thinks the special sauces and ingredients in Vietnamese food can make people love it.

They import herbs from Vietnam and make most ingredients in-house every day.

The only change they make for Hong Kong customers is the broth for pho, but other dishes are traditional.

An Choi serves beef pho and banh mi like they do in Vietnam.

At first, the restaurant only served beef and chicken pho on weekends, and it was quiet.

Kay Mai wanted to teach Hong Kong people about real Vietnamese food, but it was hard at first.

Many customers didn't know the other noodle dishes, and they didn't want to try them. But Kay Mai kept explaining the food and its story.

Over time, many customers became regulars and even visited Vietnam to try the food.

One dish, bun mam, was featured by Vogue Hong Kong for its unique flavors.

Michelin praised An Choi for its cha ca and commitment to Vietnamese cuisine.

An Choi got added to Michelin's list just seven months after opening and won awards in the following years.

Now, the restaurant has twice as many customers as before.

Kay Mai thinks that making their own bread and staying true to Vietnamese flavors earned them the Michelin awards.

Kay Mai and her husband chose three dishes that represent Vietnamese cuisine: spicy beef noodle soup, bun mam, and Da Lat grilled rice paper.

Da Lat grilled rice paper is served whole, and customers cut it with scissors at the table.

What makes Kay Mai and her husband proud is that many locals visit Vietnam to try the dishes they first had at An Choi.

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