Vietnamese cuisine comes to Texarkana

A bowl of pho made by Ryan Stanislawski is ready to eat Thursday at Pho Yo Soul Kitch-Inn in Texarkana, Ark. Pho Yo Soul is a Vietnamese food restaurant on 2016 E. Ninth St. The business has been open for a month.
A bowl of pho made by Ryan Stanislawski is ready to eat Thursday at Pho Yo Soul Kitch-Inn in Texarkana, Ark. Pho Yo Soul is a Vietnamese food restaurant on 2016 E. Ninth St. The business has been open for a month.

Pho (pronounced "fuh"), a Vietnamese soup that is hearty enough to be a meal and a staple in Vietnamese cuisine, has come to Texarkana.

Pho Yo Soul Kitch-Inn at 2016 E. Ninth St. on the Arkansas side offers pho as well as spring rolls and other Vietnamese tastes, though they still do the burgers and other things the previous Soul Kitch-Inn featured.

"This is our first restaurant, but not our first business," said Angie Bui, wife of co-owner Nelson Khanh Bui. "My husband always had a dream of owning a restaurant in Texarkana. Texarkana clearly loves its restaurants and has lots of them for a city of its size. So we figured a good strategy is an underserved, or unserved, niche. Nelson, though a Texarkana native, grew up in a Vietnamese family and learned how to cook the dishes. And now, Texarkana has a Vietnamese restaurant."

Angie credits Pho Yo Soul Kitch-Inn as being a team effort.

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"I learned Vietnamese cooking from Nelson," she said. "And along the way, I picked up some tricks of my own, variants used in our cooking that you won't find in any other Vietnamese place."

Angie moved to Texarkana in 2008.

"I've been employed at Arkansas High School as a community-based instructor, a life skills teacher," she said. "I've taught a range of skills involved in food preparation, teaching students to be competent in food preparation, in ways not only useful in a home's kitchen, but also in a restaurant. Vocational as well as domestic viability. And now, I employ them here, along with my husband and our staff."

Nelson is the main cook preparing the dishes.

"He stays up all night with the big pots of pho," she said. "Also, Ryan Stanislawski, our business manager, has been a godsend to us. Not only handling the business side of things, but is a serious cook in his own right. He also maintains our social media presence on Facebook."

Customer response has been enthusiastic, Angie said.

"We've been open for about a month and already Texarkana has managed to find us, keeping us very busy," she said. "Our customers have been very complimentary to us, both in our presence and on social media. Nothing but positive responses."

"Word is getting around and more people keep showing up. In fact, today (Thursday) was supposed to be my day off, but we were swamped and I had to come in and lend a hand. Our days keep getting busier with no sign of that changing. And we don't want it to. We probably are going to need to hire more staff soon."

The location of Pho Yo Soul Kitch-Inn was formerly just the Soul Kitch-Inn, and before that it was the Lazy Fisherman.

Angie says that at some point there will be additions to the menu that rotate in and out with seasonal, holiday and other offerings.

Pho Yo Soul Kitch-Inn is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week. Call 903-293-5952.

"We take orders by phone," said Angie. "We are working on delivery and social media orders. Stay tuned."

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