East Dallas restaurant Ngon Vietnamese Kitchen will open a new location in New York City, after a whirlwind few years that brought the small shop international fame in the Michelin Guide.
In 2024, Ngon received a Bib Gourmand, Michelin’s honor for good quality, value-driven food. The award was a surprise to owner Carol Nguyen, who was humbled to find her menu of papaya salad, bún chả Hà Nội, pho and curry dishes named on the same stage as some of Texas’ fanciest fine-dining restaurants. Michelin’s anonymous critics, called inspectors, pick Bib Gourmand winners based on their affordability, making it a popular category for food-lovers looking for a reasonably priced meal.
Ngon has large portions, bright flavors and consistent food, Michelin said. The restaurant is named after Nguyen’s mother, Ngôn, and is inspired by the street food in Hà Nội. Nguyen left Vietnam in 1978 as a refugee.
Ngon Vietnamese Kitchen’s menu includes a variety of pho. The restaurant earned a Bib Gourmand, Michelin’s award for reasonably priced food. (Shafkat Anowar/Staff Photographer)
Since Ngon’s Bib Gourmand in 2024 — which was awarded again in 2025 — running a restaurant with such shine was “nearly unsurvivable,” Nguyen told The Dallas Morning News last year.
“I said, ‘If we keep busy like this, we’re going to die,'” she said in 2025. “It was overwhelming. After our shifts, we could not feel our legs.”
The team recovered from the dramatic uptick in business, and Michelin’s accolade gave Nguyen the confidence to expand.
Just as the Dallas restaurant was created in honor of the female elders in Nguyen’s family, the New York restaurant is for Nguyen’s daughter, Elys Truong. She lives in New York and misses Mom’s cooking.
Ngon Vietnamese Kitchen in Dallas is a relatively small shop on Greenville Avenue. The NYC restaurant will be two stories, with room for events above the restaurant. (Shafkat Anowar/Staff Photographer)
The two-story Vietnamese restaurant in New York City is slated to open at the corner of 2nd Avenue and 5th Street in the East Village in mid-2026. The restaurant is two stories and will host events on the second floor.
The menu will be similar to that of the Dallas original. A statement from the restaurant calls Nguyen’s food “familiar, unfussy, and quietly complex.”
Ngon Vietnamese Kitchen is at 1907 Greenville Ave., Dallas. The new restaurant is expected to open in June 2026 at 85 2nd Ave., New York.
Related: Popular Dallas-based restaurant expanding to New York’s Times Square
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