Chao Vietnamese Street Food Celebrates 10 Years

The owners of Chao Vietnamese Street Food will celebrate 10 years this fall, and it’s all because college friends – one born and raised in Mexico and the other born and raised in Vietnam – put their skills and heads together to create the popular restaurant.

Dr. Huong Vu visits Vietnam every year, working with a nonprofit team of dentists and hygienists to help the people with their dental needs. It’s her home and she loves giving back, but living in the U.S., she noticed early on that one thing was missing.

“My business partner, Huong, is an incredible visionary,” said Co-owner and Chef Carlos Villagran. “When she was going to dental school, she noticed there wasn’t any Vietnamese food near the campus. In fact, years later she took her daughter to Vietnam to visit, and when they returned, they realized there still wasn’t true Vietnamese food in the area.”

Over the years Villagran was working on his passions – all of them.

“In college I majored in business management and entrepreneurship with a minor in music performance and pre-law,” Villagran said. “Basically I paid my way through college by dancing and playing music, and I worked in restaurants. I’ve worked in Mexican restaurants, French restaurants and others. It didn’t take long to pick up Vietnamese because though the flavors are very different, there’s a lot of French influence there.”

Ten years ago their passions came together to launch a Vietnamese restaurant with traditional flavors – one that Vietnamese natives would approve. They started with a few basic offerings on the menu.

“[Huong Vu] had the vision to open the restaurant and wanted something healthy and fast,” Villagran said. “I think we were only the third or fourth Vietnamese place in Indy. We started with a few fresh, traditional and very classic Vietnamese meals.”

Phò, a rice noodle soup flavored with various spices, meats and vegetables, bánh, a crispy baguette with a variety of fillings, and bún and com (noodles and rice) dishes were offered.

From there, Villagran began experimenting.

“We added a few things, almost by accident in some cases,” Villagran said. “We have the Chao Fries, topped with lemongrass pork, pickled daikon, carrots and homemade spicy mayo. I make Vietnamese-style tacos with pork belly, pickled daikon, spicy mayo and avocado cream sauce. Tacos aren’t a Vietnamese dish, but I made it as part of an event downtown and they were so popular, we kept them on the menu.”

They added “Street Food” to their restaurant name because it means something to both of them.

“Everywhere I’ve ever been, the most flavorful food is at the street vendors in my opinion,” Villagran said. “I grew up in Mexico City and my mom had a stand on the Main Avenue. It was some of the best you could get. A lot of people like to eat the street food because it is made right in front of you too. They would choose it over a sit-down restaurant.”

He’s taken a page from street-food vendors and makes everything in-house, from scratch – even the ice creams he offers for the popular Bubble Waffles.

“When Huong’s family escaped from Vietnam, they were picked up by a ship and stayed in a refugee camp in Hong Kong for a long time,” Villagran said. “She remembers going to the market with her two younger siblings and breaking a bubble waffle apart to share between them. They’re technically a food from Hong Kong but they’re popular and mean something to us.”

In addition to the homemade ice cream, customers can top the Bubble Waffle off with crushed chocolate or berries for new flavors.

By now Villagran thinks he has the Vietnamese recipes down to a science, but in the beginning it took a while to receive the approval of the Vietnamese community.

“The Vietnamese are incredibly lovely people but they don’t sugarcoat things,” he said. “Huong is a lovely woman, probably the best human I’ve ever met, but she’ll say, ‘This was not good. You need to try better.’ It comes from a place of love.”

For about a year he was told, “This is terrible. You need to fix this.” Eventually the Vietnamese residents, and residents across Indianapolis, regardless of their background or culture, were coming in to check the food out.

“Perhaps the best compliment I’ve ever had in my cooking career was on a busy day,” Villagran said. “An older lady got up from her table, walked back into the kitchen, and when we stopped her, she said she thought her Vietnamese friend was back there cooking.”

Moving forward, Villagran said they would love to find a spot to expand. For now, they’ll continue to improve the menu and add popular items.

It’s a unique offering for customers like Huong Vu, who miss traditional and authentic Vietnamese food.