Fried elephant ear restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City sells more than 1 ton of fish a day: What's the secret?

That is the restaurant of Mr. Nguyen Chi Thanh (41 years old), currently the owner of 5 fried elephant ear fish shops in Ho Chi Minh City. Recently, the restaurant has become known to many people for selling a "huge" amount of fish.

The truth about the rumor of selling 1 ton of fish per day

One day in the middle of the week, we stopped by Thanh’s elephant ear fish restaurant located on Tan Quy Street (Tan Phu District). The restaurant is located next to Phu Quoc Bun Quay restaurant, also owned by Thanh and his friends.

The restaurant opened at 10am and customers regularly came to buy fried elephant ear fish for lunch. Many shippers also lined up to receive their orders. Mr. Thanh and the other people in the restaurant each had a job, some fried fish, some welcomed customers, some packed them... busily bringing hot and crispy meals to customers without having to wait long.

The owner said he has been selling Phu Quoc noodle soup in Kien Giang for 10 years now, and has opened 3 more branches in Ho Chi Minh City for almost 2 years. However, this fried elephant ear fish restaurant has only been open for 5 months.

"My sister and I opened this restaurant together. My sister has more than 10 years of experience cooking for restaurant parties, and I also have 20 years of experience in the F&B field, so we came up with the idea of ​​selling this fried elephant ear fish dish because we already had a special dipping sauce recipe. The dipping sauce is very important for this dish!", Mr. Thanh recounted.

At first, the biggest difficulty the restaurant faced was that not many customers knew about the restaurant. However, thanks to the number of regular customers who bought the bun quay to try as well as being known through social networks, the number of people coming to the restaurant increased day by day. Currently, the restaurant has a stable number of customers.

Regarding the rumor that the restaurant sells 1 ton of fish per day, the owner smiled and said that this number is not achieved every day. "This depends on the day. There are days when I sell more than 1 ton at 5 restaurants, such as the first day of the new year 2025, when the demand from customers to buy for their families and parties increased. On normal days, the 5 restaurants I open sell an average of 700 kg of fish per day," Mr. Thanh added.

Each deep-fried elephant ear fish here weighs an average of 1.4 kg. The take-away price ranges from 180,000 - 290,000 VND/fish depending on the size chosen by the customer. The dish is served with vermicelli, wild vegetables rolled in rice paper and dipping sauce.

Recovering from bankruptcy

Talking about the secret to being favored by many customers, Mr. Thanh said that it lies in the selection of fresh and delicious fish ingredients, and the way to remove the fishy smell of the fish. Most importantly, the method of frying the fish so that it is crispy on the outside while still retaining the softness and moisture of the fish meat inside. In addition, the special dipping sauce from 10 years of experience in cooking for restaurant parties of one of the restaurant owners also creates a unique flavor for the fish dishes here.

A regular customer at Mr. Thanh's Phu Quoc Bun Quay restaurant, Ms. Mai (40 years old, living in District 11) tried the fried elephant ear fish in front of the restaurant and was impressed. After that, Ms. Mai decided to buy fish for the whole family to have lunch together.

"The fish here is delicious, especially the dipping sauce! Plus the price is reasonable so I decided to buy it. If I fried it at home, it wouldn't be like that, it would take a lot of oil to fry," she said.

Not everyone knows that Mr. Thanh once opened 12 bakeries in Hanoi , but then went bankrupt in 2011. After experiencing the incident, he decided to move to the South and stopped in Kien Giang to start a business.

Through many difficulties, ups and downs and tireless efforts, he is now the owner of a 10-year-old bun quay brand in Kien Giang as well as expanding to many provinces and cities such as Tay Ninh , Can Tho, Binh Duong , Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh City.

Mr. Thanh married a woman from Kien Giang, having met her since the early days of moving to the South to start a business. After going through difficult days, he now has a stable life , a happy family with 2 children. Every day, the owner is happy with his job, bringing his dedicated dishes to customers who come to support the restaurant.