Two restaurants stand proudly on separate corners along Taft Ave. One simmers with the warmth of steaming broth and the constant clatter of bowls, while the other brims with gold, nursing caffeinated conversations within its cozy interior. However, unbeknownst to many, Pho Mahal and U Mê Kape sprang from the same hands.
Behind these establishments is Ngo Thi Thao, a 25-year-old businesswoman whose commitment to Vietnamese culture has redefined the culinary landscape for many city dwellers. “I want them to feel the experience [of] eating a bowl of pho in Vietnam,” she shares. As she seasons the rest of Manila with the essence of her birthplace, she has smoothly steeped Taft in the warmth of a home that once felt far away.
Pho the love of home
Pho Mahal’s first ingredients were prepared not in a kitchen, but in a classroom.
While studying International Hospitality Management at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) in 2021, a professor had asked their class about their favorite cuisine and dishes. “More than 50 percent of them [said they preferred] Vietnamese noodles,” she shares, recalling her amazement.
This prompted her to examine Taft’s food landscape. What she saw was an area dominated by familiar fast-food restaurant chains, with no room for healthy meal options.
As a DLS-CSB student and a longtime Taft resident, Thao understood the community she hoped to serve. “I know the target market. I understand the student lifestyle, their favorite, their options when it comes to food, [and] the price when it comes to eat[ing] outside,” she explains. For Thao, elevating Vietnamese cuisine in the neighborhood brought it one step closer to international recognition. She believed Vietnamese cuisine deserved to stand alongside globally celebrated culinary traditions like Japanese and Korean food, not only for its rich variety but also for its balance of vibrant flavors and wholesome ingredients. Built on fresh herbs like cilantro and mint, crisp vegetables, lean proteins, and bright notes of lime and fish sauce, staples like pho and banh mi infuse depth and freshness to nourish the body.
Thao returned to Vietnam in 2022 and took cooking courses to master the flavors of her homeland before bringing them to the Philippines. Pho Mahal first operated through online selling during the renovation of its physical space. From then, it took off. “Everyday sales [were] P20,000 to P30,000,” she recalls. When dine-in operations began, the restaurant only grew bigger, regularly filling during peak hours.
Two years later, Thao extended her vision past the dining table with U Me Kape to showcase Vietnamese coffee, drinks, and desserts. While Pho Mahal highlights traditional cuisine, U Me Kape invites customers to experience a more playful and contemporary side of Vietnam, offering the basics of strong, Vietnamese Robusta beans, while also introducing Filipinos to tropical concoctions like coconut and egg coffee. Together, the two establishments form complementary pieces of a much bigger ambition: “building a scalable Vietnamese hospitality in the Philippines.”
The best of both worlds
Thao emphasizes that “the mission [for] each [restaurant] is different.” This contrast trickles down even to the ambiance of the two places. Pho Mahal’s vibrant yellow facade on the corner of Pablo Ocampo St. and Taft Ave. greets customers into a quaint space with painted walls and framed images of pho. On the other hand, the two-story U Mê sports a trendier feel, complete with relaxed floor seating, charming murals, and warm wooden slats enclosing an eclectic gallery wall around the staircase.
Thao believes that the authenticity of her sister establishments emanates not only from the identity of their products, but also from the Vietnamese experience Pho Mahal and U Mê provide to their customers. “When a customer [goes to] order, the first [person they interact with] is a Vietnamese cashier,” she cites as an example.
Thao also considers the affordable menu as vital to her businesses’ success. She remarks that, with the costs for a cup of coffee in other cafes along Taft, “some people [are going to] just drink it twice a week.” Thus, she set the prices for drinks in U Mê to ones that bring comfort to customers on a more regular basis.
However, one paramount asset stands apart: most of their ingredients are imported from Vietnam. To maintain authenticity in their service, “Even the seasoning, even the fish sauce, even the soy sauce…even those have to come from Vietnam,” Thao stresses.
The thorough effort she puts into sourcing ingredients directly from Vietnam cascades even to new innovations. For instance, U Mê’s recently viral Vietnamese Chewy Cookie—which only exacerbated the cafe’s long lines—is marketed as such because the cocoa powder, among other ingredients, is also imported from Vietnam.
Seasoned by the hustle
Despite the difficulties of management, Thao insists that her work rarely feels burdensome. “When I do something, I feel that [I’m doing something] meaningful,” she admits. Thus, every task Thao takes on becomes larger than life.
By reading the food landscape of Taft, Thao turned the avenue into a classroom of praxis. Likening her business venture to paying “tuition fee[s] for life,” she expounds that this education is one marked with risk and real experience. In seizing each day, Thao finds that one does not need to have everything figured out to begin. What matters more is a conviction to dedication, realism, and passion that makes a vision into reality.
In her growth as a business owner, Thao remains steadfast in her main mission: understanding the customer. She insists that “it’s accepting and trying to know what value you can bring,” while balancing “what you need to change, what you should not change.” It is between these tensions where Thao’s vision is clear: the strongest businesses are those that remain faithful to the purpose that brought them into being.
As the horizon widens, Thao continues to imagine a future where Vietnamese businesses become broader, even dreaming of a “Vietnamese town” in the country. While a far-off hope, it has begun to take shape in Taft through Pho Mahal and U Mê Kape, where in every bowl served and cup poured is a culture that always finds its way back home.