New Vietnamese restaurant opens with free egg rolls in Nampa. How authentic? Mom cooks.

If you love Southeast Asian food — especially pho — prepare to feast, Nampa.

Pho 7 Authentic Vietnamese Restaurant plans to open at 9 a.m. Friday, Feb. 26, at 732 Caldwell Blvd.

How authentic is it?

Owner Vivi Nguyen’s mother, Anh Tran, who immigrated from Vietnam in her early 30s, will run the kitchen — although family members will help.

“She’s going to be the cook,” Nguyen explains with a chuckle. “She doesn’t trust anybody!”

Located in the former Burnt Lemon Grill building, Pho 7 joins several restaurants in greater Boise specializing in the popular soup. Pho is a deliciously salty, slow-simmered broth that teems with meat and noodles. Pho 7 also dishes up pho chay, a vegetarian version.

To celebrate its grand opening, Pho 7 will knock 10 percent off orders the first day. The restaurant also will throw in a free order of egg rolls for the first week — ground pork or vegetarian.

Nguyen’s family recently relocated to Idaho from Orange County, California, to open the restaurant, she says — their first. Tran will re-create many recipes that she’s used in her own kitchen for years. “We just want people to taste basically the feel of a home-cooked meal,” Nguyen says. “Everywhere I go, even in California, nothing is like a home-cooked meal. ... When you go to a Vietnamese restaurant in California, you can actually taste the MSG.”

Tran will use as little MSG as possible, Nguyen says. (Menu items containing it will be spelled out on a board in the restaurant.) “Here, everything is just very, like, natural,” she says.

Pho 7 doesn’t have a signature dish. “We actually have two, because it’s so hard to pick between,” Nguyen says.

The first is bun bo Hue (spicy beef noodle soup, $8, $11.50, $13.50): rice vermicelli, beef shank, Vietnamese pork sausage and congealed pig’s blood, which is optional. The other is pho bac diet (house special noodle soup, $13.50/$14.50): rice noodles, rare steak, beef brisket, meatballs, green and white onions, cilantro, lime wedges and basil.

“I could just eat those every single day for, like, months,” Nguyen says. “And I used to do that! I used to eat pho every single day for like a week.”

Pho 7 will have seated dining. Takeout also will be available. Eventually, the family hopes to offer delivery, too, Nguyen says.

Initially, business hours will be 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. (Except closed Mondays.) The 9 a.m. start on opening day? That’s a one-time thing, Nguyen says.

“My parents are very superstitious,” she explains, “and they went to the temple, and they asked for a date and time to open. But we don’t really expect any customers to come in that early, because I noticed most restaurants over here open at, like, 11 a.m.”

On the other hand ... free Vietnamese egg rolls? That sounds like breakfast, Canyon County.

“They’re really good,” Nguyen admits.

This story was originally published February 22, 2021 at 4:00 AM.