A new restaurant has opened next to the old Westlock Hotel on Main Street, offering a selection of Vietnamese cuisine.
The Vietnamese Spring Roll first opened on Monday, July 14. According to the owner Kit Hunh, the restaurant has been keeping busy with the number of orders they are getting.
Hunh felt that there was an untapped market for authentic Vietnamese cuisine in town. This is not the first restaurant Hunh has opened in Canada. Her journey started in Toronto before moving to Edmonton three years ago. She has several Vietnamese and pizza places throughout the city that she continues to run remotely.
The restaurant currently serves a wide variety of meals, including rice dishes, stir-fry noodles, soups and breads. Hungry patrons can mix and match with appetizers like crispy chicken wings, grilled chicken salad and four different types of spring rolls.
“I hope the people come and enjoy my food, and then we work together and love each other and everyone tries to be nice to each other,” Hunh said as she has spent years in customer service, already she knows the value of maintaining good rapport with customers.
Hunh addressed the high prices of her food but wanted to assure potential diners that the portions are set to match.
“Some people in the restaurant [industry], they put a little, I put a lot," Hunh said.
The current location has a long history of different restaurants moving in and out. The most recent is Grandpa’s Pizza, which opened in September 2024 and closed less than a year later. The reasons for closing remain unknown. However, many customers reported a lack of cleanliness when it came to their dishes and multiple health code violations were reported during Alberta Health Services inspections.
It seems that the Vietnamese Spring Roll is stepping into a building that many people have already associated with an unhygienic establishment, less than three months ago. However, Hunh worked hard to ensure the restaurant would be here to stay.
While the restaurant has only been open for two weeks so far, Hunh has been seeing positive feedback from the community with many people coming back regularly.
“Thank you to the people who are coming and keep coming again. I try my best to make the people happy, not disappointed.”
