Successful restaurant groups seldom start out with the expectation of creating multiple dining concepts.
SUP Noodle Bar was launched in 2014 in Buena Park by chef Viet Nguyễn. Two years later came Pango Taqueria, followed by Vox Kitchen in Fountain Valley and SUP Noodle Bar in Cerritos. Soon, Nguyễn’s company Kei Concepts—based in Huntington Beach—had more than a dozen restaurants in its portfolio, including VOX Kitchen & Bar in South Coast Plaza and QUA in Fountain Valley.
Nguyễn has two more restaurants opening later this year, with plans to open two to four additional restaurants after that. He was also nominated for a 2026 James Beard Award for Best Chef in California.
Thanks to his culinary successes and his ambitious goals, Viet Nguyễn has been named the Business Journal’s Restaurateur of the Year for 2026. Not only that, Nguyễn and co-founder and co-ceo Ivy Ha picked up a Business Journal award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship on March 26th at the Irvine Marriott.
“To the immigrant out there: You came to this country, and if you’re still sleeping in your car today, if you don’t know how you’re going to pay your bills tomorrow, if you don’t know what you’ll be eating for dinner tomorrow—as long as you work hard, I promise you, just don’t give up,” Nguyễn said. “I’m the result of the kindness of this country.”
For more on the other winners, see page 4 and the April 6 issue of the Business Journal.
The winner of the Business Journal’s Chef of the Year is Amar Santana. See next week’s issue for the story.
A Restaurant as Proof of Concept
Kei Concepts is billed as a hospitality solutions group at the crossroads of culinary artistry and dynamic innovation. Its goal: to celebrate culture, community and innovation. Depending on the restaurant, Kei Concepts eateries feature Vietnamese, Chinese, French, Italian and Japanese cuisines.
While the group’s successes have propelled them forward, not each concept has been successful, says Nguyễn.
“It’s like Apple or Toyota, they keep releasing new technology products or cars, but not every single one has been a hit,” said Nguyễn during an interview at his QUA restaurant.
“Obviously, some are a massive hit, and some really didn’t take off.”
The ones that failed were reinvented by Nguyễn, 39, who was born in Ho Chi Minh City and came to the United States at age 16. He lived in Los Angeles where he studied information technology and finance.
However, his passion for the culinary arts led him to open his first restaurant. Prior to opening his restaurant, Nguyễn used his tech background to create a new point of sale (POS) system that was cloud-based and wireless. He drained his bank account and spent months trying to get restaurants to use his system, sleeping in his car and not having much luck.
“What if I can have a proof of concept? What if I can just do a restaurant and prove to them that the system works?” said Nguyễn.
He convinced his parents and friends to loan him enough money to open a restaurant.
SUP Noodle Bar was the result.
“I was the first employee. I was sleeping in the back of the kitchen. I’d wake up at 6 a.m. to pick up supplies. I was the server and cook and dishwasher,” recalled Nguyễn. “It was only 1600 square feet, very small. It was something I could manage and show proof of concept.”
Nguyễn met his ex-wife around that time, who became his second employee and now serves as Kei Concepts’ co-CEO.
“Now, 10 years later, we have over 1,000 employees,” stated Nguyễn. “Isn’t that amazing?”
No Master Plan
Nguyễn admitted he did not have a master plan for his business, but he does think he owes his career to the opportunities that the United States offers.
“My story wouldn’t be possible anywhere else,” he stated. “You know, this is the one country where, if you put your head down, you work really hard, and you don’t complain, and you just outwork everyone, eventually—well, you can’t really connect the dots looking forward, you have to look backward. All my experiences came together.”
“People ask me who I am—am I a restaurateur, am I a chef?” said Nguyễn. “For me, growing up, I have always been the technologist, so I’m an artist at heart. I define myself as a liberal artist—but what is liberal art? It’s not something that everybody would identify as beautiful. For me, it something that you create that can trigger an emotion.”
Nguyễn said he once forged a path as a singer and performer, and the immediate gratification of being on stage and hearing applause was contagious. He compared that feeling with being in the kitchen.
“The first time someone sees a dish and they say ‘Wow!’ and they take out their phone and then take the first bite and close their eyes, those are the moments that we live for,” said Nguyễn.
“People don’t think about cooking as art, but when you go to school, it is culinary art. I tried so many types of different art and landed on culinary art. I’m also very impatient, and some of the other things that you create, like fashion, it takes months for people to get their hands on it. For me if I have something in my mind, I walk into the kitchen and 15 minutes later I have something. I give it to you and I get instant gratification.”
Nguyễn compared himself to an artist who needs to paint.
“We need to look at something. We paint it, and then we move on to the next painting, because there are so many stories to tell, so many things to learn, so many colors.”
Because Kei Concepts’ cuisine represents many different cultures, Nguyễn said it’s like a history lesson you can taste.
“Every restaurant we have is cross-cultural because we believe that in one country you can have a lot of different cultures and cross-cultural, and telling that story in that lens helps people have an open mind with cuisines,” said Nguyễn. “It’s not just one thing. It’s not one color, right? I wanted to show it as a rainbow of things.”
Nguyễn points out that his goal was to be a hospitality solution company, and he sees myriad possible solutions beyond restaurants.
“How many times do you need services like a drive-thru or takeout?” he questioned. “In the U.S., 75% of the total revenue of all restaurants is takeout. And what about catering or a chef’s service? What about your pantry? How many times do you open your pantry every day for your dry snacks, your chips, your salt, your pepper, and your sauces? How about your fridge or your freezer? If you think about it, the food and beverage or hospitality needs of a human being is 95% non-restaurants.”
“We believe we can eventually live in your pantry,” continued Nguyễn.
“We believe that we can live in your fridge, in your freezer. Maybe we’ll create an ice cream line that you don’t know about. Maybe we have a new Sriracha that you would love. Maybe we have pickled garlic that you would love to put on everything. Or maybe in your pantry is a new sauce, a new salt or new pepper, or a new chili crunch that you would love. And what if we can host big events? What if we can do festivals? What if we can do hotels? That’s where we believe that, as a company, with our chef driven approach as a liberal artist, and with a technology tech stack, we can address a much bigger market.”
Expanding in California
Nguyễn is looking at expanding his culinary empire beyond Orange County. He is eyeing Los Angeles, San Diego and San Franisco as potential spots to bring his Kei Concepts restaurants.
Nguyễn said he is grateful for accolades such as the James Beard Award nomination and the Business Journal Restaurateur of the Year, but he points out that he is a representation of the work of his team.
“It takes a village,” he said. “The team is the one getting the credit. They are the ones doing the real work. If I have any credit at all, it’s the philosophy that I instill in each one of them—the philosophy of storyteller. Without them, there wouldn’t be me. Every single one of them are great human beings, and each one of them believes in creating the best work, the best art.”
Ivy Ha: The Other Half of Kei Concepts
Ivy Ha, who co-founded Kei Concepts with Viet Nguyễn, was also honored last week with the Business Journal’s Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award at the Irvine Marriott.
“Thank you so much to OCBJ and the judges for believing in us and giving me, personally, an opportunity to show my daughter what women can be capable of,” Ha told the audience.
Since the two met in 2014 at the young chef’s first restaurant in Buena Park, SUP Noodle Bar, Ha and Nguyễn have grown the business to 13 locations with 1,200 employees. SUP was her first hands-on experience in restaurant operations.
“My background was in finance, so entering this industry was a completely new path for me,” Ha told the Business Journal. “I saw that we were building something that truly connected with people, and I believed it could grow beyond just one location.”
While Nguyễn is often the face of the business and was nominated for a 2026 James Beard Award for Best Chef in California, Ha is the co-chief executive who oversees operations and brand development.
“You cannot scale just on hustle forever,” she said. “Consistency is one of the hardest things to protect when you are growing quickly, so you have to keep investing in training, communication, and accountability.”
Nguyễn said last year that Kei Concepts could reach nearly $90 million in sales in 2026. The duo aims to evolve the business into a hospitality platform beyond restaurants with consumer packaged goods (CPG) and other experiences.
“In the near term, we are focused on refining operations, launching franchise locations, and introducing our first CPG products,” Ha said.
The pair also shares an eight-year-old daughter, Keira, whom Ha told the audience was the inspiration for the company’s name.
Nguyễn told the audience he was wearing a bracelet his daughter made that spelled “good luck.”
— Emily Santiago-Molina
