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Khue's Kitchen is the Star Tribune's 2025 Best New Restaurant

At just 25, Chef Eric Pham has turned a quiet industrial pocket of St. Paul into the home of the Star Tribune's Best New Restaurant of 2025. Blending his family's Quang legacy with fine-dining precision, Pham's "menu as memoir" features electrifying hits like his cult-status fried chicken sandwich and sticky jicama ribs. It is a vibrant, scrappy tribute to resilience, community support, and the next generation of Vietnamese cuisine.

A Homecoming for Khue's Kitchen

At just 25, Eric Pham—son of the chef behind Minneapolis' beloved Quang—has forged his own path with Khue's Kitchen on the Minneapolis-St. Paul border. Overcoming family expectations and a devastating fire, Pham created a refined Vietnamese restaurant named for his mother, featuring Southern-style chicken wings, inventive vegan jicama ribs, thick pork chops, and a standout natural wine list. Khue's Kitchen is both a tribute to family tradition and a bold step forward, proving that fresh flavors and second beginnings can flourish side by side.

Khue's Kitchen — Resilience and Flavor in Equal Measure

Khue's Kitchen in St. Paul is a story of resilience and flavor. After a fire destroyed his first location, Chef Eric Pham reopened in a cozy shared kitchen, serving a focused menu inspired by his family's Quang Restaurant legacy. Highlights include crisp cream cheese wontons, a standout fried chicken sandwich, and unforgettable vegan jicama ribs. Warm hospitality and bold, balanced flavors make Khue's Kitchen a must-visit—proof that the best meals often come from second chances.

The 30 restaurants most vital to the Twin Cities area right now

Eric Pham, of the legendary Quang family restaurant pedigree, is in pursuit of fresh flavors while ushering in a new era of Vietnamese cuisine: chile crisp-pork fried rice, a supper-club-style steak with a house marinade, Vietnamese coffee affogato topped with black sesame coconut crackers and more. Then there was the reimagined bánh mì xíu mại, a gigantic rice porcupine meatball that sits in a stewed tomato sauce...

Vietnamese Food Beyond the Usual

Khue's Kitchen offers a deeply personal exploration of Vietnamese food, shaped by Chef Eric Pham's upbringing as the son of immigrants and his desire to champion the dishes of his Vietnamese-American experience. Moving beyond common expectations, Pham presents a menu that's authentic to his story—where traditional flavors meet new contexts, influenced by adaptation, necessity, and childhood preferences.

Eric Pham's culinary dream reignites with Khue's Kitchen in St. Paul

Eric Pham overcame a devastating fire just days before his first restaurant was set to open. Now, he's reignited his culinary dream in St. Paul with Khue's Kitchen—named for his mother, Khue Pham—where he's showcasing new dishes like jicama ribs and homemade desserts alongside his signature fried chicken sandwich.

Khue's Kitchen reopens seven months after fire destroyed the restaurant

Eric Pham nearly gave up on his restaurant dreams when a fire destroyed his first location weeks before opening. Thanks to community support, he has now reopened Khue's Kitchen inside MidCity Kitchen in St. Paul, where he plans to stay long-term serving his signature chicken sandwich and authentic Vietnamese dishes.

Eric Pham of the Quang Restaurant family

Eric Pham grew up in Minneapolis' Quang Restaurant family. Now a chef in his own right, he talked to Tom Crann about opening his own place — Khue's Kitchen, named for his mom Khue Pham — and showed us how he makes his favorite dish: bánh mì xíu mại, Vietnamese meatball sandwiches.

These 4 Twin Cities area restaurateurs learned from the best: Mom

For Khue Pham, the restaurant business is inextricable from sacrifice. Her mother, Lung Tran, was just 36 when her father, Quang, died unexpectedly. With six kids to raise, there was little time to sit in her grief. Instead, she built a restaurant that endures as an iconic Minneapolis institution: Quang. 'I remember sleeping on a cot in the restaurant because I was so tired I couldn't drive,' said Khue. She and her...

Minneapolis chef credits his mom for inspiration

The Quang Restaurant is synonymous with Eat Street. The popular Vietnamese restaurant located in Minneapolis has been serving authentic Vietnamese cuisine for over 30 years. It was opened by the Pham family, who immigrated to the U.S. after the Vietnam War...