A look inside the Vietnamese restaurant blending flavour and family legacy in Vancouver’s Chinatown
Whether they’re serving banh mi, pho, or anything in between, Vietnamese restaurants can be found all across Vancouver. But DD Mau in particular, which dates back to 2012, is serving an assortment of dishes you might not see on your standard Vietnamese restaurant menu.
Dished had the chance to visit DD Mau in Chinatown and sit down with Kim Tran, co-owner of DD Mau alongside her sibling Kon Tran, to chat about the restaurant, how it got started, its challenges over the years, and just what exactly people should order when they visit.
The beginning of DD Mau
Tran told Dished that the idea for DD Mau originally was meant for a food truck, with the idea that a food truck would be smaller and have low capital. However, after submitting their plans to the city, DD Mau was unfortunately not chosen as permits were given out through a lottery draw system. So, determined to make DD Mau a reality, Tran and her family decided to look for a brick-and-mortar.
“We stumbled on our location in Yaletown, which was small enough to open a banh mi shop with a limited menu,” said Tran.
Then, three years after opening, the small banh mi shop received a huge influx of traffic after it was scouted for You Gotta Eat Here, the Food Network show starring John Catucci.
“We had a lineup out through the door, and we needed a bigger space,” shared Tran.
The team operated in a commissary for a couple of years, but soon outgrew that as well and decided to look for a bigger space. So, in 2018, DD Mau opened its second location in Chinatown.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t all smooth sailing from there. What were originally “Cadillac problems” of needing a bigger space, as Tran playfully put it, the Vietnamese restaurant eventually faced its fair share of strife, more specifically, COVID-19.
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“During a time when all the restaurants are closed, and we seem like we were at the height of our business in Chinatown, we had to do limited dining, limited seating. With us, our space is created for the experience and not having customers to dine in and experience everything that we brought from Vietnam and enjoy the space that we’ve created or curated was very difficult for us.”
Eventually, the DD Mau team made the difficult decision to close its original Yaletown location after nine years on July 17, 2021.
“It was very bittersweet. But we had to also remember that because of Yaletown, we were able to create now what we have in Chinatown,” said Tran.
If closing Yaletown and COVID-19 wasn’t hard enough, DD Mau Chinatown was forced to temporarily close for over three months after a frozen water pipe burst from the floor above and flooded the restaurant. But after plenty of support from customers and the Chinatown community, DD Mau was able to reopen on March 22, 2022.
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While much has changed over the years in Chinatown, with many new businesses opening and others closing, one thing that Tran loves about the area is that very same community.
“During the flood, we had an outpouring of support from customers, and that’s really what kept us going,” said Tran. She also shouted out businesses like Pizza Coming Soon and the Keefer Bar, two eateries in the area, which helped with fundraisers to get DD Mau open again. Tran said she loves the community so much that she is always recommending other businesses to come to the area.
“We’re always encouraging new business owners to come to the area,” said Tran. “The great thing about being in Chinatown is you get that mixture of having a spot in the city that is unlike any other area in the city, and that each restaurant is unique in its own right and what they create.”
Food
While DD Mau officially got its start in 2012, the Tran family and their love of Vietnamese food go back much further.
Tran grew up eating Vietnamese food daily (alongside the occasional Pizza Pop or Lucky Charms thrown in). Her parents had fled Vietnam during the Sino-Vietnam conflicts and came to Canada, trying their best to recreate the meals that they had grown up on for their children. Banh mi sandwiches packed for lunches would consist of bread from the Italian bakery with cha Lua and Maggi. On DD Mau’s website, you can read about the Tran’s memories of waking up to the smell of Bò kho or thịt kho before watching her weekend cartoons, or spending evenings making spring rolls and experimenting with different ingredients.
Tran told us how important it was for her to combine the nostalgic flavours of her upbringing with some lesser-known Vietnamese meals she’d experienced first-hand.
“When we travelled to Vietnam, there were dishes from both Southern Vietnam and Northern Vietnam that I saw weren’t offered throughout Vancouver. So, we wanted to bring that back,” said Tran.
The result? A menu featuring a blend of traditional flavours with a bit of modern flair.
We let Tran take the lead when it came to ordering, and were delighted with the assortment of bites we were able to enjoy.
When it came to appetizers, standouts included the Sticky Rice, served in delightful cubes with a crispy exterior and chewy interior and topped with a runny egg, and the DD Mau Wings, which are an easy contender for the best wings in the city. That was all accompanied by a Vietspresso Martini, which can be best described as the Vietnamese iced coffee version of an espresso martini.
Marco Ovies/Dished
Marco Ovies/Dished
Marco Ovies/Dished
The Viet Carpaccio feels like it belongs on any high-end Vancouver restaurant’s menu. Raw beef is topped with a fish sauce vinaigrette, peanuts, Thai chilis, and fresh herbs alongside one giant sesame cracker. You won’t be disappointed with this one.
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But when it comes to mains, you want to do yourself a favour and try one of the banh mis that DD Mau was so famous for, particularly the Short Rib Beef Dip Banh Mi Sandwich. As the name implies, this sandwich is served with Triple AAA short rib, black pepper onions, basil mayo, and a sunny-side-up egg, and it comes with a side of pho broth for dipping. It’s messy in the way that all great sandwiches should be. So good, in fact, that it was one of the rare moments we forgot to take a photo of our food before eating.
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But for Tran, there’s one dish that she keeps returning to which DD Mau calls Damn Good Chicken Rice (and rightfully so).
This deceptively simple dish is a Hoi An street food staple featuring chicken salad with onions, rau ram coriander, turmeric rice, and a side of chicken broth.
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However, based on our visit, we’re pretty sure that no matter what you order at DD Mau, you’ll be in for a treat. But if you’re still not sure what to order, Tran and her staff will definitely be able to point you in the right direction.
DD Mau
Address: 145 E. Pender St., Vancouver
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