Stop me if you’ve heard this one. A pair of Vietnamese Americans from Louisiana walk into a mall … It may sound like the start of a bad joke, but the business partnership between Alan Vo and Kevin Tien — the award-winning chef behind DC’s Moon Rabbit — is more delicious than funny.
Not that a restaurant with dishes named Piggy Stardust and Don’t Curry, Be Happy! isn’t endowed with a sense of humor.
The team behind Hot Lola’s in Ballston Quarter is reinventing food-court fare again with Chao Ban, located across from Andy’s Pizza on the third floor of Tysons Galleria.
The restaurant’s name translates to “Hello, Friend,” and service is suitably convivial. Portions are plentiful and flavors oversized at Chao Ban. It would be possible to make a meal of just a couple of appetizers. The boneless wings, baptized in fish sauce caramel and piled with fried garlic, team admirably with thinly shredded cabbage salad that’s dressed in a spicy combination of coconut and tamarind and finished with puffed rice noodles…