The expensive noodle shop in Saigon has existed for nearly 60 years, attracting customers because of its excellent beef ball recipe

For nearly 60 years, there is a noodle shop with the name Truong Thanh still quietly open for sale in a small alley on Nguyen Thien Thuat Street (District 3, Ho Chi Minh City). In the afternoon, from 16:00, as soon as the shop opened, the customers flocked, people coming in and out until 1am the next morning.

The first owner of the shop was a man of Chinese origin named Thai Minh Khon and his wife, To Thi Kham. Initially, the shop only sold beef balls with soup. But then, seeing more guests coming, he found his own recipe and added noodles to make it the main dish as it is now. After his death, the person who took over the restaurant was Mrs. Thai A Muoi – his daughter – with the recipe for making beef balls and heirloom broth. So far, Mrs. Muoi has been at the shop for more than 20 years.

It is known that the owner was previously taught by a teacher how to make beef balls. However, the original taste was not loved by many people because it was a bit strange, so the owner had to test it again and again. Finally, the new recipe for making beef balls that customers love now.

The most special feature of the bowl of noodle soup in Truong Thanh is the giant beef balls. Beef balls with very firm, sweet meat are soaked in broth continuously to ensure the heat to the core. At the restaurant, there are two separate types of beef balls: beef meatballs and beef tendon balls. In addition, the restaurant also serves other dishes such as beef tendons, beef intestines, leaves…

Beef balls here are made directly by members of Mrs. Muoi’s family. Every day, around 6-7pm, Mrs. Muoi will go to the market to choose the freshest meat, bring back the discarded fat, keeping only the meat and tendons. Beef balls must be made from freshly cut beef, must be pounded evenly so that the beef balls are tough and crispy, the spices are also absorbed evenly. After pounding, the cook will roll the beef into medium-sized balls and drop it into the broth.

According to the owner, the broth at the restaurant is simmered from beef bones to ensure sweetness. The broth when cooking is always limited to using MSG (main noodles), mainly stewed bones for sweetness and natural bars.

Most of the patrons at Truong Thanh noodle shop are Chinese people or people who love dishes with typical flavors of Chaozhou. Coming here, you will enjoy the standard noodle soup of the Tieu people, which is processed by the owner himself every day. Noodles also have two types of round and flat stalks, customers can choose according to their preferences, eat dry or water. The noodles here are soft noodles, twice the size of pho.

When served to guests, a bowl of noodles with crispy salted cabbage and onions is sprinkled on top, served with herbs, coriander leaves. In addition, the sauce is black soy sauce, the accompanying chili sauce is also hand-made by her family to ensure the right flavor and unique characteristics of the noodle shop.

Although located in a small alley, Truong Thanh restaurant has a fairly spacious space, can serve 30-40 guests to eat at the restaurant at the same time. The shop owner said that in the past, there were a lot of customers visiting her shop, but now it has decreased somewhat because there are too many other shops.

The price of noodles here is slightly higher than other shops: 70,000 VND/bowl. Although expensive, many diners still commented that it was “expensive to cut into pieces” because of the extremely high quality beef balls. In addition, there are many people who are used to the taste here, so it is difficult to eat elsewhere.