A new restaurant will bring Vietnamese cuisine with a dash of Cajun influences to Tysons Galleria’s food hall (2001 International Drive) next week.
Chao Ban, a brand-new, fast-casual concept from D.C. chef Kevin Tien, is scheduled to open next Tuesday (March 10) on the mall’s third floor, a spokesperson told FFXnow.
A 2024 James Beard Award finalist for Outstanding Chef, Tien is best known for his D.C. restaurant Moon Rabbit, which reopened in Penn Quarter in January 2024 after its original location at the InterContinental hotel abruptly closed a year earlier amid a unionization push by the hotel’s food service staff.
He developed the idea for Chao Ban with longtime business partner Alan Vo as a way to celebrate their shared heritage as first-generation Vietnamese Americans raised in Louisiana, according to a press release. The pair are also behind Hot Lola’s, a hot chicken sandwich restaurant that can be found in Ballston following the December closure of a Rosslyn location.
“Chef Kevin Tien’s new concept marks an exciting next chapter for Tysons Galleria and the continued evolution of our third-floor food hall,” Tysons Galleria General Manager Rich Dinning said in the press release. “His culinary vision and national reputation add new energy and depth to the experience, reflecting our commitment to offering guests a thoughtful, high-quality dining destination.”
With a name that translates to “Hello, friend,” Chao Ban will serve pho noodle soup, banh mi sandwiches, chicken and pork belly rice platters, and a variety of sharable snacks, including fried spring rolls, chicken wings, shrimp chips and cabbage salad.
Many of the banh mi options use flavors more commonly associated with Southern American cuisine. For example, a “Catfished” sandwich features buttermilk fried catfish, curry spices and hot honey cucumber, among other ingredients, while “Hot in Herre” mixes Nashville-style hot chicken with Sichuan spices, cilantro, jalapeno, cucumber, chili oil, pickled carrots and daikon.
The drink menu will be rolled out after the initial opening, offering Vietnamese coffee and tea as well as sesame rice milk and a seasonal limeade.
As Chao Ban’s managing partner, Vo will oversee the restaurant’s daily operations and support the menu development, customer experience and other aspects of the business.
“Vo’s path to hospitality began in Morgan City, Louisiana, where he learned to cook beside his mother, toasting spices and preparing family meals,” the press release said. “A call from Tien brought him to Washington, DC, where the two opened Hot Lola’s together. Chao Ban marks their second partnership.”
Vo and Tien began working with Tysons Galleria on Chao Ban at the request of GGP, the real estate company that owns the mall and was formerly known as Brookfield Properties. GGP also provided the space at Ballston Quarter for Hot Lola’s and reached out about extending their collaboration.
According to the Washington Business Journal, Chao Ban will have 36 seats and take over a space previously filled by Sen Khao, a Laotian restaurant that opened in December 2018 as part of Tysons Galleria’s short-lived Taste of Urbanspace food hall.
Despite relaunching with mostly new tenants in 2022 following the COVID-19 pandemic, the food hall struggled to gain traction, and Urbanspace departed as the operator in summer 2023. The former Sen Khao space has been vacant since the relaunch except for a brief period when it hosted a pop-up from the Ghanaian farmers’ market staple Hedzole.
Since parting ways with Urbanspace, GGP has made progress on repopulating the food hall with what it calls a “more curated yet approachable” strategy. In addition to mainstay Andy’s Pizza and the popular coffee shop Shotted, the mall’s third floor has welcomed Bird’s Eye Thai, Scolapasta, Rabbit Taco and burger spot Char’d over the past couple of years.
“The shift has resulted in steady performance growth and stronger tenant mix alignment,” Tysons Galleria said in a statement to FFXnow. “The addition of Chef Kevin Tien and Chao Ban represents the culmination of that strategy and officially completes the Level 3 food hall vision.”
Other recent newcomers to Tysons Galleria include Emissary, a home linens store now located near on the third floor near Neiman Marcus.
