Khanh’s restaurant moves to Campbell from San Jose

After nearly 40 years in San Jose, the popular Khanh’s restaurant has moved to nearby Campbell, its third home.

Husband-and-wife owners Khoi Dao and Anh Tang founded their classic Vietnamese restaurant at Town & Country Village in San Jose in 1982. It was the first Vietnamese restaurant to locate outside of downtown, according to Dao. In 1999, with Santana Row construction planned for the T&C site, they moved to nearby Winchester Boulevard and bought a restaurant there.

Now, an office/retail complex will sprout on their Winchester property, so they identified a promising replacement, with seating for 148 diners, on Hamilton Avenue.

“I tried to create a restaurantwhereyoucanseealittle Vietnam in there,” says Dao, who brought much of the artwork to the newly renovated space and added a Vietnamese garden oasis just outside the main dining room windows. “We’re very excited to move to the new location.”

Here, the lineup that has won them so many Mercury News “Best in Silicon Valley” honors and other awards will be retooled to feature both contemporary and traditional selections, including the popular Saigon Crepes, the Shaken Beef and the new Banh Khot crispy shrimp pancakes.

Dao’s personal favorites dishes, which he calls “the most authentic on the menu,” are the Sweet and Sour Catfish Soup and the Lemongrass Chicken. Their daughter, general manager Mary Dao, says her go-to dish is the Beef Stew, short ribs braised in a savory broth with garlic, cinnamon, star anise and a touch of ginger.

Dao and Tang, both immigrants from Vietnam, met in Houston and moved in 1981 to San Jose, where her family had already started in the restaurant business. A year later, they opened their restaurant, and both spent many years in the kitchen. Mary Dao says the name Khanh’s is a portmanteau of her parents’ first names, Khoi and Anh.

Khanh’s longtime location and new location share deep restaurant roots. The Winchester space was home to an expanded Lyon’s Restaurant and before that, the legendary Magic Pan.

Khanh’s serves lunch and dinner six days a week (closed Tuesday), 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 5-8:30 p.m. at 150 E. Hamilton Ave., Campbell. www.atasteofkhanhs.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF SIOBHAN SIDDOWAY/KHANH’S Khanh’s owners Anh Tang and Khoi Dao and their daughter, Mary Dao, the general manager, stand outside the restaurant’s new location on Hamilton Avenue in Campbell. Khanh’s recently moved there after a long stay in San Jose.