Months after a sandwich chain left its Overland Park space, a popular Kansas City eatery plans to take it over.
Vietnam Cafe, a Vietnamese restaurant that has long had a loyal following in Kansas City, Missouri, will soon expand into the southern Overland Park space previously occupied by fast-casual eatery Beef-a-Roo.
Vietnam Cafe will open at 9500 W. 135th St.
- The restaurant is moving into a 4,075-square-foot space just off 135th Street and Switzer Road, near a Casey’s and a Sonic.
- Before Beef-a-Roo occupied that space, it was a franchise of fast-casual chicken chain Zaxby’s.
- Vietnam Cafe aims to open in the new space sometime in 2026.
The restaurant serves a variety of Vietnamese dishes
For the past 30 years, Vietnam Cafe has built up a loyal customer base with its pho noodle soup, as well as other classic Vietnamese items like stir-fry noodle dishes, spring rolls and spicy curry.
The menu for the Overland Park location is still being finalized. But Micky Chun, manager at Vietnam Cafe and niece of owners Ngoc Le and Minh Hoang, said it will offer some new items — as will the space itself.
The former Beef-a-Roo space is equipped with a drive-thru window, which she said will lend itself to Vietnam Cafe’s on-the-go customers.
“A lot of our customers love to get a banh mi and a coffee to go,” she said. “At our first location, we are very known for our fast service, great food, and great quality. And so we would think that (our customers) would really love having a drive-thru option.”
Vietnam Cafe’s flagship location operates in the Columbus Park neighborhood, near Kansas City’s River Market district.
The Overland Park location will mark Vietnam Cafe’s debut in Johnson County.
“A lot of our customers drive all the way from there to our River Market location, and it takes them sometimes 35 or 40 minutes to get there,” Chun said. “We really appreciate them always coming to support and eat our food. But as as we’re growing and the economy is growing, I think it was time for us to expand to the Kansas side.”
Beef-a-Roo closed earlier this year
- The Illinois-based roast beef chain opened their Overland Park location in June 2023.
- It had been in business nearly two years before its closure in February.
- The Overland Park location was the company’s only one in Johnson County, and in the wider Kansas City metro.
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