Promising authentic and affordable Asian street food, Star Ginger will be coming to Sacramento in November.

The restaurant is owned by Mai Pham, who also owns Lemon Grass restaurant and noodle bars in Sacramento and several other Star Ginger locations in university campuses including Stanford and Berkeley.

“It’s the street foods of Asia,” Pham said. “They’re inexpensive and affordable comfort foods – bowls of noodles, rice, ramen noodle soup and yakisobo, a Japanese chow mein.”

The restaurant, to be located in the former Togo’s sandwich shop at the corner of Alhambra and Folsom boulevards, will also include pad Thai, salad rolls, pho soup and south Indian curries.

“The majority of the dishes will be $10 or under,” Pham said. “It’s a place you can go have a bowl of noodle soup or really good fried rice.”

The fried rice, she said, is not the typical leftover rice everyone is familiar with.

“It’s the opposite of what you’d think,” Pham said. “We steam fresh rice specially for it and have Chinese sausage, chicken, shrimp and, if you want, a fried egg on top.”

Pham said the fried egg on top is traditional in many parts of Asia as a cheap source of good protein.

Born in Vietnam, Pham fled the country as a refugee with her parents at the tail end of the Vietnam War and got into the restaurant industry in Sacramento almost 20 years ago.

Pham said she keeps her food authentic with yearly trips to Southeast Asia, and until the onset of the recession, she taught classes at the California Institute of Agriculture in Napa.

The self-taught chef said that cooking food from her native land serves as a way to keep her connected to her roots.

“I think that comes through, and I’m ecstatic that people love it,” Pham said.

Margaret Oki was eating lunch Wednesday afternoon at Pham’s Lemon Grass Asian Grill and Noodle Bar on Howe Avenue and said she comes to Pham’s current restaurants at least once a week.

“I’m a fan of her cooking,” Oki said. “I’ll probably be a regular there (Star Ginger), too. She’s traveled all over to get ideas for her food, and everything I’ve tried here is good.”

Oki’s daughter, Tricia, said she often prefers a smaller portion and thinks that Star Ginger will be a good place for her to visit with her mother.

“We’re snackers, so I think Star Ginger will be a great fit,” Tricia Oki said.

The restaurant will employ between 20 and 25 people, Pham said, adding that she chose the location to appeal to a younger demographic following the success of her restaurants in universities.

“It’s kind of a more hip, modern Lemon Grass,” Pham said. “I like the younger group. It’s a fun segment. They’re the future leaders of our community, and we’ll be right near Midtown and the gateway to East Sacramento.”

Star Ginger is expected to open in early November at 3101 Folsom Blvd. Anticipated operating hours for the restaurant are from 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., daily.

Photos of the food taken at the Lemon Grass Asian Grill and Noodle Bar. Pham said the pad Thai and tofu bowl are indicative of the food that will be offered at Star Ginger.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.