MAU Reopens on Valencia With New Menu, Renewed Lease

Popular Valencia Street Vietnamese restaurant MAU, which narrowly avoided closure thanks to an 11th hour lease renegotiation agreement, is back open for lunch and dinner as of this week. Diners can expect their favorite dishes and new ones on a “more dynamic” menu, co-owner Hung Dang says.

“The new menu is a work in progress,” Dang tells Eater SF. “My sister [chef Khai Dang] did an impromptu trip back to Vietnam in October to pick up some new items for us to try out. [There’s a] bigger repertoire, she was doing a study of some vegetarian cooking in particular.”

Caleb Pershan

Facing a rent hike, MAU, which opened in 2012, announced it would close at the end of September. But after an outpouring of support for the restaurant in what seemed to be its final days, Dang negotiated with one of the business’s landlords. “It was pretty simple... she reached out, and said it didn’t seem right to her” Dang recalls. “We were two human beings having a conversation.”

As general manager Nadim Heto tells Mission Local, all the restaurant’s employees were invited to return. MAU’s new lease will give it another five years serving pho on Valencia, not to mention dishing out pho-related puns on its sandwich board outside — most of which are, frankly, un pho-tunate.

Daily hours are 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. for lunch and 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. for dinner.

• MAU, Closed By Rent Hike, Will Reopen After Landlord Agreement [ESF]
• Valencia Vietnamese Restaurant MAU Will Close Following Rent Hike [Updated] [ESF]