Exclusive: ‘Modachau’ restaurant coming to Prospect
The family behind popular Adelaide restaurants Noi Vietnamese, Ong and Devour has announced its most ambitious project yet – and they’re building it from the ground up.
Adelaide’s pioneering Nguyen family – the hospitality force behind popular restaurants Noi Vietnamese Eatery, Ong Vietnamese Kitchen and Devour Café – is unveiling its most ambitious project yet.
Modachau – loosely meaning “modern Asian” – is under construction at 125-127 Churchill Road, Prospect, and will be the first collaborative project between Nguyen siblings Phong, Toan and Thy, and partners Nhi and Quang.
As exclusively revealed to SALIFE, the multi-million dollar development is slated to open in April 2027 – and food will break away from tradition.
“Noi pulls things back to make sense with Vietnamese cuisine, whereas here, we’ll be able to play with other techniques and broaden things out,” says Quang, executive chef across the venues and Thy’s husband, who also happens to have the same surname.
“Our aim is to be the best new restaurant to open when it opens. But also, to skip the pretentiousness and be approachable.”
Modachau will seat 80 people across two levels and feature a glass-fronted façade and courtyard.
Fire-fuelled cooking will be a focus, the team drawing inspiration from different cuisines.
“We’ve stockpiled a bunch of equipment for cooking with fire, and a lot of pastry elements as well,” says Quang, who burst onto Adelaide’s dining scene with his dessert café, Shibui, in 2018.
“We’ve got a josper, we’ve got the smokers, a big custom wood grill, we we’ll revolve the core of it around that. But you’re definitely still going to have your wok, your deep fryers, as well as a dry ageing program.”
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Thy adds: “Think southern barbecue smoking techniques, but with Viet flavours. Texas barbecue has somehow made it into our universe, and it’s awesome.”
The Nguyen family’s food and hospitality legacy in South Australia begins in 1987 when parents, Thich and Tam Tram, bought a farm in Virginia. They then took over Rundle Noodle Bar – later renamed Chopstix – in Rundle St in 2004, which was followed by the adjacent Lemongrass.
Quang and the Nguyen siblings opened Noi Vietnamese Eatery in the former Chopstix site on Glen Onmond Rd in 2019, which was followed by sister restaurant Ong, and the separate project, Shmochi by Shibui.
