BY MEG VAN HUYGEN for WEEKLY VOLCANO | 8/21/2026
Although greater Tacoma is home to a sizable portion of the PNW Cambodian diaspora, there aren’t a lot of places to find Khmer food. It’s around, here and there, but usually disguised inside another cuisine’s menu: the hủ tiu nam vang at Vien Dong in Lincoln, the herby/garlicky Mju Kreung cheesesteak at the Bun & Press sandwich truck. With the loss of Mitapeap Restaurant, almost a decade gone now, the city’s Khmer cuisine fans only have a few restaurant options.
Located in the 72nd Street shopping plaza, this restaurant is technically called Happy Asian Fast Food, but you have to squint to make it out. That said, it’s not like it’s a secret that this place serves Cambodian food, since, in letters even larger than the restaurant’s name, the sign on the facade reads: CHINESE AND CAMBODIAN FAST FOOD. The fast-casual joint next to the LA Fitness is in what my household calls the WinCo Mall.
When you walk in, it’s set up like Panda Express: scoopable chafing dishes of Chinese American takeout standards: chow mein, fried rice, sweet-and-sour chicken, barbecue pork. The reason the Cambodian food feels like a secret here is because you have to ask for the menu, because unlike the Chinese fare, they make it all fresh to order. This side of the operation is where things get interesting.
Although there’s been a bit of a mystery around who actually owns the restaurant (even veteran food writer Sue Kidd, RIP, had a hard time figuring this out), it’s reportedly owned and run by a small family team of friendly ladies, per social media. As I placed my order last week, I asked the server who the owner was, and she said, “Well, it’s me. I’m in the process of buying it from my aunt so she can retire.” She introduced herself as Rosa. Mystery solved!
For the first-time Cambodian-food eater, Google isn’t much help here, because the Khmer language has its own Sanskrit-like script, so any phrase you plug in will give you a list of pages that are not only in the Khmer language but also the Khmer alphabet. Using the Romanized versions doesn’t help much, since they’re phonetic guesses and aren’t really standardized. The savory beef stew served with French bread, ខគោនំប៉័ង, can be variously translated as kah kow, khor ko, and kaw kho, among probably many others. But after a few visits, I’ve got a few faves I can point you toward.
Actually, let’s start there. The menu calls it “Cambodian beef stew with bread,” and by any name, it’s stellar. I’m saying this as a person who found herself happily eating a bowl of hot stew on an 83-degree day in August. The stew starts with a deep brown base of tomato paste, coconut water, carrots, shallots, and aromatics like lemongrass, garlic, galangal, star anise, cinnamon, and probably more. To this are added big chunks of chuck roast, and it’s all simmered together for hours until the beef is as ragged as ropa vieja. There’s an umami richness to this soup that makes you feel greedy for every drop, which is evidently why it’s served with a loaf of French bread on the side to drink up all the broth.
When we got home, we immediately took inventory of our spices to see if we could reengineer the recipe at home. We’ve been talking about this stew all week.
When she served the stew, Rosa brought us a little pot of spicy red kroeung, Cambodia’s signature woodsy hot sauce built from chilis, lemongrass, galangal, makrut lime leaves, turmeric, and garlic, and it went in that as well as everything else we ordered.
Our second fave was the skewers. Khmericans usually call these “beef sticks,” but they’re styled as marinated beef skewers on the menu (សាច់ចង្កាក់ or such chong kak). By any name, I could eat about 700 of them without stopping. This is thinly sliced steak that’s been marinated in lemongrass paste, skewered, and fire-grilled. It wasn’t in the budget, but we considered taking an extra order home and just decorating all of our meals with tender pieces of grilled lemongrassy steak all weekend. Craveable things. You get five big skewers, and they’re served with a refreshing tangle of pickled carrot and daikon on the side.
We rounded out the meal with lot cha, which kind of flew low on the radar when compared to the star power of the other dishes, but it’s nice. Lot cha is a noodle dish made from chewy rice-based pin noodles (“lot”) that have been stir-fried (cha) with scrambled egg, green onions, and your choice of chicken, beef, or seafood. It’s served with peanuts and bean sprouts scattered on top and a light opaque dressing on the side that reminded me of Vietnamese nuoc cham: sweet, tart, a little salty. We threw a bunch of kroeung in there too, but without it, this would be a pleasant, gentle dish for beginners. This was a gorgeous breakfast the following morning after the noodles had soaked up all that tangy dressing.
On previous visits, I’ve enjoyed the stir-fried student noodles (I added prawns), which are a heftier, soy-saucier version of the lot cha, perhaps. I also like the fried chicken wing on rice, another simple but lovely meal.
The banh chao was fine, a pretty normcore version of the Viet version (bánh xèo), which I’d had before. It’s a crispy, eggy, turmeric-accented crêpe wrapped around grilled chicken, in the style of a giant taco, along with a bunch of fresh veggies and herbs and a little cup of fish sauce for dipping. It’s a little bland for me, but it’s supposed to be, and cautious, health-conscious diners will enjoy it. It’s also very beautiful to behold, with the brilliant yellow crêpe and all the vivid veggies.
Although I’ve never tried the Chinese American food here, I’m in terrible company because every single person who came through the door ordered from the Chinese menu. It’s worth trying, if only because Tacoma suffers from a similar dearth of Chinese restaurants (the history nerds know why). But I’m so stoked about the Cambodian food here that I just make a beeline for that menu every time.
Congrats are in order for Rosa for taking over this five-year-old business from her aunt, which I’m sure will flourish under her ownership. It’s a great reason to stop by and have a meal, all by itself, to help her kick things off strong. I’ll be back too, as there’s lots more on this sizable menu to try! My next visit will focus on the Khmer noodles with chicken curry, the mekathung, and the fried catfish. And more of that luxurious beef stew, honestly, no matter the weather.
