Revamped Thai restaurant now serving vegan food in Fresno

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A popular Thai restaurant in Northeast Fresno has changed ownership and revamped the menu.

Buatong Thai Vegan Restaurant is now open offering customers traditional dishes that are all plant-based.

Nidda Phone recently celebrated her birthday but there was no need to wish on candles, her dream of owning her own restaurant has already become a reality.

The restaurant located off of First and Herndon opened in June.

Formerly Thai Royal Orchid, this new restaurant caters to plant-based diets but even fans of traditional Thai food keep coming back for more.

"We try to select the best fresh food whatever we can to cook," explained Phone. "All the food we make is made homemade you know from love."

Each dish is made with fond memories of cooking back home with her father, the restaurant's namesake.

"Buatong means Golden Lotus. It's my dad's name and I use my fad's name because I love him I want to see his name all the time," said Phone.

Phone became a vegan seven years ago and wanted to share her love of cooking and a plant-based diet with the Central Valley.

"Everything is plant-based, even the soy sauce. Any kind of animal product, we don't have it at all," Phone said.

The original restaurant had a 25-year customer base, so Phone and her business partner, Chien Lao Thong Dee, are asking people to come in with an open mind.

"After they come to try most of them love the food and love the service," said Thong Dee. "A lot of customers like the mango salad and myself the egg rolls

Customer favorites include Pad Thai, pineapple rice, pad see ew, and mango sticky rice for dessert.

Phone says in addition to opening more locations, her plan is to team up with local farmers to source ingredients grown right here in the Valley.

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