Tung Kee Noodle Houses are no strangers to the South Bay. The latest and greatest restaurant, the seventh, just opened last month on Barber Lane in Milpitas. Approximately 7,000 people turn to Tung Kee daily for quick, inexpensive bowls of noodles. Open every day, the chain serves nearly 50,000 meals a week. Tung Kee Noodle Houses have successfully made the giant leap into mainstream culture.
Few restaurants find success in the middle of the road.
So far, only Tung Kee Noodle Houses thrive in this no man's land, somehow tapping into not one but several groups of diners. It all began with a Chinese-Vietnamese immigrant who neither spoke English nor had any restaurant experience. In 1978, Tan Lu, wife Anh Du and their four children fled Vietnam. Like many Vietnamese refugees at that time, they bought passage on an organized escape boat that was bound for Malaysia, a closer and safer destination than Hong Kong or Thailand. Their group of 36 made it to Malaysia, where they were granted political asylum.