Manchu’s Famous Chicken Wings Are Now Available in Richmond, Virginia

Recognized citywide for its fried chicken wings, the family-owned Manchu Food Store expanded to Richmond, Virginia, this week after more than a year of operating a food truck off-shoot of the New Orleans store in the city.

Marvin Nguyen opened Manchu restaurant in Richmond’s Northside this week with his parents Kevin Nguyen and Jenny Cao, growing the Claiborne Ave. family business owned by Nguyen’s cousin Tommy and his wife Yen Pham. Nguyen’s father Kevin helped found the original Manchu, and while Nguyen moved to Richmond from New Orleans when he was 10, he often returned to visit family.

When Nguyen decided he wanted to bring Manchu’s specialties to Richmond, “I went down there and studied for like four months and did everything from the kitchen work, the recipes, the cooking of the fried rice, the chicken, and marinating,” he told RVA Magazine last year. The restaurant serves the original’s famed chicken wings, po-boys, gumbo, and Vietnamese specialties; but Nguyen also plans to experiment with some new recipes and expand the menu. His mother, who worked on the food truck, serves as chef for the new restaurant. No word yet on if they’ll serve yaka mein, New Orleans’s favorite hangover cure.

Unlike the New Orleans location, which was featured on episode two of No Passport Required with Marcus Samuelsson, Richmond’s Manchu will only serve food (takeout only); no convenience store.

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• Manchu - a New Orleans chicken wing restaurant - is now open on Richmond’s North Side [RICHMOND.COM]
• Born out of the Big Easy, food truck settles down in Brookland Park
• Every New Orleans Restaurant Marcus Samuelsson Visits on ‘No Passport Required’ [ENOLA]