New Vietnamese restaurant set to open in former National Videogame Arcade building in Hockley

Work is underway to transform the former National Videogame Arcade into a new restaurant during the coronavirus pandemic.

Box Property is currently at the Hockley site creating the space ready for the new Vietnamese restaurant Pho to move in later this year or by early next year.

Pho is the brainchild of British husband and wife, Stephen and Juliette Wall, who fell in love with the national dish pho on a trip to Vietnam.

Since founding their first restaurant in 2005, the couple now front a 30-strong UK wide chain in locations including Soho, Manchester, Oxford and Cardiff.

The property - which housed a videogame arcade showcasing new and old computer games - has been vacant since its relocation to Sheffield in 2018.

This is what the new restaurant could look like in Hockley (Box Property)

Ben Tebbutt, director of Box Property, said builders will be on site for the next month before the property is handed over to the restaurant chain.

Structural work and drainage work is currently being carried out, with the majority of the ground floor space being taken up by Pho.

There are also plans for a new retailer to take up the remaining ground floor space, but the name of the retailer cannot yet be announced.

The former National Videogame Arcade in Carlton Street will be the site for Pho (Nottingham Post)

The restaurant will specialise in pho, the healthy rice noodle soup, which is dubbed as the 'soul of the nation' in its native Vietnam.

The vegan menu features 'This isn't chicken' dishes, plenty of plant-based options and prawnless crackers. All the food is freshly cooked on site every day.

Mr Tebbutt told Nottinghamshire Live the restaurant was set to move in to the vacant site by late summer but that was deferred due to the pandemic.

Pho could be moving into the former National Videogame Arcade very soon (Box Property)

He said: "The viability of the video arcade was never great. It served a purpose but they could never run a video game business as cool as it was.

"Hockley has been getting better and better. We have cool independents there and now the nationals want to go there as well.

"They are moving away from sterile shopping centre environments. Pho have got 30 places and they are in all the major cities like London, Manchester and Leeds.

"This will be really cool. They will take up the majority of the ground floor of the National Videogame Arcade.

"It will be later this year or early next year. I think the reality will be it will be after Christmas."

Nottinghamshire Live contacted Pho restaurant for a comment but no one was available.