Nep Cafe

When local restaurant group Kei Concepts opened Gem Dining as a Fountain Valley fine dining experience in mid-2019, it had no way of knowing that a pandemic would heavily compromise its potential soon thereafter. Less than a year after Gem started dinner service at night, Kei pivoted the beautifully decorated space into a dual-concept restaurant by debuting Nep Cafe, which serves elevated versions of Vietnamese breakfast and lunch classics during the day, as well as egg foam coffees. A second Nep opened in Irvine, originally with Kin Izakaya serving dinners. Kei closed Gem in 2023, and pulled Kin from Irvine, turning both Neps into all-day restaurants with new dinner menus.

Today, the Nep concept feels like it has reached maturity, though its menus thankfully aren’t stagnating. Well-established noodle, dumpling, and bread dishes have recently been joined by new additions ranging from a mango squid salad to a shaken beef entree with rice and greens. In most cases, everything Nep serves tastes best-of-breed (or close) compared with countless other local Vietnamese options. At the same time, semi-familiar recipes from Gem (including soft shell crab, hamachi crudo, and kaya pineapple cake) are now reappearing at Nep, remixed and generally even better than their predecessors.

During brunch hours, the menu notably eatures sizzling bánh mì skillets, seafood ceviche with shrimp chips, Szechuan noodles with broccolini, and The Dao – potato espuma, egg, and toast – as well as desserts such as a powerfully complex version of mango sticky rice (bolstered with black sesame seeds), and passion fruit panna cotta. Drinks are equally compelling, including a marshmallow-topped tiramisu coffee, creme brûlée coffee, strawberry matcha latte, and a new Soda Chanh, which combines lime, sugar, and salty flavors to impressive effect.