And it was the Nguyen brothers and their Keira St establishment Trang Saigon Noodle Bar who were brave enough to take the leap.

After changing hands over the years, Trang has now closed its doors in a surprise move that left its loyal followers guessing – and without their usual go-to option for the legendary noodle soup Pho.

The restaurant’s Facebook page gave no hints; Google only this week showed “permanently closed”. 

A shutdown over the Christmas period wasn’t out of the ordinary for a restaurant but when the “For Lease” signs went up it was clear this was no holiday.

It was a whimper of an ending unbefitting a restaurant which helped introduce residents of the Illawarra to the flavours of Vietnam in the 1990s (described by the press as “a taste of Sydney in Wollongong”). There are now ten Vietnamese restaurants in the CBD.

Sources in the past week have said the family who ran Trang had already gone overseas. The Mercury has not been able to confirm this.

As a long-time favourite, Trang had enjoyed strong reviews on social media with a four-star average on Tripadvisor and higher on Facebook. But some of the more recent reviews have shown some mixed results in the quality of the food.

Nonetheless it remained the go-to place for Vietnamese Pho for many Wollongong residents.

With much turnover of restaurants on Keira St in recent years, Trang was one of only a few (Food World, Amigos, and Due Mezzi/Lorenzo’s /The Cheeky Fig) which had been there since before the turn of the 21^st Century.