One of Yelm’s most popular restaurants, Red Lantern Asian Fusion, celebrated a milestone accomplishment on Monday, Dec. 1, as the business hosted a soft opening at its second official location.
The new restaurant, located 120 Fifth Ave. SW in downtown Olympia, was open from noon to 8 p.m. during the location’s soft opening on Monday, and Tiffany Lin, co-owner, noted the restaurant will remain open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Mondays through Sundays going forward.
Lin, who was assisting employees of the new restaurant in the kitchen during the soft opening, told the Nisqually Valley News that the Olympia-based business was particularly busy in its initial day downtown. After several months of hard work with family and colleagues in efforts to open the new restaurant, Lin was thrilled to finally be able to open the doors of the second Red Lantern Asian Fusion location.
“As you can see, we’re really packed. We have a lot of family and friends here to support, and we also saw some new customers. So far, they have loved and enjoyed the food here,” Lin said. “We had family members helping us to do the entire design inside and to put everything together. We spent hours and hours here. My niece, nephew and brother-in-law — we put this thing together.”
Lin added that the Olympia location will serve Vietnamese noodle soup daily, along with a variation of bubble tea flavors. Later on, Lin said her son’s donut brand, Kawaii Donut House, will also be featured at the Red Lantern Asian Fusion location in Olympia.
