From its beginnings near Baylor to its current home on Franklin Avenue, Clay Pot has served generations of Wado diners with traditional Vietnamese dishes and family recipes.

For more than 40 years, Clay Pot has been serving Vietnamese food to Wacoans, Baylor students and tourists. What began as a family restaurant near Baylor University has grown into a downtown staple where generations of customers return for familiar dishes, new experiences, and a taste of Vietnam. 

Clay Pot began in the 1980s as Ly-Le Restaurant near Baylor University, then became Clay Pot in 2001. In 2007, Thanh Le and her husband, Phong Le, took over the family business before moving the restaurant to Downtown Waco in 2017.

“Clay Pot is not just a restaurant. It is a whole family history,” Le said. 

That history is evident in the customers who have continued to come back over the years. Thanh said she has watched Baylor students come into the restaurant as freshmen and eventually come back with their own families.  Those returning customers represent generations of memories and connections.

Menu Built on Tradition

Several dishes at Clay Pot come with personal and family significance for Thanh. The restaurant serves pho prepared with influence from northern Vietnam, along with dishes inspired by Thanh’s hometown. 

The menu also includes items made in-house, including chicken egg rolls, wontons and spring rolls. Clay Pot’s signature dishes are prepared using a traditional cooking method in which white rice, sauce, and meat are cooked in a clay pot. For Thanh, these dishes provide a way to preserve the food and traditions she grew up with while sharing them with Waco.

Clay Pot’s history can also be seen in the customers who continue to remember dishes from years ago. Some longtime customers still ask about items that were on the menu when they first started visiting the restaurant. 

“We still have a lot of former Baylor students and regulars that come in and ask for a dish we had 20 years ago,” Thanh said.

While some of those dishes can still be made when the ingredients are available, Clay Pot has also continued to introduce new items. The restaurant participates in Downtown Waco’s First Friday events, where they offer special dishes that are not normally found on the menu. To the Le family, continuing to create new experiences while keeping the restaurant’s history is part of what makes Clay Pot so special. 

“Being part of Downtown Waco is just a big, big blessing for us,” Thanh said.

Finding a Home Downtown

When the Le family moved Clay Pot to Downtown Waco in 2017, the area was still taking shape. Thanh wanted to stay close to Baylor while becoming part of the growing downtown community. 

“I didn’t expect that Downtown Waco was going to be busy like this,” she said. 

The move changed Clay Pot’s customer base. While the restaurant once depended heavily on Baylor students, the downtown location has brought in more tourists, visitors, and locals. 

Before moving downtown, business would get slow during the summer and holidays when Baylor students returned home. Now, the restaurant has a more consistent flow of customers visiting Waco.

For Thanh, being downtown has allowed Clay Pot to grow while still maintaining the feeling of a neighborhood restaurant.

Bringing Vietnam to Waco

Clay Pot’s food is closely connected to Thanh’s own background. Originally from northern Vietnam, she said she wanted the menu to showcase the different regions and flavors of her home country. 

“My menu is totally different than a lot of Vietnamese restaurants out there,” Thanh said. “I’m trying to bring all the cultural and different foods from different regions of my country.” 

Thanh said the goal is to create a familiar experience for Vietnamese customers while introducing other customers to dishes they may not have tasted before.

“I’m trying to bring Vietnam to Waco, so the people don’t have to travel to Vietnam to taste it,” she said.

Clay Pot’s connection to Vietnam extends beyond the food and into the restaurant itself. It has artwork and cultural pieces from Vietnam, including a large stone dragon in the back patio and a mosaic display inspired by Vietnamese villages. The patio is easy to miss from the front of the restaurant, which makes it a hidden part of the Clay Pot experience.

Hungry? Us too. Check out Clay Pot’s menu here.