I Luv Ur Buns Verified listing

I Luv Ur Buns represents many things as it celebrates its first year serving fusion-influenced bao buns. It is happily queer women-owned thanks to wives Sonya Suon and Mandy Bardisbanian. It is also a Cambodian-owned and -led business thanks to the heritage of Sonya. And it is a proudly Asian-centric space that also honors the flavors and cultures that define SoCal—hence fusion buns.

If you haven’t been inspired yet, it is a space that reflects the resilience required to make a small restaurant succeed.

Working the world of human resources via staffing, Sonya found herself in the doldrums of corporatized labor. Her pseudo-serious bemoaning eventually reached the ears of her wife. And it reached far enough that Mandy pitched what seemed like an audacious idea at the time.

“We had our honeymoon in Bali and Singapore,” Sonya said. “We’re food-driven by nature: All our vacations revolved around food. And we had these steamed buns—folded like a sandwich, not the stuffed ones—and we couldn’t stop talking about them. And my wife, completely out of the blue one day, said, ‘Why don’t you just quit your job and do something? Do something you wanna do?'”

Then there was a pause before, though they didn’t know it at the time, the birth of their concept. “‘Seriously,’ Mandy said. ‘Why don’t you do bao buns and call it—wait for it—”I Luv Ur Buns”?’ I thought she was hilarious and didn’t give it a thought for a while.”

Honing in on the generational tradition that is home cooking among Asian families and her experience in the past within the food world—Sonya worked in the hospitality scene for a decade before going corporate—I Luv Ur Buns was born.

Written and photos by Brian Addison.

For the full feature I Luv Ur Buns, click here.