Just six months after opening its doors, Sizzle & Crunch has fizzled out of Federal Way.

The Vietnamese fast-casual restaurant opened in July 2021. Located across the street from H Mart and Best Buy at 31448 Pacific Highway South, Federal Way was the company’s third location.

The restaurant closed on Dec. 31, 2021, said Yonghang Xu, owner of Sizzle & Crunch. Xu and co-owner Paul Nguyen started Sizzle & Crunch in 2017, wanting to share Nguyen’s favorite foods with the greater community.

“We’re tired of this location,” Xu told the Mirror on Jan. 5. The coronavirus pandemic had a major impact on the restaurant’s sales, he said, and business was not as successful as they expected.

It was also a struggle to find employees, with an added challenged to find employees who actually wanted to care and put in the work, he said.

“It’s hard to find the right people — it’s hard to find anyone right now,” he said.

The Federal Way location had about 10 employees total.

Xu said the environment around the location also wasn’t suitable. The restaurant was burglarized, Xu said, during which cash and a tablet computer were stolen. The employees regularly asked people sleeping in their doorway to leave when they opened the restaurant each morning, he added.

Reports from the Federal Way Police Department show the restaurant was burglarized on Aug. 6. On Aug. 14, police were advised of a malicious mischief report about damage to an internet cable possibly related to the prior burglary. On Aug. 25, an employee was assaulted by a customer, though the staff did not press charges, according to police.

In the six months of operations, there were 10 calls for transient activity, according to police. None of the calls were criminal in nature or resulted in any case reports.

Xu said the company doesn’t have plans to reopen in Federal Way in the next couple of years.

“I would prefer a safer area,” Xu said. “If I didn’t have the restaurant, I wouldn’t want to go there.”

Sizzle & Crunch operates two other locations in the Seattle area.

The first location opened in 2017 in the U-District (1313 NE 42nd St.) near the University of Washington. Two years later, the restaurant opened a second location in South Lake Union (500 9th Ave. N.) on the ground floor of the Amazon Nessie building.

Sizzle & Crunch Vietnamese Grill offers bánh mì sandwiches alongside rice, salad and noodle bowls tailor-made by the customer with various marinated meats, pickled vegetables and house-made sauces.

For more information or to view a menu, visit sizzleandcrunch.com.