Nearly 60 percent of global consumers seek protein for overall health across meals and snacks. That number comes from a trend report that a recent Us Magazine roundup on family kitchens pointed to. It explains why protein is the headline on menus right now. So if you’ve stood at our counter choosing between a noodle salad and a pork belly sandwich, you’ve probably asked yourself: is Vietnamese food healthy, or does it only look that way because of the cilantro on top? For our menu, most of it is light and carries real protein. A few parts deserve a second look. We build these dishes every day, so below we’ll walk you through how they’re put together and which choices change the meal, along with where the salt and sugar sit.
So, is Vietnamese food healthy for everyday eating?
Short answer: it can be, depending on what you order. A typical Vietnamese meal from our kitchen sits on rice or rice noodles. Grilled meat or tofu goes on top, with a big pile of raw and pickled vegetables and fresh herbs around it. We get the flavor from broth, garlic, ginger, lemongrass and fish sauce, and cream and butter never come into it. The meal can slip in two places: the sodium in the broths and sauces, and whatever extras you pile on.
Start by looking under the protein. Lettuce, bean sprouts, pickled daikon and carrot, cucumber and cilantro go into every rice bowl and noodle salad we send out. Most takeout leaves that part out. With us the vegetables make up a whole layer of the meal instead of a garnish pushed to the side, so you get a real serving of them and a lunch that still keeps you full.
How we cook the proteins counts for a lot too. We put lemongrass and garlic into the honey-grilled pork, and we add scallions to it as well. Ginger chicken goes on the grill with ginger puree and grilled onions. A grill won’t turn a dish healthy on its own. What it does, next to a deep fryer, is keep a good deal of added fat off your plate. There’s enough flavor in the marinade that you won’t feel any need to reach for a heavy sauce.
Protein-forward meals without the processed shortcuts
You can see the protein on every main dish we serve. It might be grilled pork or chicken on one visit and grilled beef on the next. Some days it’s tofu, and some days it’s thin-sliced meat sitting in a bowl of broth. That alone makes Vietnamese food a good fit for the protein push. Going by Tastewise’s forecast, as a Business Insider roundup quoted it, people want food that feels simple and transparent, and they want it true to its origins. Our kitchen lines up with that wider trend.
Pho is the clearest example. The dish traces back to northern Vietnam in the early 20th century. We still simmer our broth for hours with beef bones, herbs and spices, which is where the depth comes from. Rice bowls carry their own history. People call the Mekong Delta Vietnam’s own rice bowl because it grows so much rice, and farmers there have grown it since the 18th century. Nothing gets hidden in a meal like this. Every part of it sits right in front of you.
Want to read the menu for protein? The Sunny-Side Beef banh mi puts a sunny-side egg on the beef, along with grilled onions and oyster sauce. Our noodle salads come topped with grilled pork, chicken or beef, and the rice bowls give you tofu curry, chicken curry or beef. Vegetarians aren’t left out, because tofu turns up in our pho and the Veggiecado as well as the Tofu Curry Rice Bowl. What separates all of this from a steak-and-fries plate is what rides along with the protein: lettuce and sprouts, cucumber and pickles.
What makes a Vietnamese meal light or heavy?
Mostly, it depends on how you put the order together. Your base and the way the food is cooked do most of the work. The sauce settles whatever is left. A bowl of broth or rice noodles with grilled protein sits at the light end, and fresh vegetables keep it there. Pile fried appetizers, mayonnaise, extra dressing and a sweet drink onto that same meal, and it gets heavy in a hurry. We don’t split our menu into good dishes and bad ones.
Start with the base. Rice noodles, jasmine rice, brown rice and a toasted French baguette all fill you up, but each one does it differently. A bowl of soup is mostly liquid, so it eats lighter than it looks. Baguette is dense bread, and a sandwich puts more food into every bite.
Cooking is the second piece. Our grilled pork, chicken, beef and tofu sit toward the lighter side, while deep-fried food adds oil fast. Don’t forget the drink, either. Vietnamese coffee is one of the things we pour most, and we finish it with sweetened condensed milk, which makes it closer to dessert than to coffee. We love it ourselves. If you’re keeping an eye on sugar, though, we’d treat it as an occasional cup and not an everyday one.
The real drawback of this cuisine is sodium. Fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce and long-simmered broth all carry salt, and you’ll find them all over the menu. Sugar turns up where people don’t expect it. The glaze on our honey-grilled pork comes from honey, and sweet chili sauce is sweet on purpose. Fish sauce dressings usually balance their salt with sugar too. Any one of these is fine by itself. Put a glazed protein together with a full pour of dressing and a condensed milk coffee, though, and they add up.
Is your doctor keeping you under a sodium or sugar limit? Then build the meal around the parts that carry neither, with plenty of lettuce, cucumber, bean sprouts and herbs and a grilled protein on top. We’d use the sauce to season the food, not as a dip.
How our menu stacks up, dish by dish
Pho and the noodle salads are the lightest things we make. Rice bowls fill you up the most. Where does banh mi land? It sits in the middle, and the filling you pick decides which way it leans. All four main dishes start the same way, with a protein plus fresh herbs and vegetables. Pho carries it in broth and noodles, the salads set it on noodles, the bowls put it over rice and the banh mi tucks it into bread. Below is how each one comes together on our line.
Pho: broth, rice noodles and herbs
Our pho noodle soup begins with the broth we simmer for hours. Soft rice noodles and thinly sliced meat go into it, and fresh basil, cilantro and bean sprouts finish the bowl. You can have it with beef or chicken, and tofu is on offer as well. People keep ordering it because it’s warm and filling without sitting heavy. Salt is the thing to manage here. Broth holds on to sodium as it cooks down, so finish the noodles and leave some of the broth in the bowl. Go easy on anything you add at the table, too.
Noodle salads: the lightest plate on the board
A noodle salad is the order we point people toward when they want something light that still counts as a full lunch. Vermicelli rice noodles go under lettuce, bean sprouts, pickled daikon and carrot, cucumber and cilantro, and we top it with grilled pork, chicken or beef. On the menu, those are the Pork House, the Chicken and the Beef Noodle Salad.
You can ask for jalapeños if you want some heat, and it comes dressed with garlic or fish sauce. We’d pour that dressing a little at a time and toss as you go. Chances are you’ll need less than the full amount.
Rice bowls: brown or jasmine is your call
Brown rice keeps its bran. That gives it more fiber and makes it digest more slowly, while jasmine is softer and closer to the traditional bowl, so the first real decision with our rice bowls is which one you want. Lettuce, bean sprouts, pickled daikon and carrot, cucumber and cilantro go on top of either one.
Next comes the main part of the bowl. You pick the Tofu Curry Rice Bowl, the Chicken Curry Rice Bowl or the Beef Rice Bowl, and we finish it with garlic, fish or curry sauce. Nothing we make is more filling than a rice bowl. On a long workday, that’s what you want. Eating lighter? Keep an eye on how much rice you eat and lean on the vegetables.
Banh mi: where the bread and mayo come in
Every banh mi sandwich we make starts with a toasted French baguette and house mayo, then gets pickled daikon and carrots, cucumber and cilantro. Those pickles and herbs are where the crunch comes from. The bread and mayo make it denser than a bowl, though, and the filling you choose counts for more here than anywhere else on our menu.
The Veggiecado brings tofu, avocado and tomato with sweet chili and soy sauce. In the middle sit the Ginger Chicken and Honey Grilled Pork. Our Belly is the richest of the group, with steamed pork belly, pork roll and pate, and we’d call it a once-in-a-while sandwich rather than a weekly one.
Feeding a group that eats differently
Vietnamese food works well for a mixed crowd because one spread can cover vegetarians, gluten-free eaters and big appetites at once. Our catering menu marks vegetarian items with a v and labels the Curry Rice Bowl GF, so it’s easy to plan a lunch where nobody ends up stuck with a side salad.
Every tray on our modern Vietnamese catering menu lists how many people it feeds. A small tray of the Curry Rice Bowl serves 4 to 6 people for $55.80. The large one serves 8 to 12 and runs $111.60. Rice platters go out with lettuce, cucumber, bean sprouts and pickled daikon and carrots, so the vegetables arrive with the order. If you want something alongside, the Garden Springrolls are marked vegetarian and come 20 pieces to a tray for $69.50.
With the banh mi boxes, portions mostly sort themselves out. We label each sandwich and wrap it in halves, with the jalapeños on the side. A guest can grab half a sandwich and a scoop from a rice platter and be set. We cater office lunches and rehearsal dinners in Oakbrook and Chicago. You can order online or by email, and tax-exempt orders are fine too.
Eating light at Lotus: what guests ask us
Is pho healthy?
It’s one of the lighter bowls we serve, yes. What you’re eating is mostly broth and rice noodles with thin-sliced meat and fresh herbs. If salt is a concern for you, finish the noodles and leave part of the broth.
Is banh mi a healthy sandwich?
That comes down to the filling. The pickled daikon and carrots keep it fresh, and so do the cucumber and cilantro. Our baguette and house mayo are what make it heavier than a bowl. For a lighter sandwich, we’d steer you to the Veggiecado or the Ginger Chicken.
Should I choose brown rice or jasmine rice in my bowl?
Pick brown if you want the fiber. Jasmine gives you the softer, traditional bowl, so go that way if texture matters more to you.
Is Vietnamese food high in sodium?
Some dishes are. The salt mostly comes from fish sauce and soy sauce, plus the broth we simmer for so long. Ask for the dressing light and leave a bit of broth in the bowl. Those two small habits take out a good share of the sodium without taking the flavor with them.
What vegetarian Vietnamese dishes can I order?
Tofu is your answer across most of our menu. You can get tofu pho, the Tofu Curry Rice Bowl, or the Veggiecado banh mi with tofu, avocado and tomato. For catering, the Garden Springrolls are marked vegetarian. Fish sauce isn’t vegetarian, so mention your diet when you order.
How much does a healthy catering spread cost?
For a small team, figure $55.80 for a small tray of our gluten-free Curry Rice Bowl, which serves 4 to 6 people. The large tray is $111.60 and serves 8 to 12. Put a 20-piece tray of Garden Springrolls next to it for $69.50, and the whole lunch leans on vegetables.
Ordering your next lighter lunch
Still deciding? We’d start you on a noodle salad or a bowl of pho. Add the dressing a little at a time, then notice how you feel an hour later. When you’re ready, call us at (312) 733-7595 to order ahead. Planning a meeting or a party is different, so get your catering order in well before the event and we’ll have the trays arrive ready, with a menu that fits everyone coming.