Salt Lake City's Vietnamese cooking gets reduced to pho, and the menus deserve better. Skip the soup once and the order becomes Oh Mai's honey glazed pork banh mi, All Chay's vegan bún thịt nướng, or SOMI's wok-seared shaking beef, three dishes with almost nothing in common except a city that underrates them. We count eleven Vietnamese restaurants citywide, and the top-rated of them doesn't lead with pho at all. This guide covers the sandwiches, the vermicelli bowls, and the vegan kitchen everyone should know; the soup has its own list.
Key takeaways
- The highest-rated Vietnamese restaurant of the eleven we track citywide is All Chay (4.8★ as of June 2026), an all-vegan family kitchen on the west side.
- Banh mi is a three-way conversation: Oh Mai's State Street kitchen, plus two specialists worth knowing by name, Les Banh Mi and Little Saigon.
- Nobody in Salt Lake has made a signature of cơm tấm (broken rice) yet; until someone does, the rice plates at SOMI are the nearest cousin.
The quick list
| The craving | Go to | The order | Rating |
|---|
| The benchmark banh mi | Oh Mai | Honey glazed pork banh mi | — |
| Vegan everything | All Chay | Chik'n banh mi, vegan bún | 4.8★ |
| Sit-down Vietnamese | SOMI | Shaking beef, short-rib vermicelli | — |
| Shaking beef in date clothes | Sapa | Bo luc lac | 4.6★ |
| Scratch-baked baguette | Les Banh Mi | Spicy lemongrass chicken banh mi | — |
| Sugar House sandwich run | Little Saigon | Garlic butter steak banh mi | — |
Ratings are Google review averages as of June 2026; we haven't put a number on every kitchen here yet, so several are listed for the order, not the score.
Where's the best banh mi in Salt Lake City?
Oh Mai Sandwich Kitchen ($) is where the conversation starts. The family has run it since 2012, and the name is the story: it honors the family matriarch, Mai, whose recipes the kitchen carries on across multiple locations in the valley, including the downtown shop at 850 S State. The honey glazed pork banh mi is the order reviewers describe in embarrassing superlatives, the garlic ribeye version got the Food Network treatment, and the menu backs the sandwiches with rice plates and vermicelli bowls so a table of four never argues. It's the rare cheap lunch that visitors get told about on day one.
Our take: honey glazed pork, add the fresh rolls, eat it before it travels. The banh mi conversation in this city starts here and mostly ends here.
Two specialists complicate that ending, and both deserve the trip. Les Banh Mi (249 E 400 S) bakes its baguettes from scratch daily, which almost nobody else in town does, and the spicy lemongrass chicken banh mi shows exactly why that matters; the bread shatters instead of chewing. Little Saigon (2021 Windsor St) gives Sugar House its own answer, a garlic butter steak banh mi that eats like a cheesesteak that went to finishing school. We haven't ranked either yet; we will.
The all-vegan standout: All Chay
All Chay (4.8★, $$) on the west side is the top-rated Vietnamese restaurant of the eleven we track citywide, and it doesn't serve a gram of meat. "Chay" means vegetarian in Vietnamese, and the family kitchen, now run by its second generation per the Salt Lake Tribune, spent the last decade proving the point: the chik'n banh mi converts skeptics, the lemongrass-tofu vermicelli bowl is the one regulars defend loudest, and yes, there's a meatless pho for the traditionalists at the table. It's closed Mondays and keeps modest hours with a midday pause on weekdays, which is the honest signature of a family-run kitchen.
Our take: take the carnivore who claims vegan food is a compromise. The 4.8★ average isn't a niche grading curve; it's the best number in the category, meat included.
Who does bún and shaking beef right?
The vermicelli bowl is Vietnamese food's best warm-weather argument, and Salt Lake quietly does it well. SOMI Vietnamese Bistro ($$) in Sugar House is the sit-down version: a stylish room off Wilmington Ave where the short-rib vermicelli earns the praise, the Shaking Beef arrives as wok-seared filet mignon, and the crispy spring rolls live up to their tagline billing. It's the spot when you want Vietnamese flavors with cocktails and a reservation, and it shares a neighborhood with Little Saigon, so Sugar House is quietly the city's second Vietnamese hub after downtown's Vietnamese lineup.
Sapa (4.6★) dresses the same dish up further: its bo luc lac is cubed filet wok-seared in French butter and black pepper, served in the State Street garden we covered in our date-night guide. And Red Lotus Bistro (329 S State) keeps a bún bowl with grilled pork and egg rolls on a menu that swings Chinese-Vietnamese, a useful lunch wildcard two blocks from the library.
One gap worth naming honestly: nobody in Salt Lake has built a reputation on cơm tấm, the broken-rice plate that anchors half the menus in Little Saigon districts elsewhere. SOMI's rice plate, stacked with pork, chicken, and short rib, is the nearest cousin, but it isn't broken rice and doesn't claim to be. First kitchen to specialize wins a paragraph here.
So where does pho fit?
Everywhere else, which is the point of this page. When the craving IS the soup, our pho guide ranks the bowls, and the original Vietnamese guide covers the broader old guard, Tamarind and The Pearl included. One crossover tip from that world: Pho Tay Ho, the family-run house in Ballpark, pairs its bowls with a salted lemonade, chanh muối, that's worth ordering whatever else you eat; just call ahead, because the owner keeps a retiree's hours and the door rests when she does.
What should you know before you go?
- Lunch is the sweet spot. The banh mi counters are busiest at midday; SOMI and Sapa carry the evening shift, cocktails included.
- Mondays thin out here too. All Chay rests Mondays, and Pho Tay Ho's hours flex with its owner; check the linked pages before crossing town.
- The west side is not a detour. All Chay sits in Fairpark at 1264 W 500 N, in the same westside stretch our Mexican food guide championed. The city's best-rated Vietnamese kitchen is fifteen minutes from anywhere downtown.
- Ratings drift. Stars above are Google review averages as of June 2026; the unrated kitchens aren't lesser, we just haven't rated them yet.
Vietnamese food in SLC FAQ
What's the best vegan Vietnamese restaurant in Salt Lake City?
All Chay in Fairpark, and it's not just the best vegan option: at a 4.8★ Google review average as of June 2026, it's the top-rated of the eleven Vietnamese restaurants we track citywide, meat included. The chik'n banh mi and lemongrass-tofu vermicelli are the orders.
Who bakes their own banh mi baguettes in Salt Lake City?
Les Banh Mi, downtown at 249 E 400 S, bakes its baguettes from scratch daily, a rarity here. For the classic order without the bread program, Oh Mai's honey glazed pork banh mi remains the benchmark, and Little Saigon's garlic butter steak banh mi holds down Sugar House.
Does anywhere in Salt Lake City serve broken rice (cơm tấm)?
Not as a specialty, as of this writing. SOMI's three-protein rice plate in Sugar House is the closest relative, but it's built on standard rice. The city's broken-rice moment hasn't arrived yet.
The bottom line
Pho built the reputation; the rest of the menu keeps it. Start with Oh Mai's honey glazed pork banh mi, book SOMI when the evening calls for shaking beef, and let All Chay argue the vegan case at 4.8★. The ranked field lives on our citywide Vietnamese page and the downtown list, and when the soup craving wins after all, the pho guide is one click back.
Sources: Oh Mai Sandwich Kitchen, About (family-owned since 2012; named for the matriarch Mai), retrieved 2026-07-19, https://www.ohmaisandwichkitchen.com/about · Food Network, Oh Mai Vietnamese Sandwich (restaurant page; garlic-butter rib-eye), retrieved 2026-07-19, https://www.foodnetwork.com/restaurants/ut/salt-lake-city/oh-mai-vietnamese-sandwich · Salt Lake Tribune, A new generation takes over All Chay, retrieved 2026-07-19, https://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/food/2022/03/24/new-generation-takes-over/ · Les Banh Mi, About (scratch-baked baguettes), retrieved 2026-07-19, https://lesbanhmislc.com/ · Pho Tay Ho, About (family-run; hours), retrieved 2026-07-19, https://photayho.com/about-2/ · Lonely Planet, Pho Tay Ho (salty lemonade), retrieved 2026-07-19, https://www.lonelyplanet.com/usa/southwest/salt-lake-city/restaurants/pho-tay-ho/a/poi-eat/1492407/362161 · SOMI Vietnamese Bistro, menu (shaking beef; rice plate), retrieved 2026-07-19, https://www.somislc.com/