Vietnamese Lotus Inn

Great Phở! The Lotus is a nice, clean family restaurant that my dad likes a lot. The menu is pretty limited (thus my 4-​star rating), but what they serve is really good and the ingredients were very fresh. This was the first place I’d tried Phở, and I loved it. Other places I’ve tried since haven’t quite measured up to the Lotus’ Phở. It was served with lime, cilantro, bean sprouts, and sauces. The prices were very fair and the portions were generous. Well worth a drive to the west end of Duluth.

Great service. Limited menu but good food. Authentic. No alcohol is served here. All freshly made food.

This is the best curry in Duluth. Also, I love the Vietnamese coffee, and they make a very respectable Phở. Fresh ingredients, vibrant flavors. I’d take a star away for the service. The owner/​waiter hovers way too much. However, I am forced to give the star back because they serve the best curry in town. Did I mention the curry is fabulous?

this is not an authentic vietnamese restaurant. the only thing that is nice are the décor they have.
they served us raw egg rolls. it’s was nicely wrap and crispy. however, i cut the egg roll in half to see what kind of filling they have inside. it was still raw inside and the filling was not that great. i told him about it and he said «hmmm, i dont know what happen» i dont think he apologized for it. he took it back and brought it out again. he kept on saying «she really soak them in oil for a long time.» we cut it in half and it was cook. but when we took the last bite, the end of it was still raw. argghhh!
we order spring roll also — where is the pork that usually comes with it or at least put more shrimp if it’s only a shrimp springroll.
phở –the broth was good but its wasn’t authentic. where is the bean sprout? you can’t serve chopped up head lettuce for bean sprout. the beef was not the right beef to use for this soup. it was cut thick and very chewy. it had the old beef smell taste to it. we ask how big the bowl was because of the price, he said it was really big. it came out the same size bowl you can get in the cities.
stir fried– i forgot what it’s called. it’s vietnamese special something. it came with mix vegetable, beef, chicken and 2 pieces of shrimp. also — 4 cream cheese wonton. (not sure if that was too make up for the raw eggroll) it was really salty and the sauce was a brown watery sauce. Add a little more and it could have been soup.
the price — VERY EXPENSIVE!!! it is not worth it. we paid $ 48 for that lunch and i was not satified. the whole menu needs to be reprice. maybe that’s why no one else was there eating for lunch. we were the only two people. not even a single take out order. i paid with $ 100 bill and he asked us if we wanted change back. are you serious???
eggroll — $ 4.95 (2 pieces)
spring roll $ 4.95 (2 pieces)
beef phở $ 15.95
stir fried meat and vegetable $ 17.95

I found this an attractive, family-​owned restaurant that serves good Vietnamese food in a place that you wouldn’t expect it! I tend to rate things high, but there are a lot of things to recommend this little restaurant. First, it’s in a place that you would really not expect to find much good Asian food. Second, it’s a local place owned by local people. Finally, although the food was a bit salty, I thought the food is good quality. Particularly, it seems they use fresh ingredients, they serve good phở (noodle soup), and I really enjoyed their ‘Vietnamese’ coffee. The food is a bit on the pricey side, at least for Duluth (but not really for larger urban areas) and it’s really worth checking it out!
To the reviewer who critiques the caucasian waiter… well, hello! welcome to northern Minnesota. Next time you should try finding something out about the place! He’s one of the owners and his wife does the cooking. A few years ago their daughter also worked here. If your evaluation of the food’s quality is based on the authenticity of your perception of the waiter’s ethnic identity, then perhaps you shouldn’t eat Vietnamese food outside of Vietnam!

Great sesame chicken. Expensive.

I obviously didn’t have high hopes for this Vietnamese restaurant since it is in Duluth. Still, it wasn’t as good as I had hoped for.
Our waiter was caucasian. First time that’s ever happened in a Viet restaurant. He pronounced phở (the main Viet noodle dish) as FO (rhymes with Bow). It should be pronounced fuh (as in fun). That should have been my first clue.
The phở was oddly salty and sweet. Not the way phở tastes normally. I used way more chili sauce than usual to try to balance the flavor. Didn’t help. The cook was a Viet lady so I expected a more authentic flavor but I didn’t get that. My husband didn’t mind his phở too much though. Oh, and did I mention my phở with chicken was $ 13? Crazy!
The menu didn’t have many viet names for foods. All English descriptions instead. That will be easy for people not familiar with Viet food to figure out what they want to order.
So, will I return? Probably not.