Red Lantern

This place is closed.

Lunch date with the girls! We hit up this place hoping to drink some adult beverages with our lunch (but apparently it’s BYOB in the evening, boo.)
But we went ahead and got us a table anyways! :-)
Menu isn’t that large, has some pictures of items you can order.
I had the pork sandwich/​banh mi. It was good, fresh tasting and of course ripped the roof of my mouth apart like all the others…
I am not rushing to get back… not a huge fan of Vietnamese. ok maybe Mai’s! lol

new ownership has not proven good. I had the Phở Bo. It was good, but the experience was not.
Service was slow even when there’s only 3 groups there. People were not friendly. Though I did appreciate the quietness of the restaurant.

The Lantern has gone out. New owners pass off steamed rice for fried. Formerly wonderful hot sauce very bland, chicken dry and tasteless. Not worth the short walk next door any more. So sad! :-(

Finally some AUTHENTIC Vietnamese food in downtown… they’ve been open for nine months now, about the same time I’ve lived in this area, and have become my go-​to Vietnamese restaurant in Houston. The first time I came here, I could tell they were going through growing pains (really slow service), but that has drastically improved. What doesn’t need improvement is their cheap, DELICIOUS food — especially the pork banh mi sandwich! I love that I can enjoy a delicious meal on a $ 10 tab, everything is super fresh, they never use any MSG, and it tastes just like my grandma’s cooking! Thank goodness I don’t have to drive all the way to Bellaire to get authentic Vietnamese food anymore.
Icing on the cake: they are open until 8:00pm on weekdays and are BYOB, and no one seems to remember that parking is free in front of their building at that time. ;-) Perfect for a casual dinner off the MetroRail or for a grab-​and-​go picnic that you can take to Market Square if you’re not in the mood for Niko Niko’s.

Nice place good service ok food there are better places for Vietnamese. Chicken had no flavor. Not impressed.

Fresh ingredients, not greasy at all. Nicely decorated restaurant.
The only problem is service is slow, like omg-​been-​waitin-​for-​ma-​food-​for-​45-​min-​am-​late-​for-​meeting-​w-​manager kinda slow.

Love this place! been there 3 times in the past 2 weeks. They have terrific, fresh spring rolls! Can’t wait to go back.

I enjoyed myself the first time, that I scheduled a large group 20 people to come. The Red Lantern Vietnamese Cuisine did a fantastic job catering to our needs. The food was on time and perfect. The price was perfect. The owner was very friendly and even joined our table and made a lot of new friends. I will continue to use this restaurant as a group or private party establishment. Thank You!

I have been meaning to try the place because they said its good and «authentic»
I came to check out the place with my family. The place is cute and not too far from UHD downtown. Their service is good and staff is pretty nice. We went here for lunch, which I thought was their busiest day. There were good amount of people but it wasn’t that busy.
I ordered their grilled pork plate, my sister got chicken, and her husband got the beef. When the food came in, we felt like it was such smaller portion than what I’m used to every time I go eat at any Vietnamese restaurant. The price is decent but I think it kills you with the portion of food they serve you. Their eggroll is decent and the only think I don’t like about it is that it has shrimp inside. Their fish sauce is good though and their mango tea.
I have not tried their phở, but If I do come back. That’s probably the one I will get, but in my opinion, any or their rice dishes and appetizers does not taste authentic to me at all.

Good– you can pay a little more to get brown rice instead of regular; fair prices for rice dishes.
Bad — food came out sooooo slowly; $ 3.99 for two spring rolls (small-​to-​normal size compared to other Vietnamese restaurants).

This is a great little Vietnamese lunch spot hiding on Franklin and Main. The sole waiter attends about 10 tables, and was a bit busy at lunch hour, but he made it work. The egg rolls were very good; piping hot and bursting with seasoned pork. The beef/​shrimp combo vermicelli bowl was also quite good. Add this place into your downtown lunch rotation just to keep things fresh.