The story starts at UIC, where Kim and Dao, two students juggling classes and full-time jobs, tested recipes on coworkers and neighbors, opened their first location on campus right after graduating, and grew it to seven locations around Chicagoland about 11 years later. Kim, who studied nutrition, built the menu around wholesome, from-scratch cooking, and Dao, a civil engineer, built the business to run like a well-designed system, which explains how fast the lunch line moves. The banh mi are the namesake: a Belly Classic with pâté, pork roll and pork belly, honey grilled pork, ginger chicken, a sunny-side beef with a fried egg and five spice, and a Veggiecado with crispy tofu and avocado, all with house mayo and pickled daikon and carrot from about $11.
The pho is built on a homemade broth in beef, chicken or a tofu version on bone broth, and there are coconut curry chicken and tofu rice bowls, honey-lemongrass pork and egg bowls, noodle salads, crispy pork eggrolls and fresh spring rolls with a pineapple peanut sauce. Jalapeños come on request. It's open for lunch Monday through Friday, roughly 10:30am to 3pm, and it caters too.
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