Raw Beef Pho Calories: How Pho Tai Compares to Brisket and Tendon

November 11, 2026 · 4 min read

AI estimate: a standard bowl of pho is about 400–550 kcal. Raw beef pho (pho tai) uses the leanest sliced beef on the menu, so it lands at the low end of that range, and brisket pho (pho nam) sits at the high end.

Staring at a menu with tai, nam, gan and bo vien and no calories? Most of the bowl does not change between them. The broth is about 40 kcal and the rice noodles (about 2 cups cooked) are about 220 kcal, the same in every beef bowl. Only the meat swaps. Brisket is about 215 kcal per 100 g. Raw beef is thin-sliced and cooks in the hot broth at the table, and it is the leanest common option. Tendon is mostly connective tissue, so it is less protein-dense than it looks. Beef meatballs are often 60–80 kcal each.

Pho by the beef you pick (AI estimates)

A second check from Hong Kong

Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety lists beef brisket soup rice noodles at 86 kcal and 5.6 g of protein per 100 g. If a bowl is 450–550 g (an assumption; restaurant bowls vary a lot), that works out to roughly 390–475 kcal and 25–31 g of protein. It overlaps the 400–550 kcal range above, so it is a reasonable cross-check. It is a whole-bowl average and does not separate the cuts of beef.

Easy ways to keep a bowl lighter

Hoisin and sriracha at the table, a tablespoon of each, add about 45 kcal, and most of that is sugar. The broth is not light on sodium either: a bowl commonly lists 1,100–1,700 mg. So order the raw beef, go easy on the sauces, and you do not have to finish the broth. Bao reads a photo of the bowl, estimates the noodles, meat and broth separately, and works out which cut of beef is likely in it.

Common questions

How many calories are in raw beef pho? About the low end of a standard 400–550 kcal bowl of pho, because thin-sliced raw beef is the leanest common cut (AI estimate, not an exact figure). There is no per-bowl measurement yet; Bao scans will add a firmer number.

How much lighter is raw beef pho than brisket pho? Brisket pho is about 480–550 kcal, higher than the raw beef bowl, because brisket is about 215 kcal per 100 g while the broth and noodles are about the same either way. For protein, Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety lists beef brisket soup rice noodles at 5.6 g per 100 g, which works out to about 25–31 g a bowl (assuming a 450–550 g bowl).

How many calories are in pho with beef tendon? No reliable published figure turned up, so this page does not give a number. Tendon is mostly connective tissue, so it is less protein-dense than it looks, and the broth and noodles come to about 260 kcal like any other pho.

Sources

• Every number is an AI estimate, not an exact figure. The standard bowl, broth, noodles, brisket and table-sauce figures come from this site's pho calories page (AI estimate, Nov 1, 2026 version); the brisket bowl total is this site's sum of those parts.
• Centre for Food Safety, Hong Kong, per 100 g (via Bowtie, read Nov 1, 2026): beef brisket soup rice noodles, 86 kcal, 5.6 g protein. The 450–550 g bowl is this site's assumption.