Pho 99 Vietnamese Restaurant

I’ve heard great things about Pho 99 so I decided to try it out this evening. I ordered the #21, Special Combo with Shrimp, Squid, Fish Cake Slices & Imitation Crabmeat.

I was surprised that the item description did not list fish balls as an ingredient, but I decided to try it anyway. There were a couple of pieces of imitation crab, but about 4 large prawns and several slices of fish cake and squid. I wasn’t disappointed with the amount, but I realize that I like having fish balls in this dish.

I normally ask for half the normal amount of noodles, but I didn’t tonight. I definitely should have because the dish was more than half noodles. There was not much room for the broth when you take into account the amount of seafood also in the dish. That was a bit disappointing because I was hoping for a nice brothy soup on a cold rainy night like tonight.

I could have lived with the small amount of broth if that were the only problem. However, the broth was not very hot at all! Actually, it was more like very warm. That is supposed to be a key characteristic of Pho, right? Broth so hot that it cooks the meat? The tea was hotter than the broth was. I was a very surprised that the soup came out literally 2 minutes after I ordered. That could have had something to do with why it was not very hot…I can’t be sure about that though.

I think I’ll have to give it another chance, to either confirm or deny whether or not I really like this place.