There is a new Pho in town. It’s called Pho 99. We saw it on the adverts they placed on the local papers.
Every now and then, when Nanzaro had one of his Pho cravings, he’ll demand that the entire family go with him. He always wanted to go back to the same old places and eat the same old things but I got a job to do. My job is to blog about new places and we cannot always go back to the same places can we? I mean, how many times would you all enjoy us writing about Kam Do!
It’s always a test of will with Nanzaro but I win most of the time because I pay the tab. This time I let him win because Pho 99 is a new place.
What surprised us was that Pho 99 is located in the same spot as one of our favourite eateries, Coco Chilli. We blogged about Coco Chilli here before.
So, Pho 99 is located along the far eastern end of Alexandra in Richmond. They apparently have 6 outlets in all and surprisingly, two of which are in Bellingham and Seattle in the US. Wow … an international Pho chain, so to speak.
Inside, it looks virtually the same as when it was Coco Chilli … the same fake coconut trees were still there. The operations were new and I could see that the waitresses were quite uncertain of their own menu. But they were very eager to please though and that is good.
The above is called the Hot Spice Rice Noodle, Beef Shank, Beef Flanks and Pork Ham. It costs quite cheap, $6.75 — not a lot cheap but certainly cheaper than most other Pho places. It is a lot more spicier which is great.
Their Pho is pretty good. We had the Noodle Soup with Eye Round Steak and Fatty Brisket. This Pho is listed under their “Adventurer’s Choice” section. I like this one better than the normal dry tough briskets that other places normally put into their pho.
I am not sure about you all but to me Pho must always be served in a huge bowl. Here they do that. All large bowl of phos are $6.65.
The free bean sprout is really small. We never touch the basil leaves but we do see many people plucking the leaves off the stems and threw it into the soup. Must try it someday.
Next was the Marinated Grilled Lemon Grass Pork Chops. The pork chops were quite big and most importantly they are very moist and juicy. It was perfect and I am sure a lot of you would like this as much as I did. This one costs $7.90 — not bad, huh?
The above is the Vermicelli Bowl with Veggie Marinated Prawns and Grilled Pork Slices. The vermicelli is hidden below the heap you see.
I am not sure if this is the right way but we always pour the entire bowl of the fish sauce into the the vermicelli bowl. Hmmm … thinking about it, Suanne does not make fish sauce at home but am thinking this stuff could be great with many other dishes. Can you think of what this would also be great with? Also, please educate me … is fish sauce only common to Vietnamese cuisine? Or do other cultures use this too in their cooking or food.
Anyway, the bill came up to $25.70. Not bad, I must say.
I think Thai kitchen uses alot of fishsauce too (I guess as Cambodja and Laos are in the same region, they also use fishsauce). I also know that some Korean dishes uses fishsauce
Ben said: “It’s always a test of will with Nanzaro but I win most of the time because I pay the tab.”
LOL ! You can always let Nanzaro pay …..
Just like what Crystal said above, fish sauce is mostly used in Thai, Cambodian and Vietnamese cuisine. The fish sauce you get at the Vietnamese resturants are made from vinger/lime, sugar, basic fish sauce, and water. This sauce can be used for dipping Vietnamese salad rolls (actually the Cambodian style salad rolls use this sauce as their dip, not the hoisin sauce that is usually serve at Vietnamese restaurants). Another option to use this sauce is as a dressing on salads or on the steam rice rolls.
If you’re looking at the basic fish sauce you get straight from the bottle, a lot of Thai’s use it as a dip (they add chillies and garlic) like how Chinese people use hot sauce as a dip. You can also use it in stir fry’s and as flavouring in soups as well.
Hope that helps…
At home, we use fish sauce as a dip for many things. I make it by mashing garlic with hot peppers, then adding lemon, sugar, water, and fish sauce. We especially like to dip lettuce/cucumbers and boiled chinese veggies. Another favorite thing I like to dip in it is boiled side pork (with as much fat trimmed as possible of course) and baked/pan fried fish!
The fish sauce can be used in many ways. Try it on deep fried fish fillet, the crunchy texture of the fresh cooked fish fillet; the sweet/sour/hot taste of the sauce together are heaven. Use it as salad dressing on green mango salad, green papaya salad is very good too.
Fish sauce is commonly used in Vietnamese cuisine as dipping sauce and also as marinade for meat. If you don’t mind the pungent smell, it’s quite versatile. I suggest diluting the fish sauce with water and lime because a few tablespoon goes a long way.
I personally feel that adding basil to a bowl of pho enhances the aroma. I usually order a plate of thinly julienne onion that is soaked in vinegar to which I add a little bit of sugar and a whole lots of sriracha sauce. Hehehe…
I’ve eaten at the Pho 99 in North Vancouver and I like their cheap and cheerful food. If you order the grilled minced pork on rice, you’ll be in for a surprise – it’s like fancy Spam! Quite tasty actually!
Grill pork… drool!
Fish Sauce! wow…………
Use as you like Specially on salad like dressing on green mango salad, green papaya salad is very good too.
Great coincidence, I think we both visited this place, sat in the same booth, all in the same week! 🙂 Nice to see the other non-noodle dishes and what they look like.
shokutsu
@ http://foodosophy.wordpress.com/
Went to Pho 99 in Richmond this evening. Wasn’t as good as the one in North Vancouver. Service was very good though and place is clean.
Food just didn’t taste as good as the other location. Don’t think that it would be the reason for the difference but the one in North Vancouver had Vietnamese waitresses and the one in Richmond had Chinese ones.
Sharkbait, many Vietnamese nationals are in fact Chinese by heritage, either as 1st-generation Vietnamese or from several generations down.
I was so excited when I saw Pho99 opened in Richmond because I will be moving to Richmond next month. I have been eating at the North Van one once a week for the last few years.
The first time I tried Pho99 when they just opened I was very pleased. The soup and noodle tasted great, but not as good as North Van; but close.
Then the next two times I went it degraded. The soup tasted very washed down and there were these baby flies all over the restaurant’s wall. The service degraded a little as well; they ask you to pay your bill at the counter rather than bringing it to you. I took about 4 weeks hiatus from this resturant and recently returned again. This time the flies are gone and the soup is better again. I will certainly come back again as I am a fan of Pho99, much better than West Lake which I used to go to every week over 10 years ago.
Oh another thing. The tea they serve you is very watered down. There is no tea taste. The bean sprout as mentioned in the review is definitely too small in volume as well as physical length.
The tea at North Van is always very hot and fragrant. Their bean sprout is always long and fresh and is given in large volume.
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pho99 in northroad..so good! waitress very friendly..i’m a tourist..i’m from usa..specially, i like pork vietnamese hame sandwich..taste so good!congratulation..
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If you like Korean food, fish sauce is what you can add in most of dishes. Kimchi must has fish sauce, soup and stew, stir frying and marinating…. also have fish sauce. Enjoy.
A friend and I went to Pho 99 in Richmond last night. We each had one of their rice and meat platter. Number 60 and 61 on the menu, to be specific. Both dishes usually come with a funky soup but we asked for a beef broth in its place instead. The food was okay over all. There were some parts of my pork that tasted kind of weird. Otherwise, it was a pretty average dinner.
However, things turn a turn for the worse the next day. I woke up feeling sluggish and underslept despite going to bed early enough. Both my friend and I had violent diarrhea not long after waking up. I know it was from the Pho because I recognized the undigested lettuce from the salad that came with the platter. It was terrible. I’m not sure if it was on purpose or result of neglect but something in it was so terrible that our bodies just had to expel it.
After getting it all out of my system, I felt okay again and carried on with the rest of my day. Suffice to say, I will NEVER eat at Pho 99 in Richmond, BC ever again. I have a good mind to pursue professional action against the owners so that this doesn’t happen to anyone else.