I was craving something soupy to clear my palate as I had been indulging in too many deep fried plates of late, I persuaded the girlfriend to have pho for dinner. She had been to this place before and warned me that it wasn't great but I insisted on going since I had read so many good reviews on HGW.

Let's just say, I wish I listened to the girlfriend.

Nevermind that the ambience wasn't great, it's in a small shop with tables close to each other. I figured it was cheap, it's an eat and go type of place, as long as the food was good, there is nothing to complain about.

The food came and I was disappointed. Their goi cuon were skinny and the pho soup lacked any sort of full-bodied taste to it. I couldn't really taste the beefiness either. Compared to what I've eaten in SF and LA, this was sorely lacking in taste. The rice noodles also felt over-cooked and too soft. Their beef slices were tough and chewy.

The Vietnamese coffee was like any other Vietnamese coffee I've tasted. In fact, I think I enjoyed the one at Long Phung more, it tasted richer with more depth to it.

Scratching this off my list of pho places with a note never to return. My money will be better spent elsewhere.

Tiny and crowded Vietnamese restaurant in downtown

Was in area for meeting, looked up HungryGoWhere and found Pho99. There was a short queue, debated whether to stand in line or grab bite at Amoy Food Centre across the road…. You guessed right!! I waited and very glad that I did. After ~5 minutes of waiting, I was seated, albeit a kerbside table next to the road.



Ordered the set lunch – deep fried spring roll; Pho with beef slices and iced Vietnamese coffee. Spring roll was crispy and well-drained of oil. Pho came steaming hot. You can see from photo that some of the beef slices were being cooked in the hot soup. Pho was served with a generous accompaniment of mint leaves and sprinkling of sliced onions in the soup. Pho soaked up the flavor of the broth well and was tasty.



The Vietnamese coffee was wonderful : ) It was prepared the traditional way through drip filter (see photo…and yes, you can see that my table was literally next to the road!) Coffee was served with condensed milk. Glad that ice came in a separate glass. I decided to have the coffee sans ice. Thick, strong coffee!!



Largely lunch crowd, so should be easier to get table in the evenings.