PHO 99 — Restaurant in Ottawa

Lunch time: Looking at this quite objectively, as someone from outside of Ottawa, I don't want to say that this is bad by any comparison but looking at many of the other reviews on this page, I was very excited to come and try this restaurant. I love pho. I've eaten pho in just about every city I've ever visited or lived in and that includes being in Europe. I also grew up eating pho as my father is Vietnamese. Now, I know a lot of people have different tastes so this might not reflect what you might think but to be completely unbiased... Service: Amazing. The young man at the front serving us was quick, albeit, I was the only one in the restaurant at lunch. He was friendly and considerate. We had an issue with one of our dishes and they quickly corrected it without any problems. I do, however, wish they would have tried the food to know what our displeasure was. Food: Regular. This just about sums it up. It's not particularly good in any category but it's clean and light enough where I could come back if I needed to quench my craving for pho. It felt like I could have the beef broth at any time of the day and it would be edible and not suffocating as a meal. It definitely lacked a bit of depth as some others have pointed out. The meats were plentiful but again, as another pointed out, and maybe it's my preference, but the tendon and tripe was still quite chewy and springy, which if that's what you like, then this is the place for you. We also had another dish and it was quite similar in that it felt like there was some missing components in the broth. It was a bit fishy-er than we would have liked. Setting: Cozy. It was quite nice to sit and to imagine a full house would remind me of a family gathering with a fine meal. It even has a speaker set which looks like it's ready for a late night of music and entertainment. Who else is ready for that! Overall: I'd like to give it another try. I would like to see if it would be different in the evening, perhaps to give the broth a chance to boil out more and allow more of that depth of flavour to come out. Photos: missing. I ate the food...

Have been here a few times and and the reviews are really high so I tried giving it a few chances but always feel so disappointed. Have gotten their Bon Bo Hue twice now and Pho once. Bun Bo Hue is supposed to be a rich, deep soup that has a bit more of a punch compared to Pho but the soup here is so watered down/missing key flavors and was tasteless. It's also supposed to be spicy but really lacks it (and this comes from someone who thinks shin ramen is spicy lol). Portion sizes are also a bit small compared to other places at cheaper/similar price points as well.

I hate leaving negative reviews but feel like I've tried it enough to give a fair review. On the bright side, service was friendly...

Ordered in on uber eats and got a large pho with rare beef and well done flank, and pork spring rolls.

Pork spring rolls were great, less dense filling than most places, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

The pho broth was pretty good, unfortunately I guess during delivery it cooled a little bit and wasn't quite hot enough to fully cook the rare beef, but that's more on the delivery than the restaurant itself. There was also more broth than could fit in the bowl with the toppings, so it makes me unsure if the large is just more broth with the same noodles & meat as a medium. Overall pretty...