Phở 999 — Restaurant in Denver

This restaurant is fairly new, and took over the space where "Vietnamese Cuisine" used to be. I've been there a few times now, and it's becoming one of my favorites. The staff doesn't speak English fluently, but they speak enough to take your orders and requests. They're very nice people.

I was with a gal friend there once and ordered something I hadn't tried before. It was a giant tray of grilled meats for two. When they brought it out I went for it with my fork thinking we're just supposed to eat out of the tray. The server immediately stopped me, and showed me these round things that they also brought out, along with a giant bowl of water. Turns out those are rice noodle wraps, and we're supposed to get them wet, then make rolls out of them. He patiently showed us how to make awesome rice wrap rolls, and told us stories of how this was one of his family's tradition when they got together. We had a great time.

The quality of the food has been spot on every time, and if you have a request (my friend wanted her pork borderline burnt) they'll...

Food/Taste/Flavor: 3/5 - A1) Spring roll is simple with just noodles, lettuce, grilled pork, and shrimp. No mint or any spices associated with it. The shrimp was quite chewy. The peanut sauce was warm and tasted different from what we're used to as it's a bit sweeter

P1) Combination pho (large) with rare steak, brisket, meatball, tendon, and tripe. Not enough tripe compared to the other protein. HUGE bowl

P7) Kid pho with brisket had a healthy serving of noodles but very little broth. The brisket was very dry but the broth was good

Ambience: 2/5 - the restaurant was dimly lit. It has a slight smell of disinfectant when you walk in. However, he started cleaning (7:50 PM with 9 closing time) while we're eating so all we could smell was bleach after a few bites :((

Service: 5/5 - really strong accent so difficult to understand but he memorized the order without taking notes

Value for price: 3/5 - would recommend getting food to go so you don't have to deal with the smell. Food was okay, nothing spectacular but...

I’ve been to Pho 999 many times in the past and usually enjoyed it, but this last visit left me very disappointed.

The limes that came with my pho were already turning brown.

When I asked for fresh ones, the staff brought me another plate of limes that were also discolored.

Instead of simply fixing the issue, they argued with me—first saying the limes turned brown because they were refrigerated, then later claiming it’s “not lime season.”

I keep limes at home in the refrigerator, and they don’t turn brown like that unless they’re old. Excuses like that are unacceptable, especially from a restaurant.

As a customer, I don’t expect to be argued with—I expect fresh ingredients and good service.

This experience made me lose confidence in how they handle food, and I’m honestly concerned about their food safety practices.

I won’t be coming back, and I feel compelled to make a formal complaint to the...