Pho 99 — Restaurant in Fort Myers

I'm not generally one to write reviews (and I'd rather write a positive one than a negative one) but I just had a dining experience at Pho 99 that I felt compelled to share.

I've been coming to Pho 99 a couple times a month since they opened this past spring and the food has always been excellent. Not sure what has happened to this place since the last time I was there but the experience today was so bad I doubt I'll be back.

Among the "highlights": When I walked in, one of the serves asked how many (I was dining alone) and he said to "sit anywhere you want". So I sat at the nearest table to the door. Several minutes go by with no one coming to the table to bring a menu or ask what I'd like to drink. Finally, I go to the register and ask what the process is for ordering. He says "Oh sorry, I forgot". This is a restaurant with only about a dozen tables and only 4 of them had customers sitting at them. A few minutes later, he comes back and says they don't have Diet Coke, is Diet Pepsi ok? Uh, sure. It took you 5 minutes to figure that out? You serve beverages in cans. A few minutes later, a different server puts a bowl of pho in front of me. It isn't what I ordered so I tell him and he realizes it belongs to another table and then brings it to them. That tends to be unsettling to some people and the correct move would have been to return it to the kitchen rather than just bring it to the other table. Several minutes later the correct bowl of pho is delivered. The meat is tough like shoe leather and several chunks are grisly. For some reason, the noodles are regular spaghetti and not the traditional rice noodles that are typical of pho. They are also way overcooked and mushy (see photo). I expected that one of the servers would return to check on me so I could mention that but no one ever comes back to the table to check on me. I go to the counter to check out. "How was everything?" he asks. I said "Well, not good. The meat was tough and you are using a different kind of noodles than you usually use which aren't nearly as flavorful as the usual rice noodles". Him: "For that one variety of pho, we use vermicelli instead of rice noodles." Me: "That's a shame. I've had this before and don't remember it having those noodles". Him: "Hopefully, we'll do better the next time." The atmosphere was also weird. When they first opened, they played music that was a nice cultural complement to the food and at a reasonable volume. Today it was "boy band"-style pop music that was so loud that if I had a dining companion we wouldn't have been able to carry on a conversation. No one running the restaurant looked to be older than their early 20's. Not sure where the adults were today but I'm not sure if I'll go back if this is what to expect on...

I just want to start off by saying I don’t write reviews good or bad but I had to come on here and share my experience.

So, I’ve been to Pho 99’ probably a handful of times and my experiences have usually been just fine and I almost always order Togo. Today I just got off work (retail) and I was starving so I decided to stop by Pho 99’ because it was on my way home.

The younger gentlemen greeted me and said I could sit wherever. I usually see him when I come in and he’s not very enthusiastic or joyful about much but he’s doing his job and that’s all I can ask. I get my food which was the Veggie Pho, good as always. I notice more and more people start coming in and the younger gentleman working is the only one on the floor basically taking care of everyone. I was completely done with my food and the older gentlemen came by and picked up my plates but I still haven’t seen a receipt. So I just put my card down on the table very patiently and waited. I waited for probably 20min after the younger gentleman and or “waiter” has walked by me multiple times. So I finally decided to reach out with my card as he walked by. He grabs my card in a rush and sarcastically says “Oh okay, did you want me to sign it for you too?!” I was in shock and confused until I saw him go over to the counter and realized I made a mistake and should have gone up and paid. By that time it was all too late and he came back and I explained “I am sorry, I didn’t know.” He said “it was okay.” And walked off. This whole encounter made me feel very uncomfortable and it was just kind of pestering my mind. I have worked in the restaurant business, I’ve worked in bars.. I’ve worked in customer service since I’ve started working as a teenager. I understand when things get stressful in that type of scenario it can be hard to keep a cool head. Let me just put it out there that I’m not a difficult customer AT ALL. I’m never nasty to someone serving me and always show appreciation. It just threw me off and the sarcasm was uncalled for. Honestly he probably could have said something to me walking by those many times but I never heard him because he never talks directly to you he’s already either walking away or looking the other way.

So.. there you go, I’m giving it a 3 star solely because of the food and the other nice people that work there. Honestly though I’m not sure I will return because of...

We have been to this location before and not had any issues. Today we took guests to show them how good the food was. For a party of 4..2 out of the four meals had hair in them. With a hair color and length that did not match anybody at our table. We sent back the two dishes and did not request a replacement.But we finished the rest of the food at the table. We were not rude when we notified them of the hairs in our food. We just requested the meals to be removed. After completion of eating the meals, my son went to go pay the bill. They told him to not worry about it. My son then ordered an additional boba drink and paid for it. He returned to the table while everybody else was finishing their meals. When it was time to go, my son went back to the front desk.To make sure he did not have a balance for the other two meals that we did consume. They said no, then credited back to the card the charge for the additional boba he ordered. The order for the extra Boba was after the hair complaint. My son then returned to the register. He said, I would like to leave and I want to make sure I don't have a tab before I go. They told him very rudely "do not come back." As if the hair in our food was a problem we made. We were not rude, and we kept very quiet and completed the rest of the food that we had at our table, and earnestly try to pay the bill for the food we actually ate. A repeat customer, who was introducing the restaurant to friends. I can not even put together what just happened. The hair in my food was short and white or silver. I handed it to the server. No apologies for the multiple hairs in our food, and "don't come back" after we attempt to pay the bill that we incurred Don't worry with that amount of hair in our food, why would you think we...