Pho 99 — Restaurant in Knoxville

Review: Pho 99 - A Bold Venture with Room for Improvement

Positives: Entering a deep south cuisine market with southern-style cooking is bold and difficult to accomplish. I applaud the effort of the owners for doing this and catering to their niche. The restaurant had a lot of people in it when I went to pick up my takeout order, which is nice to see. The staff (possibly the owner) was kind and allowed me to sit while I waited for my takeout order, so I purchased a beverage to add to the total of my dinner bill.

Negatives: The takeout took a little while to get prepared for what it was.

What I ordered:

Crab Rangoon Transparent rice paper shrimp rolls Spicy Beef Pho Vegetable Pho Stir-fried chicken with veggies The total came to around $70.

The Experience:

It's hard to complain about any crab rangoon - those were pretty decent. The rice paper shrimp rolls, however, did not explode with flavor as I was hoping, and my daughter refused to finish them even with the peanut sauce.

The Pho is where I am compelled to complain a little. This is their crème de la crème. Their pièce de résistance. I was very excited about this. When I got home from the restaurant and opened up the boxes, I was rather horrified to see raw meat stacked atop each other in one of those tri-section foam containers next to the soybean ingredients. I suspected there might be separation of the soup contents, but c'mon man. Raw ingredients in takeout? My wife and I agreed that perhaps this was the authentic experience.

I did what anyone probably would do and got a pan and started cooking all of the ingredients. Since there was a possibility of cross-contamination, I decided to cook the soybeans and toppings adjacent to the meat.

I decided to also cook up the veggie-based meal with tofu. I also noticed the broccoli had bright yellow parts atop the head. I didn't know if that was normal or if they dipped them into some kind of turmeric, but I stir-fried them up anyway since I was hungry and broccoli is a "superfood."

Once all was cooked and I put it together, I was thinking the flavor would be amazing. Unfortunately, it wasn't. The broth had about a 1/4" thick layer of oil at the top and after microwaving it due to being lukewarm by the time I got it back home, I mixed it up best I could and poured it into two different bowls atop all of the other "freshly cooked" meat and veggies.

Overall Impression: Pho 99 may need to rethink their takeout in how they handle the ingredients. I don't believe anyone should have to cook up raw meat to put into their broth when ordering online.

So, why didn't I ask them to cook it?

When calling and following prompts for takeout, one is automatically redirected to a website to order. You can try to add things into the online form of what specifically you want, but really? Should one have to say, please cook the meat? No, I don't think that should be something one has to do. Am I wrong on this? Is this supposed to be what any Pho or Asian place does for soup?

I order from Anaba all the time and everything is cooked for their ramen soup but they separate the broth from all of the cooked stuff. I never, ever, had to cook up the meat they gave me like a HelloFresh meal!

Final Thoughts: Since this is on Google, I'm going to be as kind as possible and just say to those ordering to make sure and include in writing on the order to please cook all of the meat thoroughly and make it very clear what you want because it is unlikely to get a physical person on the phone.

Saving Grace? The stir-fried mixed veggies with chicken was pretty good and more flavorful than the Pho. I still had broccoli with bright yellow pieces atop it, but the ramen-style noodles in it were pretty good.

Will I try this again? I love that the owners have tried something new here in Knoxville, and I admire them for the heavy task; however, I don't think I'll be back within the scope of my...

As a half Vietnamese I was disappointed. I was really hoping to like this place reading the reviews. The spring rolls were thin and had more wrapper than filling which made it chewy. I was nervous as to how the rest of the food would turn out. The avocado smoothie was good and so far the only pho place that actually sold it. My husbands vermicelli dish and my bun bo hue came. I was pleasantly surprised at the generous portion of food. I thought this place had redeemed itself. HOWEVER, while eating, we both noticed how our bowls had some kind of dirt on the rims and the plates under the bowls were dirty. Made me nervous about their sanitation AND ON TOP OF THAT, as I ate my bunbohue I bit into something hard, spat it out, ROLLED it out and it was a piece of PLASTIC WRAPPER! I was flustered cause I never experienced something like this yet even write reviews but was so disappointed with what happened afterwards. I had to call over one of the girls and though the words, “I’m sorry about that, I’ll let them know to be careful” came out of her mouth, she didn’t seem too apologetic. Then again she also could have been flustered at the situation. She went to the back to tell someone and I heard it get rowdy in the kitchen and even heard someone say, “they always do that” “I’m the victim” I couldn’t believe it. The waitresses and boss lady came out completely ignoring us and just kept cleaning. But the boss lady clearly noticed my husband going to pay at the counter. We didn’t ask for a refund but we declined to tip and the boss lady was telling the other waitress while we were standing there, “they don’t want to tip because they found plastic”. They seemed to not have known what happened so I told them how I found plastic in my bunbohue and they said, “sorry bout that” as if was just a little brush off. Really disappointed. If they have better management and food practices I may be back. Otherwise, be aware of dirty bowls and plastic...

Went to Pho 99 today in an attempt to have what looks like great foods from their website. Upon arrival in viewing the menu we thought we were in for some yummy food. We ordered four different entrées and waited for the food to arrive. Then we waited some more. Not to mention waited more. There were only about 8 to 10 people in the entire restaurant, including us, so we never understood why it took so long for our food to arrive. Upon the eventual arrival were we shocked and disappointed that none of the items looked anything like the photos from the menu! Even the waitress apologized for the unappealing presentation of the food. She actually stated that she herself has told the owner his food needs to look like the photos In the menu, but he discounted her opinion. The Pho was as if they poured a can of broth from the grocery store in a bowl and microwaved it. The meat that accompanied the broth was chewy like an old leather shoe and to add to the disappointment there wasn’t enough sprouts, mint or basil on the side to even begin to thoroughly flavor the broth. I am Vietnamese and of course eat Vietnamese food regularly. I’ve been to hundreds of Vietnamese restaurants and the food here is truly awful. I am embarrassed for my culture and my countrymen. This man is attempting to represent Vietnamese food in the worse way possible. I feel sorry for the owner because either he doesn’t care or just doesn’t know how to make good Vietnamese food. I wish him luck in figuring out his business, but if he keeps producing what I had today they won’t be...