Large Vietnamese-Chinese restaurant with large menu
Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 738
Reviewed: 3/13/2005
Rating: 8
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Heard about Pho 909 from Jatboard, so had to review it. Its fairly close to home, and I knew that Jason would never try it out, haha.
I arrived on a Saturday early in the lunch hours. I enter and am the only caucasian there so thats a good sign. I am immediately taken to a table and shown a menu. I have about 30 seconds to look over the menu before the waiter comes around. Talk about service!
I decide to go for the recommended Bánh Xèo Tôm and try a favorite to do the comparison test against other Pho places I've been to. I ordered the sliced Brisket small bowl of Pho soup.
The Pho arrived lightning quick (back to that great service) and I took it in. It was your average bowl of soup, maybe a little on the small side to other places I've been. This was fine by me since I had another dish coming. The meat was cut a bit thicker than I was used to. If you like meat, then this is a place you'll like. I don't really, so it didn't appeal to me as much. Everything else was decent and on par with other Pho places I've been to. Check out the picture, they gave me a LOT of produce! Was that a whole head of lettuce?? Shame, didn't use any of it.
The Bánh Xèo Tôm took a bit longer to arrive. When it did, it looked very promising. I was wondering if this is the Vietnamese equivalent of the Burrito. Its basically a deep fried thin piece of bread (mmmmm) filled with shrimp and vegetables (this varies on what type you order). Mine had entirely too much brussel sprouts. If you are into sprouts, you're going to love it. I am kind of mediocre on them, so the filling didn't appeal to me as much. But it was still quite good. While I was at Pho 909, I think 75% of the people there ordered this so you know its good.
I asked for Thai Iced Tea, but they didn't have any. Unfortunate, so I ordered some iced tea which was green tea served cool. A bit different, but still quite tasty.
The place didn't seem out of the ordinary compared to other Pho places. It might have even been a bit cleaner and nicer than most. Another nice thing for the weekend was they had a bigscreen TV playing TBS station so I got to watch Ace Ventura Pet Detective while eating my Pho. Nice touch. Seemed popular with the kids there as well.
Overall I had a very good meal and would gladly return if in the mood for Pho, especially since its fairly close to home.
Reviewer: ne00
Total Reviews: 176
Reviewed: 6/30/2006
Rating: 7.5
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It is harder to distinguish a good bowl of Pho with so many Vietnamese restaurants serving up the same style of noodles. When rating Pho restaurants, it is hard to judge the price and taste as most are equal, unless the restaurant completely misses the target within the basic areas. Areas to distinguish between various bowls of Pho include quality of meat, portion size, soup temperature, and taste of other dry menu selections.
Pho 909, located in the back section of the Park Victoria Ocean Supermarket square offers an omelet like menu item, which consists of a thin egg wrap filled with meat or shrimps with various types of vegetables. It is very similar to an omelet, but the egg wrap is thinner. This is the dish most of the customers order. The width of the omelet is longer than a 16.9 fl oz Aquafina water bottle.
My friends and I arrive around 7pm for dinner. From the looks of the menu, the price must have increased several times as they tag on price stickers from one of those price guns used within the retail industry. The omelet is 5.99 as a meal itself and not as an appetizer as I had hoped. I scanned the room and most people who order the omelet did not order a bowl of Pho. I did not know at the time if Pho 909 accepts credit cards as I had little cash on me.
Service is quick but not intrusive. I order a large bowl of Pho with raw steak and well-done brisket. My friends order a bowl of Pho and fried rice. This restaurant does not offer smoothies or bubble teas as many other Pho restaurants. Instead, they offer a variety of traditional Vietnamese drinks. I decide to try the red bean with coconut milk.
Large glasses of ice waters were brought to the table along with my drink. My drink consists of sweet red beans, condensed coconut milk, and some ice cubes. The ice cubes helped cool the drink but made my drink harder to drink from the glass so I downed it like soup using the long spoon that came with the drink.
My bowl of Pho consisted of the standard flare, meat, noodles, and garnishing or cilantro and green onions. A clump of noodles sat at the bottom of the soup and required some separation. Once separated, there were plenty of noodles within the bowl. The rare steak was still a bit pink when served, but the soup was still very hot and cooked the steak in no time flat. The steak may seem thicker at first but this results from the meat sticking together during the cooking process. Steak and flank were tender as how I like it but the flank had bits of tendons and fats attached, which I am not used to seeing.
I will come back to try the omelet. Final bill was $22 with tax and tip.
Plus: accepts credits cards (not sure about minimum purchase).
“The crepe thing was really good. There was a spring roll thing like it that I want to try next time I go. The place is dirty and smelly but the workers were really nice. ”
7/8/2007 1:59:53 AM
manda ate...
Banh Xeo with shrimp and chicken
“One of my favorite places for banh xeo. It's huge and crispy and they are usually generous with herbs and other leafy things. Their summer rolls have grilled pork...SO good. I really like their pho broth too.”
6/8/2007 11:59:55 AM
tanya ate...
Banh xeo Tom Thit?
“The crepe which does not contain eggs but tumeric powder that gives it that color was very crispy. I enjoyed it with all the fresh veggies. Not a bad place for this if you don't want to make it at home.
”
4/5/2007 4:39:25 PM
ne00 ate...
Banh Xeo Tom
“Crispy but just the outer egg part. The inside of the egg burrito consists of too much flour or corn meal flour type.
Mostly bean sprouts with some chicken peices and about 8 to 10 small shrimps.
$5.99, decent and large enough to share. ”
