Time to take a short break from the ramen reviews (more coming soon). Pho is another dish I enjoy. I constantly hear from people, especially from Alberta and Mississauga, that Toronto pho is disappointing. I haven’t had any pho outside of Toronto, so naturally I’ve been wondering how true this statement is.
Recently, I visited Mississauga and had the chance to try some of the pho there. The restaurant is ‘Pho 99 Restauarant’, and is located in a plaza by Hurontario and Eglinton. Toronto has a lot of pho restaurants by the name of ‘Pho 88’, so I suppose the 99 is attempting to one-up them.
Food
Large rare beef and beef ball rice noodle soup ($15?)
I don’t remember the exact price for the dish, all I can recall is it being around $15. The first thing I did was take a sip of the broth. And the difference immediately hit.
The broth is much better than anything I’ve had in Toronto. It has that familiar somewhat salty pho broth you can find anywhere, but there’s some sweetness too. It sounds miniscule but is quite hard to explain by words; the broth is just way better. Besides the taste, the broth is lighter. There’s significantly less oil floating on the broth, which was instantly noticeable by appearance and taste.
Other than the broth, I found the meat to be higher quality than basically all other pho dishes I’ve tried. The meat is very lean and contained hardly any fat. The noodles are fairly typical, not that much different from other places.
Fried fish and deep fried spring roll on vermicelli ($14.5)
I typically don’t get a vermicelli dish so I can’t compare to other places nor can I give a good description. However, the dish itself was fine. The fish and spring rolls were crispy on the outside and warm inside, exactly how it should be. The vermicelli underneath were also pretty good.
It didn’t ‘wow’ me as much as the pho, so I can’t say how someone who has high standards for vermicelli will react to Pho 99’s, but I thought it was ok.
Price (~$30)
I definitely got full from this meal. The food quality was good, especially the pho. Overall, no regrets or complaints over the price.
The pho dishes can be order in three sizes: medium, large, and extra large. They differ by about a dollar each, so you can get better value by going extra large if you’re hungry.
Conclusion
Toronto pho has been ruined, that’s all I can say. It’s been a few weeks since I went to Pho 99 but I can still remember the first moment I tried the broth.
Until I find a competent pho restaurant close to home that can compete, it will be very hard to adjust back to the lower quality dishes in the city.