One thing that I wish I had when I went to university was more dining options. The students of today have it so good, they don’t even know. There are so many options available on campus now for their dining pleasure. One of these spots is Pho 99. Pho 99 SFU is ran by two brothers who used to be students at SFU and servers at Pho 99. They are so committed to creating the best possible dining experience for all their customers and you can really feel the love and care they put into the restaurant. Everything is made from scratch and MSG-free. I came by earlier this month to try it with my mom, and let’s just say this spot has my mom’s seal of approval!
Pho 99 SFU – Appetizers and Drinks
The menu at Pho 99 SFU is wide and varied. They also have a pretty extensive Vegetarian menu! For appetizers we went with:
The Salad Roll has rice-paper wrap, green-leaf lettuce, sliced pork roll, shrimps. It is served with mung-bean sauce, topped with crushed toasted peanuts. They use a mung bean sauce to be cognizant of those who have peanut allergies (you can ask for no topping on the sauce). I honestly wouldn’t have known the sauce was peanut free! It has a really nice nutty flavour that goes really well with the refreshing salad rolls.
The Vegetarian Fried Roll features taro, mung-bean, cabbage, sweet potatoes, mung-bean vermicelli in a pastry wrap. It is served with savoury vegetarian “fish” sauce. This was light and crispy with a nice savoury filling.
You can’t go to a Vietnamese restaurant without having a Vietnamese Coffee! So for our drinks we got:
The Ice Viet Coffee packs a huge caffeine punch and was one of the best ones I’ve had in Vancouver. Because it was a really hot day when I went, the Refreshing Peach Tea and Lemon Soda really hit the spot. Both drinks are made fresh and not from concentrate. The Peach Tea was a particular standout as it is made with housemade lemongrass infused peach oolong tea which was bright and refreshing.
Pho 99 SFU – Rib Series
One of the standout sections of the Pho 99 SFU menu is their “Rib Series”. We got both to try:
The Smokey Rib Pho is a real showstopper when it comes to the table. It features these massive fall-off the bone tender ribs, Canadian AAA eye of round, rice noodles, and “Smokey” house beef broth. The beef broth is made with 24-hour simmered bone marrow broth. You can really taste the difference. The soup is clearer with a really deep umami flavour. They only make 10 bowls a day of this, so definitely call ahead!
The Flame Grill Short Ribs on Rice features 12-14oz flame-grilled short ribs, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber with rice. The ribs have a great char flavour and the flavours go really well with the House fish sauce. There’s sweet, salty, umami, and savoury just having a party in your mouth with this dish. It’s a very generous serving that can definitely feed two.
Pho 99 SFU – Specialty Pho, Rice and Vermicelli and more!
Because we already got their special Beef Rib pho, we went with some alternative speciality pho options instead of ordering more Beef pho. But they do have a very extensive beef pho menu to pick from.
The Original “Hue” Spicy Lemongrass features a 20-hour simmered spicy lemongrass broth with brisket, sliced pork roll, pork balls and thick vermicelli. Because Pho 99 doesn’t use any artificial or jar pastes the flavour isn’t nearly as punchy as other spots, but you can really taste the depth of flavour from the long simmer time and the fragrance of the lemongrass. The thick vermicelli was nice and slippery!
The Hot and Sour Seafood Pho features a 20-hour simmered hot and sour broth with tiger prawns, squid, imitation crab meat and seasonal vegetable with rice noodles. There was plenty of seafood mix in this and the prawns were nice and bouncy. It’s not super spicy, so if you like it hot, definitely add some of the housemade chili oil to really kick it up a notch.
The Grilled Chicken and Fried Roll Vermicelli Bowl features grilled lemongrass chicken with a pork spring roll. It’s served with thin vermicelli, house made savoury fish sauce, lettuce, beansprout, cucumber, pickle carrot, chopped basil, and sesame seeds. This is a go to order for me at any Vietnamese restaurant and this one was delicious. The grilled chicken was juicy and had such a great char flavour. The proportions of all the ingredients was spot on and I had a little bit of everything in every bite.
Worth a Try?
Absolutely. SFU students and residents don’t know how lucky they’ve got it! Everything here was so fresh and delicious and you can taste the love and care that they put into every dish. I find the prices to be very reasonable and the portion sizes are quite generous! Pho 99 also has a great little patio area outside with lots of shade that would make for a great spot to dine in the summer time.
On Father’s Day Pho 99 SFU will be donating 50% of all their sales to BC Cancer in honour of Father’s Day. The owner of Pho 99 SFU has lost both his father and his father in law to cancer and have decided to partner with BC Cancer to help contribute to cancer research and support patient care. More details here.
Pho 99 SFU
Address: 8901 Cornerstone Mews, Burnaby, BC V5A 4Y6
Website: http://pho99sfu.com/