Today, I'm going to share a secret dive with you that's very close to my heart and stomach. This is a hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese place that has the best Pho in Buffalo. This place is called '99 Fast Food Restaurant. They don't do Sesame Chicken, or fried rice. Their menu has no pictures and their take-out menu is the same one they use in the restaurant. The food here is good, but people know to come here for the house special, the "Pho 99" menu.
Pho, is a Vietnamese beef noodle soup. The word is pronounced 'F-uh' not 'Foo.' I first heard about this place when I was working at a local Thai restaurant that offered the same dish. My co-worker took me here after seeing my fondness for noodles.
This is a picture of my friend Rasheeda eating Pho for the first time. She happily reports that she will be walking here from her house every week, with or without me.
Pho comes in a couple of different ways, but the basics include beef broth, noodles that never seem to get soggy, and thin slices of raw beef and meatballs made with different parts of the cow (nothing gnarly, don't worry). The dish is a beautiful concept. The beef slices are raw because the hot broth in the bowl cooks it as it's served to you. The broth here makes the dish because it's so flavorful, as if it has been cooking all day. And at the perfect time, it ends up in your stomach. The Pho comes out very fast because like the beef, the noodles also finish cooking in the broth in the bowl. The Pho is served with bean sprouts, basil, and lime on the side. Some people pile it in with some Hoisen sauce and chili sauce. I add a little bit of everything, but there is no wrong way of eating it. The key is to get a good balance of noodles, broth and bean sprouts into the Asian soup spoon so that you can get a little bit of everything in the same bite.
I decided to share this with you today because I always crave this on unforgivingly cold days, and today was a day I couldn't get warm (maybe it was just from looking at all the bare legs on the subway). When I sat down with my friend we decided that without the Pho, we might not have recovered from the cold today. From a shivering me, to a shivering you - try it, you'll love it.
99 Fast Food Restaurant
3396 Bailey Ave
Buffalo, NY 14215
(716) 836-6058
their number 36.... the noodles with egg, bbq pork and string pork (I think) is to die for... I like Pho but that meal is like the Margie Meal for this place... I just can't pass up on the opportunity. Always great food and nice people.