May 10, 2019: After a stroll in Centennial Park to see the cherry blossoms, we searched up a local Vietnamese restaurant for dinner in Mississauga. Pho-Com 99 appeared high on the list of reviews, and we were pleased to have a decent meal here.
The restaurant is located at a plaza with plenty of parking. It has a spacious dining room where lots of large groups and families with young kids were eating at the time we arrived.
I was shocked to see how vast the menu was. There were pages and pages of different pho, rice noodles, rice rolls, soup, rice, seafood, and meat dishes. [Scroll to the bottom of this blog post to see the menu pages.] I was most shocked and impressed to see frog (“tin gei”) on the menu. It’s a thoroughly Asian dish to see (so rare too). All of their dishes were so economically priced too! (Most under $10.)
We got an order of the Fresh Rolls with Shrimp & Pork, Steamed Rice Cake with Vietnamese Sausage & Raw Pork Meat, and the classic “99” Special Rice Noodle Soup.
The Fresh Rolls with Shrimp & Pork were indeed fresh and considered “clean eats”. The thin rice roll was stretchy and wrapped the contents snugly. The vermicelli inside of it was softer in comparison to some bouncier ones I’ve had in the past.
Everything was great, but the Steamed Rice Cake dish was the most unique and unlike dishes I’ve had in the past.
The Steamed Rice Cake with Vietnamese Sausage & Raw Pork Meat consisted of a plate of short pieces of steamed rice cakes, two types of Vietnamese sausage (a red one and a tan colour) with lettuce, green onions, and garlic. It’s best to eat this dish hot before the steamed rice cakes start sticking to each other. The red Vietnamese sausage was less common type. The dish went well with some fish vinegar as well.
The best bowl of pho to get at any restaurant is always the classic first choice in the list which contains a little bit of every beef item there is. We ordered the medium size of the “99” Special Rice Noodle Soup.
By the time we ate this though (we left it on the table for a while), the noodles were a tad cold and thus not at their ideal temperature and taste. The broth and ingredients were quite ordinary in a good way.
This is definitely a restaurant worth returning to based on the sheer number of dishes available on the menu. It’s a great choice for a large group gathering so you can try more of their dishes (including that rarely-seen frog dish) :P. Would you try it on you saw it on the menu?
Menu: