Pho 9N9

So I walk in around 11:50AM and a lady sitting at a table points hastily at me to sit there. OKAY I ordered the Pork Bahn Mi and the Bun Bue (rich spicy beef soup). The soup came out very fast. The accompanying garnish were small, wilted and the basil was covered with black dots and slimy. The broth was clear like Phở, not a beef bone broth. It has no flavor and tasted only like beef base. I took one sip and then let the waitress know the soup was not good. She argued with me and insisted that I had to pay for it. I did pay for it but did not eat it. The owner was abrasive, argumentitive and unprofessional. a poor cook. One of the most disappointing meals dining experiences I’ve ever had.

Fantastic place!!!
Simple, cheap, quick service and GREAT phở!!!
Must visit for phở fans!

The customer service at this establishment is below par. They allowed their child to yell and play hide and seek in the restaurant while we ate. This I could overlook as maybe their babysitter was unavailable but the final straw was when the waitress got upset because I asked for an itemized receipt.
The food was equally as bad. The spring rolls were not even edible. I would not recommend this restaurant.

My mom and I went here 3 times in the course of one week. We were tired of college Vietnamese food, so we went to the nearest restaurant. First of all, the service is horrible. No refills, no attention; we watched customers come in and request a menu because they were forgotten. The food though? Spectacular. This is the best phở I’ve had in Chapel Hill, Durham, and Fayetteville (doesn’t compare to Phở Hoa in Charlotte though). Apparently, they use tons of beef bones and cook it for days in advanced. The fried rice is amazing too. The hu tieu is too, according to my mom. My next goal is to try the bun bo hue. They don’t have a lot of variety in the bubble tea. The egg rolls are generic, overloaded with noodles.
The owner is a younger lady and she is the sweetest. My mom asked why they didn’t sell fish with rice, and they lady offered to make it the next time my mom came. My mom and I were in town due to a family emergency, and the owner was doing everything she could to accommodate us.
But let me tell you about the reason why I didn’t give this a 5 star rating. My niece ordered seafood phở with extra meatballs. I ordered phở with steak. There was only one worker that day (with two kids in the shop) and we were the only customers. He apparently put the extra meatballs in my bowl and was about to blame us for it. One of his kids stepped up and said «just bring her another bowl of meatballs» and my niece insisted they didn’t have to. Well, he did anyways. When we were checking out, he had his son ring us up and he told his son in Vietnamese to specifically charge us for TWO bowls of extra meatballs, not knowing that I understand Vietnamese. So, I’m getting charged for HIS mistake? Rude. That was the worst experience I’ve had here. I would give this place a 1 star in a heartbeat, if not for the owner and food quality. Although, the phở this time was mediocre. Maybe it’s only on-​par when the owner is present.

Love eating here! The food is fresh and delicious. I used to work right around the corner and would go eat here with friends from work, usually once or twice a month. The service is excellent, and the owners are very nice. My favorite dish to order is the Tofu Lemon Grass Vermicelli (B10 I think?). Highly recommend eating here. The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is because I think it’s slightly overpriced… it’s usually 10 dollars or so a person. If it was a couple dollars cheaper Phở 9N9 would absolutely get 5 stars in my opinion.

Great food! Authentic dishes… although I have never been to Vietnam to truly know that.
Fare prices too. Service is either excellent or questionable depending on who is serving you. Most of the time it’s excellent though.
If you are looking for casual Vietnamese look no further.

I keep coming here often because it is only a five minute drive from my home, and there isn’t any other vietnamese restaurant nearby. Every time I do, I always leave disappointed. Their rice/​vermicelli plates are poorly prepared and their phở arrives lukewarm and the broth is mediocre at best.

I was here last year but seems to be under new ownership. The service was horrible and sanitation grade of 88 was hidden behind the register! Stay far away from this place!!!

Eh. This place, like most of the Vietnamese restaurants in the Triangle, is sorely lacking in décor and service. You get seated cafeteria style at long trencher tables, identified on by the number on your table. The service is Curt and no nonsense, and may or may not come out as you ordered, and with no particular sequence or timing. I also found the menu unoutstanding, and most of my coworkers found it lackluster. If you do come here, I recommend you get the phone, because there are better places to get everything else on the menu, with better service and atmosphere. Actually, there are also better places to get phở.
Go to Taste in Morrisville for better food, and Lime and Basil in Chapel Hill for better food and atmosphere. But I suppose if you work nearby and need takeout, its probably fine.

Pretty decent. Didn’t get to eat what I went for, though! I pointed at what I wanted on the menu. I read out the Number/​Letter combination. I then read the name of the dish.
Something completely different came out. So I clearly reiterated what I wanted.
Something completely different came out. So I just ate it.
I’ve had better (insert item) on vermicelli at other places, but it was well prepared, if a little on the bland side. I’ll go back to try that dish I went for in the first place! Hopefully it’s as well prepared!

Conveniently located at the heart of RTP and includes all my favorite authentic Vietnamese dishes

I love phở. I like Phở 9N9’s phở. Usually. You see, it’s usually hit or miss. I’ve experience a wide range of quality there, and I’m not sure what’s going on.
The people who work there are nice, but their mastery of English is really, really bad. Point at what you want on the menu, and if you don’t pick too many things, you might get everything you ordered. Usually they forget my drink order. Trying to talk to resolve the problem hasn’t helped me in the past. I smile and eat my phở instead.
The first time I went in, I asked for fish sauce and chili paste, which were not offered at my table. The server started yelling at me (not being mean, I think this was more of a cultural thing) something about not being good for white people. /​eyeroll I finally convinced her to bring out the condiments that I’m accustomed to enjoying with my phở and enjoyed my meal.
If my review were to be based on my first visit, I’d have given them 2 stars. And the experience sometimes is 2 star worthy. They are more typically at a 3 for me.
Look, the place is a dive. The quality of the food is closer to what you might expect from a street vendor. If you want great Vietnamese food, head over to Phở Far East in Raleigh. This is just more of a Vietnamese slurp-​n-​burp. And sometimes, that’s all I want and I’m okay with that! Just don’t let this be your first phở experience.
One other thing: their sanitation rating is not awesome, and the certificate is not prominently displayed. It’s usually somewhere near the cash register, maybe sitting on the counter or something with other things in front of it. I get the impression they don’t want you to see how bad they are about sanitation. I wish they’d put as much effort into sanitation as they put into hiding how badly they’ve been rated for it.

Found 2 fruit flies in my noodle soup today. It was my first time eating there. Strangely, didn’t see a sanitation on the wall. The portion of the noodle soup was smaller than the other two Vietnamese restaurant I usually go, yet more expensive.

This is an awesome, awesome phở place. The ingredients are all fresh and the broth is amazing. We have had a few other dishes that were quite good to, but the phở is amazing.

Pretty good. I had a combination phở soup to go. It really was delicious. I was just dissapointed that there wasn’t more meat… but that may be my inner fat girl. Combo should have had pork, chicken, beef, crab, and squid… I didn’t see the pork, crab, or squid… But the soup was filling, and plenty delicious.

Great phở. Having traveled to Saigon and Hanoi and growing up in NOLA, I have a fondness for the more flavorful and pungent broths of South Vietnam. This family run restaurant delivers on the phở. I didn’t like the spring rolls as much or the spicy seafood broth.

Coming from the Washington DC area I’m accustomed to having any type of asian cuisine pretty much anytime. Since we moved to the RDU area, the selection is pretty limited.
We haven’t been to many Asian restaurants, but when we have, most have been sub-​par from what we’re used to.
We didn’t order phở, so maybe their phở IS average or even good.
We ordered lemongrass beef, barbecued chicken, spring rolls, and Thai iced tea. The Thai iced tea was probably the best we had out of what we ordered, not too sweet and icee form. The spring rolls were average, not bad and not awesomely good. Here’s where it goes down hill. First the meat to rice portion is off, so little meat and lots of old rice. I thought this area is supposed to be cheaper cost of living. Why food they skimp on the meat?!
The bbq chicken was at best okay, small portion of marinated chicken cooked to be dry. The lemongrass beef was the worse… they used phở meat. Who uses phở meat for their beef dish?! If I wanted phở, I would’ve ordered phở.
Overall, will not go back for their cooked dishes. Once we try their phở, I’ll update my review to see if we ever go back.

Located in a predominately white business district in Durham, Phở 9n9 relies on office workers’ lunch service to stay afloat. Every entrée, from phở to vermicelli to rice dishes, costs at least $ 9.
I went with a coworker who is also a fan of Vietnamese food. He described it as having a «fast food» atmosphere. With bright lighting and half the tables lined up cafeteria-​style, that dining method may work well for the lunch crowd, but I thought it needed improvements to become more comfortable and welcoming. The décor was all over the place, with mismatched paintings on the walls, and the odd potted plant.
I had a good feeling at first, when I heard Vietnamese spoken right as we came in. However, the food was disappointing, despite how quickly it was served. I thought the spring rolls were remarkably tiny, and at 2 for $ 4, poorly priced. They had very thin slices of shrimp and pork, only enough for a taste. I felt cheated.
The phở was underwhelming. The broth was just decent, not particularly delicious, but solid. If you had a hankering for phở, it would do, but if you were looking for good phở, you’d go somewhere else. The noodles were in a clump at the bottom, which I’ve always hated, and the meat was cooked through — also a peeve of mine. At least the meat had good flavor, and there was a good portion considering that I ordered a small.
My friend and I both had phở, though, and there was only one small dish of garnishes, so we had to ask for more. Though we’d ordered drinks right at the beginning, we had to ask for them and didn’t get them until after the appetizers and the phở had arrived. Overall, it was a mediocre experience. Worst of all, I left hungry after having shared appetizers and eating the whole bowl of phở. Usually a small fills me up, but here, maybe I should have paid the extra dollar for large.
Phở 9n9 is promising, but needs improvement. I’ve written some detailed recommendations for them here: [
Hopefully, they can use some of these to become more successful.
Follow the phoventure at

So, here’s the deal: Phở 9n9 is legitimately one of the closest eateries to our humble abode. As a result, it has become a major go-​to. I usually opt for the phở with double rare beef (carnivores FTW!), and the Mister hits up the lemongrass beef. Both of us are big on their banh mi (pork for me, chix for him).
I have only ever physically eaten there once, and the service was… well… serviceable. It was mid-​evening, so we were one of only 3 inhabited tables in the joint. Items came out in a reasonable time frame, and food was hot and tasty. That said, I cannot speak to the lunch rush or any other busy-​ish time and how that affects the integrity of the food. I suppose I’ll need more experience before I can comfortably share that elusive 5^th star with this fine establishment!
But yes, I generally call ahead and takeout is ready by the predetermined pickup time with no issue. Highly recommended if you need a quick pick-​up meal and don’t want to break the bank or eat super unhealthy stuff.
My only word of warning… this spot sometimes closes early if they aren’t particularly busy. Therefore, if it’s 8:45pm on a rainy, cold night and you get a hankerin’ for a bowl of Vietnamese deliciousness, you may want to call ahead and ensure they’re still there and planning to stick around!

On the way back from North Hills, my wife suggested we stop at Phở 9N9. We hadn’t been before but we had wanted to give them a shot for months. Can you blame us? Unlike most Vietnamese places in the Triangle, they have both tofu banh mi and phở.
I really wanted to give the vermicelli a try so I went with the spicy lemon grass tofu and added some broccoli to the mix. My wife ordered a small bowl of the phở ga and, per the the waitress’ suggestion, the combination banh tieu and steamed chicken bun appetizer.
The vermicelli was good though I wound up with no broccoli and spicy tofu without any lemongrass to add flavor. I also found it a bit strange that the dishes didn’t come with cilantro.
Service was good and the food tasty enough that I plan on coming back to try the tofu banh mi and, when it gets a little colder, the phở.
When you stop by, be sure to ask for Peter.