What & Where is American Dream?
the fiasco formerly known as Xanadu in the Meadowlands(14 years and opening in 2018)
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According to the latest environmental reports in 20 years it’s going to be the American Wet Dream.
Apparently with global warming the whole Meadowlands including the Stadium is going to be 3-4 ft under water…
Of course it may take them that long to finish it.
My prediction is that they will open some time around Xanadu, their food will be horrible and be out of business within a few months. 
Go fish thinks he’s cute - threaten to meet him at the Asian market and ask him about the Asian delicacies 
At some Asian markets, it helps if you can speak Spanish:yum:
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Some of us are Jewish and know a lot about Asian food and some of us are Asian and knows a lot about pastrami and lox - go figure
The Asian took the Jew to the Acme warehouse for fresh smoked salmon - go figure …
I drove by Pho 99 last night and noticed the lights and TV were on and what appeared to be workers milling around the place. I would assume they will be opening up any day now.
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My friend told me something similar. We should have a giant celebration there when they open!
After waiting over 2 years I know we are anxious to try this place. My general rule is to give a brand new place a couple of weeks for staff to learn the ropes. But if the sign says “Pho 99 cents”, I am ready now 
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Phno kidding!
So, yeah. This place is finally open. They say they opened two days ago. I’ll just bullet my experience but please keep in mind it’s very new.
- They have Banh Mi on the menu but it’s not available.
- Service was pretty poor. I had to walk up to the counter and grab my own menu. Never got any water. No one ever checked up on me. Had to walk up again to pay.
- No fish sauce on the table. They have an “normal” spoon as part of the set up, and you get the soup spoon with the soup.
- The chili paste on the table is pretty kickin!
- The combination pho, which I always get, only comes in large and is 12 bucks. All others are 9 bucks for small and 11 for large.
- Despite the enormous bowl, it seemed to be a little stingy on the contents. I had one tiny strip of tripe and don’t recall seeing any tendon. I had no problem finishing the large bowl.
- Not as much noodle as usual for a large bowl, but this isn’t a problem for me. Noodle came out in a near solid puck form and needed a lot of coaxing to separate.
- Bean sprouts were dry (as in not sitting in a pool of water, I don’t like when there’s a pool of water with the veg because I feel like it’s going to cool/dilute the soup), and the fixins include culantro! And the soup came out piping hot! Yay!
- Now the broth. I’m not sure if I want to say it was delicate or underseasoned. It’s probably one of the mildest pho broths I’ve ever had, but not necessarily in a bad way. But in some way it almost tastes like something is missing. Some fish sauce, maybe some msg? In that way it almost tastes homemade, but on the flipside it’s not a very exciting broth.
- You can separately order pretty much any meat item on the side, I like that.
- Somehow I ended up with a slice of what must have been the hottest jalapeno ever grown. Man I was sweating bullets for a while. But I like the burn!
A handful of tables were occupied other than me, some yellow some white. Not to be ethnocentric/racist or whatever but watching people eat pho with a fork is pretty funny for some reason. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. (Full disclosure: I prefer to eat American Chinese with a fork)
All in all I’m going to say it is fine. It’s far from my favorite Pho, and closer to the bottom than the top, but hey, Pho is always delicous to me. 12$ isn’t cheap but it’s not like we have other options.
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Sounds pretty horrible, lol.
I can forgive the bad services at any Asian run place (especially new ones) as long as the kitchen does it’s job but “Noodle came out in a near solid puck form” is bad when your main attraction is the Pho.
Ooooohhhhhmmm. I’magonnawait
Wow. Good review.
I’m gonna stick with Vietnam Bistro.
Say it ain’t spho, Joe…
To be fair, I can’t remember ever having a bad bowl of pho. And personal tastes is a lot of it - others may really love it. As long as they can get a little more consistent with the noodles and meat, the only real complaint is price.
I’ll go back soon and try some more things.
For me with pho the broth is the thing.
If you haven’t seen it, the last (?) issue of Lucky Peach was all about pho and VERY informative. I had no idea that different regions have different pho in terms of flavor profile–which explains why I sometimes have pho and think the broth is too sweet. But I’m with you, @joonjoon – even a meh bowl of pho usually makes me happy!
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