Pho 9 & Shabu

I come here often on saturdays after a day of hard training at Chang’s Taekwondo Academy in Morton Grove. Boy this Phở place is so good that I feel so recharged after I eat a large bowl of phở! The portions are so generous and they taste good too! I also love their summer rolls with the peanut sauce! The staff are friendly and helpful although sometimes they are slow but I guess it all depends on the days you are visiting of how many customers they are serving.
To sum it all up, this place is good and I will be coming back for more.

There’s nothing like a bowl of phở on a cold winter day. Came here on a Sunday and I think we may have been some of the first customers. Service was very prompt. Ordered the phở which came out super quickly. I wonder if they knew we were coming? Or what we were going to order before we got there?
Phở was meh. The noodles were a little stuck together which makes me think that they were sitting there for a little bit waiting to have broth poured over it. The beef was fairly fatty, not the best cuts. But it was still decent, and decently priced. Not my #1 place for Phở, which is kind of sad for a place that has Phở in its name.

This is the only phở restaurant in my area so I come here when I“m craving … but only when i’m REALLY craving phở. The restaurant is korean owned so obviously not the best place to get authentic tasting phở.
I usually opt for my beef brisket and meatball in my phở but the meat here is pretty fatty and the soup is not as flavorful as I wish it to be. The biggest downside to my phở at this place is that the bean sprouts do not come with basil :(i love my basil in my phở :(
Not the greatest phở I’ve had but the only one near the area so I think I will continue to come here until someone wonderful decides to open up a better option. PLEASE!

What’s really unfortunate is that this place only lacks management in becoming a solid 4+ star place. The food was good, and with their all-​you-​can-​eat shabu shabu, I would be here 2x per week with my family (and my wife doesn’t even eat red meat!)… but the service is beyond poor. The 3x we went, there was 1 person working (looked to be the owners teenage son)… we would have to wait 15 min for a soda — and that was the significantly faster than the time it took to have our meat or veggies replenished for the shabu shabu.
My guess is that they underpriced the all-​you-​can-​eat shabu shabu and now are trying to use bad service to drive people away after their one serving. Too bad, because Chicago could really use a high quality, well-​run shabu shabu joint. I’d pay double the price if they could just get the service up to snuff. We gave them 3 chances — there won’t be a 4^th… even if someone else is paying.

We heard about this place from a friend who raved about the AYCE shabu so we decided to check it out.
Although the sign promotes phở as the main dish here, I know better than to order phở from a Korean place. For whatever reason, Koreans tend to tailor the broth to something tasteless and unlike the aromatic fortitude that traditional Vietnamese phở carries. You know, the kind of aroma that permeates your clothing and gives you a taste every time you burp for hours after? Anyway, I dare not try the phở because I know better.
Approximately $ 22 per person for AYCE shabu is about the same price to be paid for AYCE Korean BBQ so the price seemed reasonable. We ordered and were instructed on how to use the sauce cart for dipping or broth flavoring purposes and eagerly waited for our meat to arrive. As customary, we received a large plate of various veggies, tofu, mushrooms, Korean squash, a few tiny dumplings, and various other little goodies. We were told that the only thing they could refill on the veggie plate was bok choy or cabbage. Booooooooo. I thought that was boooooolshite.
The meat arrived and was of surprisingly good quality but as I suspected, from past experience with any AYCE Korean deal, the quality significantly diminished with subsequent orders of the same meat. Night and day difference.
Don’t expect your broth to be periodically changed out for new, untainted broth. Expect a carafe full of new broth to replace the broth that has boiled and evaporated. If you’ve ever boiled meat before then you can imagine the icky gray, greasy mess that is the result. Fortunately, the pot is split in two so you can keep one side fairly clean if you only use it to cook the veggies. We wound up using the veggie side to cook the seafood items that came out to keep them from being ruined by the dirty beef broth.
Some of the clams we received in the seafood platters were a bit fishy. I ate them anyway and have not experienced any negative effects so I guess the clams were borderline edible. What was hilarious was the microscopic pieces of scallop and squid that was served on the seafood platter. We made the mistake of dumping the lot in to the broth and then discovered we would never be able to find them again. Literally lost in the soup. BTW, this place does not provide one of those small strainer deals to scoop out any stray small pieces with. So the next seafood platter we ordered, we just held on to the bits and pieces with chopsticks in the broth while they cooked. A bit annoying to say the least. Later we ended up ordering just the shrimp because those were decently fresh and easy to cook and eat.
If you’re what I refer to as a «buffet killer» then you may be content with what is served here but if you have refined shabu tastes, don’t bother trying it out.
Service was fantastic at first. Almost too attentive. This soon tapered off in to non-​existence like many have already commented on. I had to practically shout and wave my arms to get the attention of our waiter who was strangely very busy in his little curtained room. Polite to the end but clueless about how to make his rounds.
I have to admit I wasn’t overly impressed with the dirty streaks and smears on our «clean» table and the general cleanliness about the place. It looks fine from a distance but the truth is apparent upon closer inspection. I’ve seen worse in many of the dives I frequent but I also didn’t pay close to $ 60 for a meal at those places. This place really needs to step up their game if they intend to continue doing business.

Thank you for being my first 1 star review!
First, don’t you know that you should wipe off the sauce bottle everyday? If so, why did I grab one of your «WATERERED DOWN» Hoisin sauce bottle and I almost ripped all the skin off of my hand because it was so sticky? Secondly, why is the top part of your sriracha sauce bottle nicely browned? BECAUSE YOU HAVEN’T CLEANED THAT SH@#!!! You open at 11AM, I walked in at 11:45AM and there was 1 table sitting. There is no way someony could’ve possibly sit at the same table and doused the bottle with it’s own sauce and left. Lastly, why in the world would you sneeze on your hand and start grabbing glasses to fill it up with ice and water? Are you crazy bro? Have you heard of washing your hands after you sneeze? Don’t you know that you can get people sick from doing that?
I understand you might be trying out a «FUSION» type of phở, but no basil? Come on bro! You are killing me here! And what’s up with the bland broth? Ain’t no way that came from beef bones. Portions are huge and I finished it because I was so hungry. But you will never get my money again. Oh yeah, check out the picture. What in the world is that? Is that soy sauce? Why is the napkin soaked to hell? You can’t afford another bottle? Or is it because you «SIMPLY» forgot to clean it?
You suck bro.

I found this place surprisingly decent (I expected less from it). For the several visits I had, I usually got Phở, but sometimes also had eggrolls, etc. Phos are not spectacular, but still good enough to enjoy a meal. I think they are reasonably priced, too.
I can’t comment on the service at a Korean-​run restaurant because I am very used to how you are served in Korean restaurants (having lower expectation), so lack of attentiveness doesn’t really bother me much. It’s always about the food, unless I had a fight or something with a staffer.

This restaurant, from the moment we set foot inside, was begging for a Unilocal review. We were greeted by a young man host /​server. He had a black T-​Shirt on that read (and I am not kidding), «PISS PUKE BLOOD GUTS,» in big capital letters. After doing a couple of double-​takes, I noticed a little brand logo of a well-​known sportswear company (seriously, you can Google it). My first thought was that I hope he’s not wearing the menu on his shirt… then I thought more, hoping it’s not his grocery list for the kitchen! In any case, we decided to take a chance and eat there anyway.
The Phở was interesting. It appeared to have a chicken broth base — kind of yellowish (yes I kept thinking of the waiter’s shirt, but it tasted okay). As a previous reviewer noted, cilantro was substituted for the typical basil on the side.
The shumai appetizer came in a covered dimsum steamer basket, apparently steamed over a bed of leafy greens. My wife noted that steamed dimsum items are usually placed over a layer of cabbage, which holds up better to the steam. Her conclusion — microwaved frozen shumai served in a steamer over fresh leafy greens. I didn’t have any, but apparently they tasted pretty good.
All in all, the server was at least courteous but not the most attentive. The food was quite average. I just had to lower the rating by one star for the disgusting T-​shirt.

It took the lone waiter with only me any my companion 30 seconds to ask «Ready to order?» Then the same questions 1 minute later, and then again 45 seconds after that…
On a cold day in Chicagoland, you expect the phở broth to be warmed better than what felt like a microwave.
I’d taken phở out of here before just due to home dining preferences and understood having to rewarm the broth + contents. On ¼/​12 the chicken phở was served warm at best and by the end of the bowl with 2 people, it was unsatisfyingly cool.
With getting the check, it seemed as if they never wanted us to leave. Did our body heat provide extra warmth for the restaurant or somehow warm the remaining meals to be served?

So, seeing that I’m very accustomed to filling belly with all sorts of Asian cuisines, we decided to try this joint out.
1. We walk in and no one is on site at the counter. Two minutes later, a boy (he was wearing a plaid ¾ length shirt with black jeans — no apron) comes up. I thought he was walking out as a customer, but ends up saying ‘what can I get’ (??-was there more to this?). I kindly reply ‘for three please?’ And he replies, ‘so, you want to dine in?’ Hmmmm…
2. We are looking over the slim menu options and the table next to us got the Shabu. The boy (different boy, this time this other one was wearing a t-​shirt) rolls the cart up next to us in order to seve the next table. He grabs the veggie plate and a piece of lettuce falls off… he then proceeds to grab it with his BARE HANDS and places it back on the plate and places the veggie tray on the customers table! UNBELIEVABLE
3. Our waiter boy comes to take our order. Kids menu states: noodles or fried rice with orange juice. Interesting and odd combo.
4. We then ask for straws… he comes back with 1, Hmmmm… We asked another waiter for more straws and he come back with 2 more. Keep in mind, we had 3 guests and the kids menu came with an orange juice, so 4 drinks are on the table. Wouldn’t you think he would bring 3 more so that all the cups would have a straw in them?
5. Our food comes and we ordered two bowls of Phở (1-​medium, 1-​large) and they came out with a side plate of ‘accessories’. We had to share the limited amounts of veggies.
The entire time we were eating, no one checked up on us. Let’s see, two waiters and a room of about 15 guests… even I could run that with no problem by myself!
Restroom time: so I head to the back of the restaurant. I notice that as I’m approaching the bathroom, the laminate on the floor was peeling off. (only visible in the hallway towards the restroom) Then, as I’m washing my hands, I notice that there was some mold on the side of the sink. When I say side, I mean where the hand soap sits…
We left and I asked if this was a place we would all come back to… NEGATIVE.

If you know me then you know Vietnamese food is one of my top faves. If you know the locales I frequent then you know there are not many Viet places to sip and slurp the lovely tastes of Phở. So consider my excitement when I saw the sign for this place erected close to home. My lucky stars were aligning just so and the gods heard my lament. The restaurant is nestled in the strip mall dotted with other ethnic eateries as well as a movie theater featuring Bollywood movies and a chain grocery behemoth– Meijer.
The Shabu in the name tipped me off that this may not be an authentic Vietnamese. I was doubtful that this place could stand up to my high expectations, but after first taste my first impressions of the place were easily squashed.
The Phở with all the goods (tripe included) was shared between myself and my dinner partner. We shared the large size bowl and it lived up to it’s large name. Both the size of the bowl was equally proportioned to the goods inside. The Phở broth had the right taste and not too salty. The flank, meatball, and the tripe were also equally divided to share. I took most of the tripe! I was a bit put off from the amount of fixin’s given for the two to share and would probably ask for more on my next visit. The other nuance was the omission of Thai basil leaves that usually sidles close to the the bean sprouts, lime, and hot pepper as added accoutrements. In place of the absent basil was cilantro. I am not sure why the substitute maybe a difference from region to region (?). I was not a fan of the missing Thai basil and did not notice any added flavor layers from the cilantro.
My dinner partner and I also shared a spring roll order (2 pcs) which was not bad, but maybe more a filler to me. The menu stated shrimp and wrapped with noodle and greens. I noticed no pork in the offering. The dipping sauce was tasty and featured a peanut based dip along with an oil and soy concoction (tiny spoon for added detail included). The two orders filled my belly and after slurping my fill I proclaimed, «I could eat Phở everyday of the week.»
The feel of the place is modern/​minimal, and then add a splash of color from the bright neon advertisements on the wall featuring specials. The place advertises daily lunch specials and late night times of operation. There is also a explanation of the origins of Shabu dining and the ‘how to’ cook table side with the Shabu hot pot. ‘
Mon-​Thurs open 11AM — Midnight.
Fri-​Sun 11AM –Midnight
(I know no different, but that is what it says).
Ahh! To the gods up above I offer you my thanks and my first born son for hearing my plea and welcome the new addition of Phở in the burbs. I will certainly be back to try out the other Phở items and possibly to share a Shabu.

I’m giving Phở 9 & Shabu 4 stars for the best phở in the suburbs. Of course, nothing beats the phở in Argyle, but out of the few phở places in the burbs, this one takes the cake!
I haven’t had any of the other dishes and I’ve been to this place three times in the past four months. The broth of the phở is delicious! It’s so good that you really don’t need to add the sriracha or hoisen sauce, but you can for a little extra taste. The medium bowl is equivalent to a large bowl in Argyle. The price is under $ 7, so it’s definitely worth it.
The service we had last night was okay because there is really only one server and it was pretty busy during dinner time. However, the other times, I’ve been to this place, it was always just my BF and I, so the server only had to pay attention to us.
There is another phở place really close to my house (Noodles Phở U in Glenview) that my boyfriend and I frequent, but we agreed last night that Phở 9 & Shabu is now our favorite!

Came here for a late night dinner a few weeks back. Phở in the suburbs is crap more often than not, but it was open late so why not.
First impression is that it’s a bigger, nicer, cleaner space than we imagined it would be. We were seated quickly and the service throughout was solid.
We went with the phở and the bun. Bun is like vermicelli noodles with some veggies and meat. This version had pineapple which I’ve never had in bun before. The sauce was also a little off.
The phở was huge, but made with what tasted like a chicken broth. They were both pretty good. We left satisfied, but I can’t say we have Vietnamese food that night. The korean/​vietnamese hybrid was decent though.

This place did not meet my expectations to authentic Vietnamese Phở. I believe most of their food in the menu was korean.

This is more of a Korean restaurant than a Vietnamese. The phở isn’t bad for a Korean based phở. But it’s not as good as other phở places. The meatball is way different than you will think. I avoid the meatball phở. Service is very good though. I’d come back here for overall experience.

I got really really super ridiculously excited when I found out there is a vietnamese phở place near my house only to find out that its really not vietnamese nor is it really phở. Guess I should have known as soon as I read Shabu in the restaurants name. The menu is in english and korean and no disrespect because I love korean food and all but korean phở is not nearly as good as authentic phở.

I ate here a while back with my boyfriend during their grand opening. The décor is simple and clean and service was great!
Considering it is a Phở place, we both ordered some Phở. The taste was mediocre. There’s nothing that sets it apart from other phở places, but I mean it was okay. Nothing really to complain about.
I would probably go back to try some other things on their menu.

This restaurant is hidden in a local plaza near other Asian restaurants and the Meijer Super Store.
Craving for soup, my dad and I decided to try the place for lunch. We ordered bowls of Phở, which was delicious. To our surprise the «small size» was actually HUGE! My dad jokingly said that it was big enough for me to swim in.
The Phở comes with the usual add-​ons, such as cilantro, bean sprouts and lime wedges. Siracha and Hoisin sauce is also available to add a kick to your Phở.
I would definetely come back for a big bowl of Phở and also to try out the Shabu.
The decoration is also modern, with an interesting slim aquarium hung up on the wall with live fishies inside.