Quick Bite: Chicken-Noodle Soup at Xinh Xinh Cafe in Urbana
The soup is not spicy at all unless you add the peppers (or the red chili sauce you'll find on your table), so if you don't like spicy food, simply leave the jalapenos on the plate. If you do put the jalapenos in, and stir them around, that will give a mild, warm spiciness to the broth (you don't have to actually eat the peppers unless, like me, you like the head-clearing, eye-popping experience that chewing Xinh Xinh's extra-hot jalapenos gives you). If you're looking for a comforting bowl of chicken-noodle soup, look no further than chicken pho.
Xinh Xinh has also been serving vegetarian pho for quite a while now (pho chay). I haven't tried it, so I can't vouch for it, but my guess is that it's just as tasty as the other pho varieties.
Pronunciation guide: Xinh Xinh = "sin sin." Pho = "fuh." But don't worry about pronouncing pho correctly. Whether you order "foe" or "fuh" or "chicken-noodle soup," you'll get the same steaming-hot, satisfying bowl of happiness from Shai and the rest of the friendly and helpful staff at the cafe.
Xinh Xinh Cafe
114 North Vine Street
Urbana, IL
217-337-7600
Open Monday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Labels: quick bites, restaurants, Vietnamese
posted by Lisa at 6:43 AM
Add to Del.icio.us
8 Comments:
Will this be a permanent item on the menu? They haven't had it before, and, I must admit, I've found the beef soups to be a big disappointment based on this places local "buzz." But my wife and I became big fans of chicken pho when we lived in a Vietnamese neighborhood in Toronto and are anxious to try some in C-U. Thanks for the tip.
My kids LOVE Pho. It's a great kid friendly dish and there's always leftovers for tomorrow. Plus it's super fun to slurp up the noodles!
OH please let's go there soon!!! I need you to show me the ropes.
Oh man...I wish it wasn't all the way on the other side of town. A big bowl of Pho would be the hunger destroyer today.
Johnada: I asked and was told that the chicken pho is going to be a regular menu item after the new year. Between now and then it may be hit or miss to get it, although it's been written on the white board on the north wall of the cafe every time I've been there lately. But I'd call ahead, if I were you, to avoid disappointment.
Fern's mom: Perfect slurping food, for sure! After what you said about leftovers, I guess I shouldn't admit that I can eat the whole bowl in one sitting (well, except for a cup of so of broth), should I?
Laura: Sounds great.
Trey, yeah, a bit dicey to get over there from Champaign today with all this snow. Hope you get to try it soon though.
I'm going to be a sourpuss and agree with the first post and say that I too was very much disappointed with the pho I had at xinh xinh. I don't know, Lisa, but maybe you're getting a better bowl and a better service, because the owner knows you and you're a blogger, but every time I went there, I felt like we were being "snubbed" whereas those others, "regulars" that the owner knows well I gather, were "coddled" from the beginning to the end.
Whatever.
Naturally, I don't go there anymore; thank goodness, there's Golden Wok to soothe my pho cravings.
Anon: I'm sorry to hear you've had a bad time at Xinh Xinh. Not liking the pho is one thing, but I'm not sure you're on target about the "regulars" and special treatment. The time before last when I was there, the owner wasn't, and the fellow who served me didn't know me, so I didn't get an extra-special bowl because of my blogging fame (ha ha) or anything like that. The last time I was there, my friend and I waited quite a while for Shai, the owner, to get to us to take our order because he spent a pretty long time explaining the menu items to a party of three who were unfamiliar. So, no special treatment that time, either. :) And the people Shai spent so much time with were clearly not regulars but new folks who needed help in ordering. I can understand feeling a bit frustrated with the service; at times, I have also. When it's busy, it can take a while to be waited on. I've mostly really enjoyed the food, though, and this chicken pho is definitely a new favorite.
I agree with Anon 1 and although the below post may sound a bit more vitriolic, I'm really just disappointed about the general hype over Xinh Xinh's food. At best, it's serviceable. At worst, it's deceptive.
I've given up on Xinh Xinh, even though I used to be a regular from the start. The last time I went was with my partner on a Wed night (yes, a busy night although it wasn't packed)in which it took 1 hour to get two bowls of pho to us. The reasoning was that they were "out of the broth" so they had to make more. However, making good pho broth is a tedious and time consuming process so this didn't make sense, especially since they state they don't use MSG. My partner has adverse reactions to it so she avoids it in almost everything except now she was being hit with pretty much vertigo and had to sleep off the rest of the night.
And really, the pho isn't that good. I often had to load it up with stuff to get a modicum of flavor.
So I agree with Anon and Johnada. I'm not going to get into the service stuff but the food is "eh." There's enough good places in the area where I don't have to deal w/ "eh" for food, even if I have a craving.
Post a Comment
<< Home