Growing up fairly close to one of Brooklyn's Chinatowns I had easy access to authentic Vietnamese food whenever I wanted. I came into Xinh Xinh not knowing what to expect- how good would Vietnamese be in Central IL?
Turns out, it's great! I had the dac biet (Go with this pho- you get beef slices along with all the other fun cow parts like tripe and tendon) and my girlfriend had a banh mi. My pho had flavorful broth (watery pho broth is the worst) and the garnishes were fresh and a good portion. I was really impressed at the quality of my girlfriend's banh mi's bread. Banh Mi is all about the bread- when you've had a good banh mi you know what I mean.
We also shared an avocado shake, which we both really liked.
My only real gripe, surprisingly enough, was the price. I guess it's hard for Xinh Xinh to get some of the ingredients they use down in Urbana but believe it or not I think the pho in NYC might actually be cheaper and a larger portion (eg, the dac biet here costs about as much as xe lua in NYC [xe lua is like a giant portion of dac biet]). Nonetheless, I'll happily come back! Plus my price issues are really mitigated by the fact that they take 5% off if you pay in cash and they have pho happy hour on Wednesday.