Xinh

I’m often asked where you can get pho (Vietnamese rice noodle soup) in Amsterdam. Until recently, the only Vietnamese restaurant I knew of was Welcome on Zeedijk. Then Xinh opened on Elandsgracht.

Xinh serves street food without any of the discomforts of eating on the street. The Vietnamese restaurant has eschewed traditional furnishings in favour of gleaming black tables, tactile stone panels and lots of chocolate and beige.

Image of Xinh Vietnamese restaurant starter The menu, like the interior, is compact, but includes classics such as deep-fried egg rolls, satay, Vietnamese pancakes and rice paper rolls filled with shrimp, pork, glass noodles, omelette and the fresh herbs – in this case basil and mint - so characteristic of Vietnamese cuisine.

I ordered the three-course tasting menu (€26), which allowed me to sample a larger number of dishes. The starter was goi tom, shrimp, pork, radish and thinly sliced cucumber salad served in a cocktail glass (elegant but not very 'street'). For the first few bites the dish tasted light and subtle, but there was too much of it and it ultimately tasted bland.

The main course was four little bowls of steamed rice; ga xao xa ot, chicken in lemongrass-caramel sauce (although the sauce seemed to be missing); thit man, finely sliced pork which made up for the chicken by being submerged in a rich pepper-caramel sauce and bo luc lac, succulent cubes of 'dancing beef' marinated in garlic and five spices that danced over my tongue.

Few Southeast Asian countries have a dessert culture, and I often wish that Asian restaurants would stop trying to create one to satisfy Western diners. I wished that again after trying Xinh’s che chuoi, a warm porridge of banana, coconut milk and tapioca with a rim of chopped peanuts. Any chef would struggle to make tapioca taste good, but this globular concoction didn't look good either.

Image of Xinh Vietnamese restaurant dessert It’s strange that it has taken so long for another Vietnamese restaurant to open in Amsterdam. There seems to be demand for it, judging by the steady stream of diners. I saw large bowls being delivered to the tables around me so perhaps they had all come for pho. Next time I will too. And I'll skip dessert.