The weather changes a lot these days. As it gets cooler, I crave some cozy food and some nice hot soup. That’s when 83 Vietnamese comes to my mind, and we decided to go for a dinner.
This is not the first time that I visited 83 Vietnamese, and they never disappoint me in term of the quality of the food. The plaza at The Crossing has lots of fascinating restaurants, but I can definitely say that 83 Vietnamese and San Maru are the two that definitely gets lots of people during peak dinner time.
I actually like the way they presented the menu. There aren’t many options which takes time for customer to think about, but there are appropriate number of options to decide one of them. From time to time, they have different special dishes such as fried rice and Vietnamese coffee. Nowadays you can even get a spritz here. There is a self-service counter where diners can get their own utensils and sauces like hoisin sauce (Asian-style seafood sauce) and sriracha (Asian-style hot chili sauce).
For the appetizer, I ordered the spring rolls ($8). Four halves were served with peanut dipping sauce, and it’s very convenient for us to use chopsticks to pick them up and put in the mouth. Shrimps, pork, lettuce, noodles, and cucumbers were wrapped in a rice paper. I enjoyed different textures in one single bite, and the house-made dipping sauce was awesome with a bit of sweetness and aroma from crushed peanuts.
I ordered the banh mi ($13), which is a Vietnamese sandwich in a French baguette. Inside the bread, there were char sui (Asian-style roast pork), carrot slaw, fresh cilantro, jalapeños, and mayo. The dish came with some shrimp chips. The shrimp chips are definitely a childhood memory for me, and they were so crispy and melted right away when bit. The made-in-house roast pork was extremely juicy. For the first time, I liked the combination of roast pork with mayo, and it was surprising good. I always like the slaw which brings in a bit of sourness and very refreshing — especially when there is so much protein in a sandwich.
We never miss the order of pho whenever visiting a Vietnamese restaurant. To note that different from most of the pho served in other restaurant, here there’s no dish of raw veggies as a side to put in the broth. 83 Vietnamese’s pho ($17) has a beef broth with brisket, sliced beef, meat balls, and one serving of rice noodles. On top of the broth, there were cilantros, herbs, and sliced jalapeños. The beef broth was hot, savory, and a light bit of sweetness. This bowl definitely warmed me up a lot in the cool weather. I always like to get some sriracha and hoisin sauce for dipping the meat; a little bit of spiciness was a great add-on to a broth.
During our dinner, we feel very welcomed by the host, and they are definitely passionate about making good Vietnamese dishes for the customers. I am looking forward to trying more items on the menu such as the pork belly buns which sound very delicious to me.
If you’re looking for a casual, cozy place for some nice Vietnamese food, you don’t want to miss this one.
83 Vietnamese Cuisine
2502 Village Green Pl
Champaign
M–Sa 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.