Siamese Basil

BEST THAI FOOD EXPERIENCE. The service was extraordinary. I didn’t know where to wait for my table and when I was being seated I missed the subtle cue that directed me to where I would be dining. It was a guessing game the entire time and I loved it. The food was adequate. The heat scale was from 1 – 10 where a 3 is a medium. That means there are 7 levels of «hot». It just doesn’t get any better/​weirder. Just eat here and thank me later. You’re welcome.

Ive been coming to Siamese Basil for years. I have never had a bad experience here. I suggest coming in for the lunch specials… you can always get a table, and they give you so much food for a really reasonable price. Try the ginger hot tea… spicy and sweet, and really unique and yummy. Careful though if you are not a fan of spice. As a spicy fanatic this place is right up my alley, but I’ve heard people think they can handle the heat and simply cannot.

Loveless service. We felt intimidated to ask for anything from the brusque waitress, who slid our dishes at us. This would have been tolerable had it not been for the food. Unlike the beautifully sautéed entrees one is accustomed to from a Thai place (i.e. cashew nut chicken), everything here was swimming in the same, thick, gross brown gravy. It tasted ok, I guess– but was vomitrocious to look at. Not a fan.

More recent visit:
Tried the Tofu Pad Thai and Coconut Lemongrass soup. I hate to give such a poor review but this was literally the worst Thai food I’d ever had. The soup broth starting getting chunky and separating, almost as if curdled. The noodles had unusual ingredients, and were a far cry from the traditional version which would have been much better.
First time:
Called ahead to make sure they delivered. Yes! Called back later…
Me: I’d like to place an order for delivery
Hostess: Sure what would you like?
(Place order)
Hostess: Ok thank you! It’ll be ready in 50minutes.
Me: Don’t you want my address?
Hostess: We can’t deliver anymore tonight.
C’mon guys, get it together!

I have eaten here many times in the past. Got food to go and was extremely disappointed with it. Beef curry was disgusting, and $ 4 for a small side of rice is ridiculous. Definitely won’t ever eat here again. Did I mention it is completely overpriced. I think this place just thinks that all their customers are tourist so there is no need to serve decent food.

My folks and I were staying just down the street on Neptune Ave when we were looking for a decent Thai place to eat and does take out. This was bar far the closest and some of the reviews were good and some bad, in my honest opinion this place did not look like much when I walked in but to me they don’t have to be.
They are like most Thai places and range their spice from 1 to 10, with 10 being the hottest. We ordered the Chicken Tom Yum Soup, Yellow Chicken Curry, Pad Thai Noodles and Chicken Roasted Chili.
The Tom Yum we ordered in a number 8 and the spice was enough to get your nose running and a tingling on your lips, the white chicken was nice and moist too and the lemongrass was not too over powering.
The Yellow Chicken Curry was ordered in a number 6 as my Mom is not too fond of super spicy food, again the chicken was super moist and the curry was just right not too spicy and not too sweet, with generous portions of meat in there.
The Pad Thai Noodles was ordered in a 5 (again for Mom) and to me could have been a little hotter but then again it was my mom’s dish. The noodle which can be a bit mushy in other Thai joints were great, not soft and not greasy with the beansprouts being crispy and fresh, they could have put a little more nuts in this dish but it was well balanced and like I said not greasy.
My Dad loves hot food so when I ordered the Chicken Roasted Chili in a 10, the person taking my order asked me 3 times did I want a 10, she even asked again when I went to pick up the order that it will be very spicy. The dish was very nice and spicy well she was not wrong it almost blew my head off and my Mom would not touch it. My father however said it was spicy but not the worst he has ever had, even though he was sweating and red as a beetroot.
My only peeve is the fact you have to order the rice separately and they do charge you for it, this is the first Asian place I have been to that charges for rice.
Overall, if your in the area go for it, it was flavorful, with nice balanced spices and good taste.
I’d order from here again.

So I’ve been past this like 1,000 times and never knew it existed until last night. That being said, this place kills it! Some of the best Thai food I’ve ever had. Seriously. Their spices were top notch and flavors were mind blowing. I got the spicy red curry with vegetaable and it was to die for!
It’s a very cute and small resturaunt with some friendly staff and cooks. My only knock on this place is that they don’t have organic Tofu available (since I’ll never eat GMO soy, and neither should you for that matter). So if they could improve that I’d be thrilled with this establishment. Looking forward to trying something new when I go back, which will be very soon!

Siamese Basil has been here for many years. The restaurant is small and charming. The server is just as charming.
Crispy Tofu appetizer was huge, looked a lot like a two rows of Melba Toasts. A lot of the same thing, not much variety, but at least it was vegan.
The papaya salad was delicious and well-​spiced. The noodle entrée was also very good.
Casual, very fitting with this beach community. Pricing moderate. Parking is wherever you can find it.

Really good Thai, best I’m Encinitas for sure. Beef satay so tasty. Pad woon Sen and Pad Thai can’t go wrong with those 2. Thai curry is not my favorite so I rarely order Panang or green curry. but they were both very tasty. My experience has always been pleasant but my girls have had some additiude from the female staff there. Otherwise it would be 5 star

Food wasn’t good, but Thai iced tea was delicious. I have never tested such awful pineapple fried rice

Thai restaurants should have their Pad See Ew dialed in but at Siamese Basil this was quite possibly the worst I have experienced. It tasted nothing like it should but I was assured it was in fact what I ordered. Due to the extremely long wait time in an almost empty restaurant I expected it would be at least edible. Pad See Ew is my fav so I know what it is supposed to taste like. This was colorless, tasteless, no soy sauce and for some reason had the consistency of snot (see picture). When I mentioned this to the server she looked confused and I even saw the cook pop his head out from the back. I gave 1 star for the Thai Iced Tea and another because she took this plate of slime off our bill. This whole visit confused me. Maybe they thought I was a tourist and wouldn’t know the difference.

Getting seated was clumsy; we weren’t really sure where to go.
Staff was decently friendly. They were good about refilling my water. However, when I asked for my dinner to be remade (see below), the manager (?) seemed irritated that I asked.
Veggie egg rolls & plum sauce were tasty. They were probably our favorite part of the meal! They were a cute size for being an appetizer.
We also tried the calamari; it was okay, but we generally enjoy it in a crunchier form. Also, I could see and taste that they put a ton of pepper in the coating.
The Pad Thai was gross. (Although I do have to give them credit, the ⁴⁄₁₀ spiciness level was perfect.) The chicken tasted watery or something, like cat food maybe? I asked for a new plate with only veggies, and there was the same almost mildewy taste to the plate. I felt bad about complaining and got a box for my food, but I threw it away outside.

Ate here earlier today. As soon as I asked my friend «do you want tha» (wasnt even finished with the sentence) she said yes! So, we went in and were seated by the window (which I really like). Gotta be outside or close to outside.
Anyway, the food was good. Not anything special at all, but not bad at all either. Since I opened my big fat mouth before I had a chance to Unilocal the place, I looked it up as we were waiting for our food. We ordered:
Pad Thai (tasted ok — def NOT near even as good as what I have had at other places). Also, they used the wrong noodle. Too slimy too.
Fried rice — delish. Pretty hard to screw up fried rice in my opinion. Still, it was quite yummy.
Yellow curry — delish also! Nothing extraordinary but very good.
Thai iced tea — VERY good
Thai iced coffee — also good
The place itself it an OK size and reeks of the typical asian décor. I liked that it wasnt fancy.
Prices were pretty reasonable.
Service was great.

Small little place but was very comfortable. Had an excellent server who went through all the specials and even explained the level of hot per Thai levels. 3 – 4 out 10 would be medium. Had the panang red curry with chicken, it was excellent, perfectly spiced at #4.
Also had the #7 appetizer. Would not recommend it, just was not for us.
We also had the BBQ chicken, fresh veggies spring rolls with peanut and plum sauce, pineapple fried rice and a lemon grass soup. All excellent. Highly recommend this place.

Having read several negative reviews, I wasn’t sure what to expect when a friend invited me to lunch here. I was very pleasantly surprised! The service was friendly, prompt, and they have a busser who came by 3 times to refill our water.
I had the spicy fried rice with vegetables; the server (possibly the owner?) recommended a 3 as medium spicy (on a scale of 10) and it was perfect! The rice had good flavor and lots of veggies.
My friend had the bbq chicken lunch, and she said it was really good as well.
I would definitely come back based on this experience!

Siamese Basil has a lot of two star reviews and it deserves them. The Thai food here is some of the worst in San Diego and the restaurant is always nearly empty.
I like spending time in Encinitas and it’s disappointing this place continues taking up space here with mediocre food. It’s really a shame since there is an (over)abundance of Italian restaurants here.

My boyfriend and I went here because we were craving some tasty Thai food. Unfortunately, the food was really bland :(He got the pad see ew and I got the yellow curry… Both lacking flavor.
On top of that they charged us extra for rice with my curry (which is absurd). The place was cute but our Thai food craving was definitely not fulfilled.

So impressed by the authenticity of this little unassuming Thai restaurant. Wanted to grab a quick bite before heading over to the historic Paloma theatre down the street. Ordered Yum Woon Sen and the Basil Green Lipped Mussels. Mussels were a bit chewy but could be overlooked when dipped into the accompanying sauce. I’ve never had a dipping sauce come with these mussels before. The sauce is tangy, pungent, gingery, spicy and addictive. The Yum Woon Sen was tasty.

I love Thai food and was excited to find this spot in downtown Encinitas but unfortunately their pad see ew failed to impress me. I’ve eaten pad see ew at probably 15 to 20 different Thai restaurants in San Diego so I feel like I know my noodles pretty well and I was disappointed. The noodles were bland and I wasn’t a fan of the actual soy beans in the dish versus the usual soy sauce. The noodles were so light in color that I wondered if they had even added any sauce to the dish. Now that I read some of my fellow Unilocalers reviews, I see that this is a recurring issue at Siamese Basil with their Pad See Ew and I wish I had taken the time to read all the reviews before.
The one bright spot to my meal was the Thai iced tea.

I visited Siamese Basil for lunch and it was very good. There were two other sets of diners in an otherwise empty restaurant so I received very fast service.
The lunch specials are a great deal and include soup, fried egg rolls, rice and a main course. I was impressed that they offered brown rice for the same cost as white rice and allowed me to substitute salad for the soup which was not vegetarian.
I ordered vegetables in red curry sauce with spicy level 7 and it was good. It takes a lot of heat to wake up my mouth and I enjoyed the burn from this meal. I barely needed to touch the condiment tray which included spicy sauces and ground nuts.
One of the other couples in the restaurant kept engaging the waitress in their conversation in the small restaurant. The best thing for the waitress to do in this case would be to politely serve them and walk away, however they talked through the entire meal.
Despite the annoying conversation I am giving Saimese Basil 4 stars for being accommodating and serving me generous portions of spicy food. Yum.