Rice Basil

This is my favorite restaurant in SLC. I never get sick of the food, I’m always craving it. The staff is so friendly and they always make you feel right at home. Soy runs such a great restaurant! This is by far the best sea food I’ve had in Utah. I highly recommend this place to all sea food lovers! Even if you don’t like sea food, they have so many other options on their menu and it’s all SO good!

I loved the friendly staff and the beautiful food presentation. We have been waiting to try this place for awhile. Well it was worth the wait! The lunch choice of two sushi rolls for $ 9, is an amazing deal! High quality sushi for a good price.

Delish! Everyone else had sushi and sashimi and loved it! I had the walnut shrimp and it was so good! Husband tried the pad Thai and really liked it, huge portions, mochi ice cream and raspberry cheesecake! Our server, Vivian was a delight as well! So fun and helpful :)

I go to this Rest. Frequently. For my bad yesterday was a very bad experience. My mom is in town visiting from Puerto Rico. I always tell her that I like the food and the service. But yesterday was another story. We went for lunch. They got us a table. They make wait for the high chair for my baby, that was fine. They bring the menu. When the guy bring two cups of water instead of 3 or a kids cup. I ask him for water for my baby. I continued to let him know that we are ready to order. I order two bento boxes and a seaweed salad. Also ask for what kind of juice they have. So I let him know that I want a kids cup of apple juice for my baby. He bring the juice, the soup the salad. And never ask if we want anything to drink. The food came, he don’t ask so I decided to let him know that we want something to drink. He bring the soda and left. Leaving me with my words in the air because I was going to ask for straws. When he came again I tell him that we need straws and forks, and he rolls his eyes. At this point I don’t ask for anything else I proceed to eat the food. He catch me with my mouth full and came to the table to ask if everything is good. Few minutes later, he came and ask for my mom’s plate because she already was finished, then he grab try to grab mine with half of my food there and I was eating with my chopsticks on hand. That’s a NO for me. I was in a good behavior relax trying to enjoy the lunch. I was still eating and feeding my baby when he came a drop the check without asking if we want something else. I look the check and they charge me for a small coffee cup of apple juice $ 3.30 it isn’t a fair price for that kind of cup. There was another waitress and I ask her about the price and she when to ask him. I think at this point he was mad because came with a attitude asking in a bad manner what was the problem. I tell him the same and with the same attitude he told me that if I want he can remove the charge for that small cup juice. I told me of course that charge was acceptable if was a regular soda cup. He go back and change the check. Everything about his service to us was awful I was very uncomfortable all the time.
Last week everything went well with the other waitress, that why we decided to go back. Like I told before I visit the Rest. Frequently. I will need to think twice to go back. :/

Good food, great value. Nice to have a quality Asian cuisine option in Holladay. Love the curry, yakisoba, and sushi. Menu may have been updated. Reasonable prices, nice environment.

Wow! Jeremy and Soy spoiled us! My boyfriend and I sat at the bar and had an incredible time.
Service is great, very friendly and we felt like we had dinner with friends.
Jeremy was happy to answer all our sushi making questions (from how to make the rice, where to buy fish to which knives to pick.).
Now let’s talk seriously… The food! We had rolls, sashimi, nigiri, dessert and sake.
We had the Holladay and the J roll but we fell in love with the Lollipop roll (with Jeremy’s touch).
The quality and the freshness of the fish is excellent. There is clear effort put in innovation and taste combination. Every bite and roll is a different experience.
Jeremy’s recommendation of unfiltered sake was excellent.
We finished with the mousse cake. Light and flavorful. Was a great way to finish the meal.
Rice basil is a full experience where quality and service is made priority.
Thank you Soy for the dinner, we will for sure be back with more friends. Thank you Jeremy for the wonderful service and for making us feel special.
Below was our sushi class review (Groupon). We had mixed feelings about Rice basil but tonight was a different experience!
SUSHI CLASS review. My boyfriend and I used the groupon for a 2hrs sushi class. They have a room in the back of the restaurant. They tend to overcrowd the class which makes it a little bit less enjoyable and hard to see instructions. You have 2hrs to make 3 rolls (very basic 2 cucumbers/​1 shrimp) and they don’t really explain how to cook the ingredients.
We still had a good time. Soy made the class lively with a great sense a humor and it is BYOB (with 10 $ fee). If you are looking to spend a good time with people for 2hrs it is the right place to be. If you are looking for more in depth sushi making learnings, you might want to do more research.

This is my absolute favorite place in SLC. Whether it’s a takeout order or I’m dining in with friends, I’m always impressed with the food and service (especially James). Favorite rolls: lollipop, dragon, and spicy tuna.

This place is my absolute favorite! Always delicious food and such friendly great service. Baaska and Christian are my favorite servers! They’re always so friendly and accommodating.
Thank you rice basil!

Went back twice and the food quality has gone down. Frozen chicken and Chinese food is no longer fresh and like it was. Sad to see quality go down. Haven’t gone back. Bummer

This place is close to my house and there is almost never a wait which earns it extra points. The food is slightly above average for similarly priced places… Last time I was there I had the massaman curry which could have fed three or four people portion wise and it was good. They skimp a bit on the rice (although I’ve been told all I need to do is ask for more and it’s free)… and the service can be a bit hit and miss. My wife loves their egg drop soup (says that it’s the best that she has ever had anywhere!). I think that sushi tastes like do do ca ca no matter where you go, but, I have friends who love the sushi here. I haven’t had the donburi but that is next on my list to try… looking forward to going back soon.

Stellar food and amazing service. The Lollipop roll is the best of that style we have had. Lorraine was great.

Really love the atmosphere and the space in this restaurant! It’s very relaxing and intimate — we closed the place down last night!
The food was great too. Tuna tataki had a unique flavor and the tuna was so tender. Great sushi roll options too, we loved the dejavu, playboy and snowbird rolls. Lots of flavor! We also had the walnut shrimp. The portion was huge and the shrimp were too. The only thing we really did t care for was the calamari which was chewy and fishy — clearly from a frozen bag and not good quality. Service was great. Berlynn was patient and helpful. Love the area in holladay too. Will def be back!

Took the sushi making class. Loved it! Chef Soy is very entertaining and very educational. I would highly recommend this restaurant and take his class.

Yummy! Best sushi I have had in a long time. Usually every place has the same type of sushi roll these guys actually have some different stuff and every one we tried was delicious. The service was also amazing. I will definitely be going back very soon.

Rice is my favorite sushi place in the Salt Lake valley. I’ve been coming to this restaurant frequently since long before they moved from their State Street location to their Holladay location. The service is always pretty great and friendly, and their food is delectable.
This place is home to one amazing bowl of Pad Thai, and delicious Donburi, as well as some of my most favorite rolls ever.
The Deja Vu roll was one of the first sushi rolls I ever encountered, and few have come close to rivaling it as my favorite. The Uno Mas roll and the Mars Roll are also quite amazing.
I can’t say enough good things about this place, and really unless something goes drastically wrong, I’m confident that it’ll stay in the top spot for me.

Best sushi in Salt Lake, hands down! The owner/​head sushi chef is incredible. If you’re looking to eat mainly sushi, I highly recommend handing the reins over to him and letting his creativity and impeccable skill shine through. He will not disappoint. The food he makes is so beautiful and fresh, it’s like every dish is a work of art. The menu is amazing but, for a truly unique and heavenly dining experience, let Soy feed you to your heart’s content. If I could give this place 10 stars I would.

Welp, here’s how this shit went. Come in, get seated, wait. Get menus, wait. Order drinks and apps, wait. Drinks eventually come, wait. Drink most of drinks before apps come, order rolls, wait. Finish apps and all of drinks, wait. Wait, wait. Rolls finally arrive, but more on that in a minute.
I remembered this place when it was on State Street, not remembered fondly or horribly, just remembered. The bathroom was the most striking element of that visit. Fast forward and they’re in the vaunted Murray-​Holladay/​2300 E. section of town. Inside the décor is immaculate, as fine dining as you could ever want (excepting some of the building walls, which were a bit rough and slightly discolored). The hanging stuff, the music, the ambiance, though, all those were good. Way good.
So, this was at a 3, which is generally where these things go when I approach with an open mind. Starts there and sometimes stays there, sometimes up, rarely way up or down and very seldom way down. This one was a good solid start, until the waiting kicked in. Once the food arrived, it was edging down because of my patience, but the tempura shrimp & veggies looked ok. Shrimp appears to be in a different batter (closer to real tempura) and the vegetables in another one, which more resembled a beer batter. All of this was acceptable, though slightly on the greasy side and dipping sauce was fine, etc. No problems there… but more waiting.
Rolls were a little on the small side and definitely a lot on the funky side. Like mayo, cream cheese and avocado (zero of which belong in sushi)? Great, help yourself. The place was mostly dead so they should have room for you. Of the rolls, even the standard ones like spicy tuna and spicy scallop (probably the best of the lot) were loaded with filler, typically cucumber, which also nicely takes up space. Not a lot of rice on these, though, which was kind of unusual for a place that likes filler so much.
Anyway, this was still courting a 3, though I would have to be a lot more generous than normal until I hit the Snowbird rolls, which was covered in one of the nastiest sauces I’ve ever had the misfortune of tasting on a roll, anywhere, ever. They offered to replace it sans sauce, which also took a long, long time and when it arrived, the yellowtail on top was still frozen. Awesome and there goes that other star and any future visits, though those were mostly shot by the incredible lack of speed. This is a nice place to visit, but I have limits… hanging out 2 hours for a pot of tea, a few rolls and some substandard apps? Nuh uh.

Love Rice Basil for lunch, their $ 9 – 11 bento box and other lunch specials can’t be beat! Evening menu is a bit pricier though. Wish they had the bento boxes at dinner, even if they raised the price a bit. But definately check them out for lunch!

We have eaten here numerous times. The service has always been great — quick to seat us and always helpful to answer questions or fulfill our requests.
The food has always been quite good as well. Their California Rolls actually taste like crab instead of some crab-​like substance, and all other sushi I’ve tried has tasted fresh (as fresh as can be for being in Utah). My partner usually gets a bento meal and has always enjoyed his meal.

Yum yum yum! Coming from Hawaii we have been trying to find a good sushi place. Our realtor brought us here Saturday night and we enjoyed every dish we ordered! This place is a hidden gem. Thanks DeAnn for bringing us here! We will be coming back soon.

Ordered calamari and the taboo roll. Clamari was very bland and rubbery. Probably the worst I’ve ever had and looked like onion rings? So weird. The roll was okay but nothing great. 2 items were nearly 20 dollars a total dissapointment. Wont be going back ever.

Me and my crew demolished every roll on the menu in one sitting, they gave us two free deserts for finishing everything! We were so impressed with the sushi and presentation of everything! The staff was amazing too! Ask for Jordan if you go in on the weekend, tell him the Fantastic Four sent you!

Ate at the rice basil tonight and had a great meal. Ordered sashimi and nigiri and some rolls… we found the quality and freshness of the fish to be tip top. The sushi chef (Soy?) was very friendly and helpful with questions about the menu. He also made us little seaweed salads that were delicious. The quality and price were both excellent. Highly recommend rice basil.

We go to Rice Basil often. always for the sushi. Always try and sit at the sushi bar where either Soy or Jeremy take great care of us. Start with the poki/​seaweed salad and then sashimi. The fish is consistently fresh and tasty and reasonably priced. When you add the great presentation it makes it even better. If I order a roll it’s generally chefs choice (with a little direction) and I’ve never been disappointed.
For those that imbibe in adult beverages there is not a better saki selection anywhere…
I’ve eaten in a lot of sushi restaurants and Rice Basil is near the top…
W

Rice Basil serves good food at good prices. It’s nothing special or crave-​worthy.
The quantities are huge, but the flavors are just sort of muted. Their sushi rice doesn’t have much taste and the rolls have a tendency to fall apart.
The place has a heavy Pine-​Sol smell, which is very unappetizing.
Service is excellent and everyone is super nice, friendly and helpful.
The ambiance is cool and comfy. They’ve definitely made it feel more like a restaurant than any of the previous owners.
Overall, this place will do the trick if you need some Asian food and aren’t looking for anything mind blowing.

This establishement is less than 2 blocks from my house and a routine stop during the week for a meal. I believe it has changed owners over the past year and a pleasant surprise is that the quality has not gone downhill as often happens. Always a pleasant staff and quick service.

We came back the other day on a cold, windy night and were surprised to find a lot has changed about Rice Basil. New owner, perhaps? Much smaller menu, fancier décor with classical music playing, but still the same delicious food and gigantic portions.
Even though the menu was smaller (and, alas, no more phở on the menu!) we found plenty to interest us.
The chicken with tempura veggies in a rice bowl was delicious and my friend loved her curry (but had to ask for more rice because they gave her a tiny cup of rice for her huge vat of curry). Only off-​putting thing was the crunchy oriental noodles on the egg drop soup (so strange…) but maybe that’s just my preference.
The service was good if a bit green — the hostess who seated us was awkward and tried to seat us and all our kids at a too-​small table and never seemed to be able to help us directly but had to go get someone else. (It used to be more casual but is still kid-​friendly with high chairs and booster seats — we also saw another family with kids.) Our waiter was attentive but not overbearing and thoughtfully brought us children’s cups and small plates for the kids.
We enjoyed our food and experience very much and will be back.

The service and food here are wonderful. Comfortable atmosphere (they do play top 40 hits, which would be nice if they changed) but overall, Rice Basil is top notch.

I’ve always loved this restaurant! The sushi is not only delicious, it’s very inexpensive and presented beautifully! The miso soup and orange chicken also hit the spot on this chilly night. Oh, and the service was incredible!

I went to Rice Basil with a party of five for dinner not too long ago. The place was pretty empty except for a couple of people at the bar and maybe one table. We came in two separate cars and the hostess sat the first two to arrive at a 4 person table despite them telling her we had five. She said if a 5^th arrives, we can pull up a chair. Ooookay. The server did ask if we want to move but we’re pretty easy going so no biggie, just odd when the place is empty.
I was going to get sushi but after looking at the menu, I wasn’t in the mood for anything. Most rolls seemed to be a California roll with some small variation or they had cream cheese.
I decided to try the ramen instead. I got my usual tonkotsu and it wasn’t bad. Not my favorite in town but I’ve had a lot worse at other restaurants. The pork was tender. The egg was sadly more hard boiled than soft and silky. They served their ramen with seaweed in it, which I liked but everyone else at the table didn’t care for it. Someone else at the table got the Shoyu ramen and it was very bland. I’d stick with the tonkotsu.
The server was really great. I don’t recall his name but he was attentive without being overbearing. He gave us free edamame for waiting even though there really wasn’t much of a wait at all. He gets five stars for sure.

Very good sushi rolls! Quality of rolls is exceptional. Great service. Reasonable prices.

Gave THE RICE BASIL A 5 STAR REVIEW FOR THE NEW SERVICE, MENU AND OWNER, After 40 years in food service. This is one of the best around. No chain restaurant here.
The plate presentation was phenomenally beautiful! Real sushi beautifully prepared.
When my wife and I dined at the bar instead of a table to watch the Sushi being made. Now that, turned out to be an authentic experience you can’t get anywhere. From New York to San Francisco, to Tokyo to Mongolia. Soy was the Sushi Master Chef. Batsaikhan Ariunbold From Mongolia. I watched as he made beautiful Art out of food. From Appetizer to dessert. The blend of flavors was heavenly. Now it turned out that Soy,” the Chef” is the New Owner, Batsaikhan Ariunbold. After working with a friend and Chef from New York who helped Recreate the New Rice Basil and it works. Asian fusion.
Go visit this New Rice Basil. I will again for SURE! Happy Dining!

Pretty good Asian-​fusion cuisine place! I come here for lunch during the week and they have good sushi lunch specials. However their sushi is pretty OK. They have a pretty extensive menu. My favorite dish that I’ve gotten here is the pad thai.

I had a great experience here. The location is little bit far from downtown but totally worth it. I was surprised of how big the place is compare to other sushi places in West Valley or so. The decorations are nice. Lot of space but also very cozy. :)
We had 6 adults and 2 children but did not have to wait too long even on Saturday night. The staffs were friendly and helpful, always smiling. We ordered soup, rainbow (certainly recommended), play boy, california rolls, combination of tempura (very crunchy, really good), oyster poppers (you will love this one, great appetizer), ikura (salmon roe), beff yakisoba, chef specialty steak (da-​yum!!!), and combination dish of sashimi (super fresh, love it!). Everything was good and satisfied! If you love sushi, this place is a must try. Good place for date where you sit at table for two and enjoy the atmosphere or at the bar.

I don’t enjoy leaving bad reviews as I like to give the benefit of the doubt, and I don’t enjoy criticizing other people’s work, but my experience at Rice Basil last night was nothing short of disastrous – easily the worst experience I have had at a restaurant, anywhere.
tl;dr
* Terrible service from the start, which includes some guests never actually being shown to the table
* We sat for three hours with no refills and some people not being served until then.
* Food arrived lukewarm and incomplete.
* When we left, the staff stared us down like we were their enemy – creepy!
* Cozy atmosphere ;)
For those of you interested in reading more, grab a blanket, pop some corn, and hold on to your butts. Here we go.
I would like to say that our experience was an anomaly, but from other reviews apparently it may soon be the normal.
Our group of 15 – 20 had a reservation. We arrived on time. The restaurant had another 10 patrons. Sparse crowd. Although I was shown to my seat others were only told, «you’re in the room,» and left to find it for themselves.
Moral of the story: Bring a GPS.
Instead of individually asking what we’d like to drink, our waitress half-​heartedly called out from a corner if anybody wanted anything to drink. Weird. From the time we sat down to the time all drinks were served (Thai tea, a couple beers, 1 glass of wine, 1 small order of sake) we had been sitting for 45 minutes. P. S. The Thai Iced Tea is delicious.
One person ordered a Sapporo beer, labeled on the menu as 20oz, but received a 12 oz. bottle instead – with no word as to why or that there was even a choice.
Moral of the story: Don’t come thirsty; objects on menu are smaller than they appear.
About half of us ordered appetizers. I ordered the Gyoza. They arrived in a decent time. They had good flavor and size. Their temperature and consistency were just right for immediate consumption. The sauce complimented the flavor.
Over an hour in, only two of us had received our appetizers. Everybody else was left waiting. 40 minutes passed before anybody else’s appetizers came out. Two entrées came out at the same time another 2 appetizers were served. I ordered the Nabiyake Udon, (tempura shrimp, chicken, egg, and vegetables in an udon soup). It was served lukewarm and was missing the egg and vegetables in the soup. (Tempura veggies on the side.) At least it had chicken and noodles. Afraid it would be too cold to enjoy soon, I started eating right away. The soup’s flavor was relatively simple: beef broth with some herbs thrown in.
The sushi I ordered arrived with the udon, but the Masaman curry my wife ordered took another 30 minutes. My sushi’s flavor was good, but its construction was shoddy: loose and falling apart with a few grains of rice in each of the end pieces. The nori hung flaccidly about the edges. The Masaman curry was loaded with sugar and was too sweet. (We wondered if it was cane sugar instead of palm.)
To say our food trickled out of the kitchen might be an understatement: About every 20 minutes another dish or two came out, and in between, nothing but crickets. No waitress, nothing. 3 out of 20 of us were done eating by the time some people received appetizers. Glasses remained empty.
Moral of the story: One cannot live on crickets alone.
Let’s just skip to the end. 3 hours – not a typo – into our meal, some people’s food had yet to be served. About half of the people who ordered were served incomplete meals. One couple had to leave after 3 hours, and their daughter hadn’t been served her sushi yet; they had to ask for the it in a to go box. We were told 2 hours into our experience that the kitchen had decided to no longer cook rice.
Uh, okay… everyone’s dishes (ordered long ago) come with rice, but the kitchen doesn’t want to serve it? Later, the waitress came out with two scant bowls of brown rice, held them up and said, «Who wants them?» Um… AWKWARD! Maybe if we split it, we can all have a few grains.
At this point, were they trying to be bad? My vote is yes. We raised our concerns about missing food items, some people not having been served after being there all night, and yet there was no apology, no attempt to make things right, nothing. The managers never showed, but chose to leave the waitress hanging high and dry with no explanations. One person received their bill with two items he wasn’t even served (but had ordered). Another was charged twice.
Moral of the story: You can’t have your rice and eat it too. Actually, you just can’t have your rice. Or your egg.
Even after expecting us and with only a small handful of customers, what our group experienced last night was a complete fiasco. As far as I can tell the incompetence runs all the way to the top. From the ultra-​slow service to the incomplete dishes to the stare-​down we received from the staff on our way out, this place was a royal let-​down.
Moral of the story: Eat before you visit, and order a to-​go box first to save yourself some time.

This is the new location of Rice that was previously on 1100 S State Street. Our waitress told us that one of the two owners left so they moved to a nicer location and changed the name from Rice to Rice Basil.
We read a negative Unilocal review and almost turned around. I’m SO glad we didn’t.
The interior of the restaurant is beautiful. It feels upscale and has two very nice sushi bars and lots of seating. There was a good amount of diners tonight but noise level was low. Just a really nice, relaxing experience.
Our waitress was friendly, attentive and knowledgable about the menu. She was able to answer menu questions for my husband who has severe food allergies. The manager and hostess both stopped by to play with our baby.
Food came out quickly and our drinks were refilled multiple times.
The food was great! We ordered …
Spicy tuna roll-​a bit on the spicy side but very flavorful.
Vietnamese Spring roll-​really good! Perfect crunchiness and the fish sauce was great.
Chicken Phở-​Husband loved it, said it had great flavor. «Not as good as La Cai Noodle House, but very close.»
Pad Thai– I loved it. Shrimp tasted very fresh and the noodles were cooked perfectly. I wish there were leftovers so I could eat it again tomorrow but it was too good not to finish.
We had a great experience and can’t wait to go back and try more. The menu is large and covers a wide variety of Asian cuisine (Japanese/​sushi, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc.) Usually this is a bad thing as too much variety means the quality of food will suffer. But we really did enjoy everything we ordered and prices were reasonable.
So happy to have a great, new restaurant pop up in Holladay.
Update:
After a second visit I’m upping the stars from 3 to 4. We’ve had two great experiences and great food both times.