Basil Canteen

Great food and service. Wife and I were really pleased. Keep up the great job. We will recommend our friends here as well.

Phenomenal food. My boyfriend and I eat out a lot and we’ve sampled a lot of Thai food but this was phenomenal. My boyfriend got the flank steak with red curry and noodles and I got the catfish. It was so great! Literally we were excited to eat our leftovers the next night. Really great place.

Rolls and dispensers all well stocked. Simple, very clean, relaxing environment. Lovely wood stalls and soft lighting.

I always feel guilty when I have to write a bad review… but I must with Basil Canteen.
I ordered tonight through doordash, which always does a great job delivering.
I clearly stated in my notes, within the on-​line order, that I do not eat meat and to substitute my order with shrimp.
The noodles arrived with STEAK.
Why don’t people read the notes???
The order arrived in ripped paper containers dripping with grease and oil.
Unacceptable.
Be careful of this place.
I am sorry, but I had to speak the truth.
With so many wonderful thai places to choose from in the City, stay far far away from this one.
You should be ashamed Basil Canteen!!!

PROS:
–Beautiful industrial loft space with brick and steel beams everywhere
–Beautiful containers of chili sauces on the table
CONS:
–Food was a solid MEH. Pad Kee Moh was overcooked with soggy noodles, low in flavor. the lemongrass chicken had the exterior texture of fried chicken that’s sat in a moist bag too long.
–Prices were too high for the quality
With the plethora of Thai restaurants in SF, this one doesn’t merit a return visit

I reserved Basil Canteen for a work event. Our dear colleague was retiring and we wanted to send him off well.
It’s surprisingly hard to find a good place that takes a group of 20 open for lunch around the Mission, so it was amazing to find this spot.
They were great from beginning to end. Extremely responsive to my requests, fantastic food, and excellent service. The space is awesome as well. All my team was very pleased about our time there, and looking forward our next visit. Can’t recommend this place enough.

Really solid Thai food and since atmosphere. That being said the customer service is lacking. Whenever I’ve gone there a little dressed down I’ve felt like I was putting the staff out. I mean it’s a nice but not swank…

Awesome place. Love the smaller vibe of this restaurant.
Ordered the pad Thai with chicken and some skirt steak appetizers. Really really good flavor and extremely fast service.
Large selection of choices and appetizers. Love forward to coming back.

Great, clean, friendly, delicious Thai food right in downtown SF. Had the Chicken Satay Skewers for starters (delicious) the gai gra prao chicken as well as Thai Chicken Friend Rice.
Service staff was friendly, knowledgeable and the atmosphere was super friendly and casual. A completely unpretentious atmosphere. I would recommend this place and come back here again.

Good food, but prices are actually considerably ($ 2-​$ 3 per plate) higher than those listed on the Unilocal menu. After ordering pickup and complaining about price difference, owner said he had tried messaging Unilocal about the problem, but nothing had been updated. Either Basil or Unilocal deserves a poor rating.

Great ambiance, more casual than the other Basil location. Happy hour is Mon-​Fri 5−7pm.
Giow Grob — ⁴⁄₅ — Fried wonton with shrimp and pork. My personal favorite appetizer. Fried but not too oily.
Dtom Kha Gai — ⁴⁄₅ — Chicken and mushroom lemongrass coconut soup. Warm and tasty. Love the hearty portions of chicken and mushroom in the soup.
Kiow Wan Neur — ⁴⁄₅ — Basil green curry with squash, zucchini, pineapple, and slow-​cooked beef short ribs. Meat is so tender. Great curry.
Dtom Yum Goong — ³⁄₅ — Standard tom yum.

I really wanted to love this place, but the lack of customer service unfortunately made this a less positive experience than it should have been.
I came here with a group of friends who were celebrating a birthday. We ordered drinks, which came out quick, and things were off to a good start. From there, it was a downhill ride. After already waiting a while for food, I stepped out to make a phone call. In that time everyone started to get served. When I came back in, I sat for about 5 minutes after everyone had already started on their food. I asked the server «I made an order for pad se ew» and her response was «oh yeah». Like… Really? «Oh yeah». Apparently someone stepping out caused them to forget an order they were suppose to write down in the first place.
Secondly, when we got our check, not everyone had cash so we had to use our credit cards and pitch in. The woman at the front told us we had a limit on how many cards we can put in. Um, excuse me but we’re the ones paying you 300 bucks for not so great customer service so don’t tell me there’s a limit on how we pay you.
The food itself was enjoyable, but not exactly up to the hype I heard about the place. The 1 hour wait from order time to actually getting my food didn’t help their case either. Overall, could have been a way better experience with staff that’s attentive.

Great food! Great prices.
The garlic shrimp dish was delicious.
100% recommended.
The service is fast and I didn’t have to wait for a table.

Awesome! This place is the perfect combination of everything you need — Amazing prices, ok service, great atmosphere & delicious food!
You can have a delicious dinner for ~$ 15 including tip, which is insane especially given how delicious the food is. The atmosphere is also very cool and relaxed. It’s dark, would be good for a date, but there were loads of big groups celebrating birthday parties or the like (they have some big wood tables that are perfect for that). The service isn’t fantastic — we sat at the back and I think they might have forgotten about us for a while, which isnt ideal, but given the rest of this place, it’s totally fine.

So glad I stumbled upon this gem. Great convenient spot in SoMa. The interior is spacious, wooden, calm and busy at the same time. Loved the open loft space and exposed brick walls. There are couple of tables for two and long tables for big parties which they could offer you to share with others. I like this concept! It is loud when the place fills up but a lively space & the crowd was a mix of hipsters and couples. They are not in a busy street, so it’s more chances to park. The food was delicious, flavorful, authentic and plentiful. The prices are reasonable and service was attentive. I had soup and chicken with pumpkin in tamarind red curry with rice, both were perfectly cooked and seasoned. Be sure to check out the happy hour Monday through Friday 5:00 — 7:00pm where the cocktails are only $ 6, $ 3 for beers and many of the appetizers are $ 5. Definitely will recommend and come back.

I’ve come here for lunch a few times and get take-​out pretty regularly. It’s not bad. Good service and the space is nice. Classic San Francisco with the exposed brick and wooden tables, including one communal table right when you walk in and two stories of seating.
The menu has a pretty vast selection with just a handful of goodies, but it’s worth eating your way through it to find them. For the most part, the food is just so so. Highlights are the gyoza bpet (pan fried duck and cabbage dumplings), pau pia yuan (fresh shrimp rolls), and chap chye (glass noodles, tofu, shitake mushrooms, bok choy).
The lovely space counts for a lot in this part of town, plus the good dishes are really good, so 4 stars it is.

We ordered two dishes, both of which were curry. The left overs we requested for a to-​go box. Shockingly the server put wet curry in cheap thin paper box in a paper bag. The box leaked soon after and unfortunately ruining my clothes.
I called to give feedback, explaining that of the result of their incorrect packaging. The lady had difficulty understanding my explanation, asking several times if I wanted to order food to go. I ask if I may speak to a manager. She replied «Sorry I cannot help you. The manager is unavailable.» This seems unlikely on such a busy night.
Professional service is not difficult and good packing curry in plastic doesn’t come at a high cost.
I will not be coming back to this place and regret not visiting my favorite «Basil Thai», which is just around the corner in San Francisco.

Excellent food and a great place to go for lunch during the busy Folsom Street Fair!
I’ve been here every Folsom for the last 3 years, in fact I need to make a point of going in on a normal day. I always get the Pad Kei Mau. My wife got the pumpkin curry last time and boy was I jealous. That pumpkin curry tasted so so good. I’m drooling just thinking of it!
The portions are just the perfect size, and I LOVE the atmosphere. It is the best of any Asian restaurant I’ve been to. The whole place is this super cool loft and upstairs has excellent views. The tables are also nicely spaced out so it is a great place for that business lunch or intimate date.
The Thai Iced tea is also da bomb!

This is Basil’s sister restaurant. I would consider this more of a Southeast Asian fusion restaurant rather than a strictly Thai one. Loved the open loft space and exposed brick walls. Great place for a large group dinner.
Service was attentive and food was delicious.
I highly recommend the kang kiow wan roti (pan-​fried Indian bread served with grilled skirt steak and green curry dipping) as a starter.
My entrée, the kao soi neur (grilled skirt steak and egg noodles in lime-​coconut curry), a Burmese classic, was also excellent. It came topped with pickled mustard greens (they were very generous when I asked for some extra) and crunchy egg noodles.
The grilled steak could have been a bit more tender, but the flavors were so good that I didn’t mind a little bit of toughness.
Also, the coconut juice here is also amazing. Comes with a few peels of actual coconut!

Came here a quick bite before seeing a show thats nearby. When my brother and i went inside this restaurant, asked us if we had reservation. When we said no, gave us a little table at the corner near the bar area. They had happy hour foods and drinks. Although they gave the regular menu, we only look at happy hour menu. We ordered 6 out of 8 of the happy hour food which basically almost all of the food from the menu. Each plate cost $ 5. Its more like small plate so i thought its quite expensive for the amount of food they five you. Like appetizer dish in a way. You can get hungry again after a few hours
The food that we got were: taro fries, fresh rolls with shrimp and vegetable (has the fish sauce dipping sauce), tapioca dumplings with pork and nuts, thai spiced corn fritters, chicken satay (has a peanut sauce), and pork skewers (has a spicy sauce). I thought the foods were average. The dishes with the sauce made it has that extra flavor.
Fast service