Sweet Basil Thai Café

Normally, I’d write a long and lengthy review of why this place sucks balls in a major way. But, it’s just not worth it. Really, it’s not.
The food is horrible. The «satay» chicken was _​worse_​than those precooked chicken strips you can buy at the store. The chicken dumplings had some sort of chickeny flavor, but the accompanying sauce tasted like some sort of soy barbeque. And not in a good way.
The service (meaning the entire experience, such as the cook getting the beautiful wife’s and my food out first before, say, the six people who showed up after us) is horrible.
After being told that our food would be another three minutes (and we both sat there counting), we saw the server bring food out to ANOTHER table that came in after us.
That was it. We got up and I (stupidly) dropped a $ 20 by the register and told her (as she was serving others) that «that ought to cover it.»
What the fuck was I thinking? We might have ordered $ 20 worth of food (actually, I’d say more), but we didn’t _​eat_​$ 20 worth. So after getting about half a block down, I said «I’m getting $ 10 back.»
I came and said «I want $ 10 back. That’s fair.» The server calmly gave me $ 10 and I left.
It was only after we looked at a bank’s clock that we realized that we had been there for over an hour (more like 70 minutes)
Never, ever, EVER to return.

Since I wrote this original review Sweet Basil has gone through some unfortunate changes. In the months since I wrote my first review they’ve proven to be really inconsistant. Sometimes the food seems really good and fresh, other times it’s like eating leftovers (probably because they are leftovers from the previous days buffet). Then there’s the time they closed for a while and reopened briefly as some kind of a lunch place that served basically something akin to mediocre hospital food for $ 8 or more a person! That horrible experiment ended and they seem to be back to being Sweet Basil again. But I haven’t been back.
It’s too bad. I think that if they had been able to stay consistent they could have easily built a thriving business by now. Restaurants need to understand it only takes one bad experience to loose a customer for life.

Note to all… Sweet Basil Thai is no longer a buffet. I learned this last Friday when I really just wanted Thai for lunch… and being as though this is the only option for Thai downtown (I know, there’s Sen Thai… but it’s not a casual eat by yourself type of place), I decided to hit it up. I must have looked like a complete lunatic. Upon entering Sweet Basil, I was expecting the usual seat yourself, order drink, and hit the buffet line ritual, but… that didn’t happen. I noticed something different… namely that the buffet line wasn’t carrying food in its trays, rather it was carrying bottled drinks. Ummmmm… what kind of buffet is that? Oh wait… it’s not a buffet anymore. Annnnnd, I walked out. I’m pretty sure that I looked crazy and on the verge of a meltdown… I think I just panicked. I walked back towards the east, wondering what I was going to eat, and I just couldn’t get Thai out of my head. SO, being the crazy lunatic that I am, I turned around and walked back to Sweet Basil, took a seat, and was handed the lunch menu. They have changed to a ‘strictly lunch special’ place with a few appetizers and 6 or 7 lunch special item. I was a little confused though, as I didn’t see the ‘special’ in the lunch special, because usually that means that you’re getting a combo type thing, but it wasn’t the case. It was cheap-​ish, $ 6.25 for a lunch (though that was also the price of the buffet… so is this really a value??). The meal (I ordered the rice noodle dish… sweet and hot soy sauce) was hot… and tasty… but I was just really underwhelmed by the change, I think it’s a change for the worse. I’ll probably be back, as again it’s the only Thai option downtown (bring me more THAI!!!), but it won’t be for awhile.

On a mission to eat my way through St. Louis’ many Thai restaurants, I stopped in Sweet Basil today for lunch. Its Downtown location is really convenient!
I ordered the (cheap!) Spring Rolls and (cheap!) Pad Thai. The Spring Rolls were large and came with sweet chili sauce, but were extremely greasy and tasted like nothing at all, which is a shame because the rice noodle/​chicken filling looked pretty authentic.
Ordering the Pad Thai was a treat – «How spicy? 1 – 5?» Uh, 11, please.
But really, I ordered the 4, and it was pretty hot – hot enough, in fact, to obscure the taste of the dish and make it a little unpleasant. I think I’m becoming a spice lightweight in my old age.
Anyway, I left half of the pad thai there – I just had no will to finish it; too greasy, too spicy, not quite right. Just OK. The service was friendly, the drinks are authentic, and they have too many other cheap lunch specials and a buffet, so I’m sure I’ll be back.

The buffet: my general stance is that they can overcome quality deficiencies by offering quantity of options, and that wasn’t the case here. Not very many dishes — a couple curries, pad thai, a veggie stir-​fry, some deep-​fried things. Dishes were generally pretty bland and not particularly fresh. Caveat: one visit and could have been an off day.

This was my first Thai buffet ever. The host guy was nice and the food was tasty.

Ok ok… I was definitely too generous on my first review of this place. I must have ate some morphine-​laced spicy chicken to sing the praises of this place like before.
I have since returned, and while it wasn’t horrible, it was an average Thai buffet. Everything was «ok» including the food, the service, the cleanliness etc. For a lunch pit stop where you want to shovel as much decent food down your throat before you have to back to work, this place is still great.
But I have been ranting and raving about this place like it was some sort of gift to St. Louis from the kingdom of Thailand. So when I return only to find myself halfway through two dishes thinking «you know… this really isn’t all that great», I am pretty disappointed. So sorry Sweet Basil Thai Café, but while you are a solid lunch buffet choice, you aren’t the cat’s meow of tasty Thai food.

Affordable, fine and an A-​OK choice for a downtown lunch time buffet meal.
Nothing great, nothing amazing, nothing bad. Just OK.
The food’s fine, though I would like to see a better variety of soup selections. Right now, it’s just one bland type (for my taste buds at least) with dumplings.
There’s your normal rice, noodles and a couple meats. Flavor’s good. The temperature was a bit luke-​warm, but I wasn’t deterred.
I like that each table has its own sauce rack — restaurants underestimate the awesomeness of letting customers control the sauce, like at BBQ places.
If I go back, I’d like to try something off the menu to see if it makes me more excited. But for the cheap buffet price (especially in this area) of $ 6.95, it’s good. Not great. Just good.