Thai Basil

I really enjoyed eating here: I’d like to go back on day!

So I was all set to do my review of Thai Basil in Sunnyvale and lo and behold I find out this place is closed. I’ll still do my review anyways haha… we never know it may re-​open :). I went to this place twice during a business trip up in Sunnyvale and quite enjoyed their flat noodles. Their noodle portions were big and I was pretty stuffed by the end of the meal. I believe I also tried their curry chicken– that one wasn’t as a big portion but was still good.
I saw another Thai Basil close by to this location and so maybe that’s why they closed. I guess if I’m ever in this area again I’ll have to find another Thai place =/

They have an attractively priced lunch special. Dinner can get a bit pricey. Clean place with good service. They advertise that they won the Best Thai award, but that was a ages years ago. The quality has gone down over the years.
It’s a solid Thai pick if you live or work close by. But I prefer the other one.
Yes, there are two Thai Basils within a block of each other. Weird.

Yuck.
I work in a building within walking distance of this place; I’ve been five times now and I’ve never, at any point, finished my meal thinking that this food was even average Thai.
I concur with the other reviewer that says it tastes «off» relative to other Thai food. It’s hard to really describe, but I concur with the general sentiment; dishes here just don’t taste the same as I expect them to (I get most of my Thai food from Pad Thai Restaurant in San Francisco, which is considered to be a strong baseline for authentic Thai).
It’s disappointing, because I do like how quick it is. Ultimately, though, the speed is there for profit, not for your enjoyment; they want to turn as many tables as they can between 11:30 and 1:30 and will sacrifice quality to do so.
Really, REALLY annoyed with the «Best in Silicon Valley 2003» signs EVERYWHERE. I interpret this to mean that they haven’t gotten a single decent accolade in 5 years, which is about right given the quality of the food.

Now that the crazy construction has taken over, I guess this is no more. I think when they built this, their quality went down. They’ve finally taken over that bar next to the original locale on Murphy (I ate on one of the pool tables way back when once before they remodeled) and on revisit the food is a bit more cohesive. The prices are good but the portions are really small and all my co-​workers and I were hungry a few hours later. Next time I think I’ll order two portions of the duck curry. 3.5 stars.

It’s a place I go when my friends or co-​workers want to go, but if I had a choice to go on my own I probably wouldn’t. It’s just ok thai food nothing special, just reasonably cheap and in the area.

My only gripe about going to Thai restaurants is that they don’t serve enough rice. I mean, come on, I’m asian, I NEED my rice. And it’s a bit frustrating when you have to pay a little bit more for some extra rice. Damn.
This place is no different. But compared to other Thai restaurants that I’ve been to, they seem to be rather fast, probably the fastest I’ve seen a restaurant pump out an entrée. Usually, I get kinda skeptical, since it’s pretty obvious that they don’t make it fresh and that it just comes out of a pre-​cooked pot or something.
But compared with some of the other restaurants that I’ve been to that provide speedy service, they seem to be on the mark with the quality. And if you’re craving some Thai food and are in a hurry, this is pretty much the place to go.
On a side note, get the Duck curry. It’s THE BOMB.

PAD-​SEE-​EW mmmmm my favorite. Screw the Pad Thai! jk.
I definitely recommend this place for Thai food lovers. The service can be quick and I can see how it may come off as them trying to hurry you out (it very well may be the case, esp during lunchtime.) But overall, I’ve never had bad food here– i’ve even taken my mom here for lunch once and she loved it. She ordered the green or yellow chicken curry If I remember correctly. I always get the pad-​see-​ew with Pork. My friend got me hooked on it… and it’s not the usual Pad Thai order. Oh, and their Thai Ice-​tea is wicked.

First thing off, they tried to serve us immediately. I mean within 3 minutes of us sitting down. They asked us about 4 times if we are ready to order. I guess it was lunchtime and they wanted to quickly turn around.
Food was pretty good, I had some spicy tofu noodle dish. Being a veggie, its nice to have the option of having tofu available as a choice.
Would recommend it, although if you can go outside of the busy lunch period, its probably worth it.

Tons and tons to write about this place, I’ve been here so often.
There is some good food here, but for now, lemme just a couple of quick comments:
— The Pad Thai tastes too much of ketchup… But I love it anyway, hehehe. I think I may have even mentioned this when reviewing another Thai restaurant.
— The sour soup with seafood in it (dunno what it’s called) is a must order whenever coming here.
— The Yellow curry is hot hot hot. I love it. Always sweat like crazy when eating this dish, especially since I hardly eat any rice so there’s nothing to soften the spicy’ness.
More to come.

I went to this place and ordered some teriyaki kind of chicken plate hoping it wouldn’t be spicy. The waitress told me it would be mild. When I ate the food it was sweet and spicy at the same time. it was decent but I really hate spicy food and I was sweating like a dog in front of my boss and co-​worker from the spice. Because of my experience at this place I’m not a huge fan of thai at all and I’m very reluctant when eating some of it.

Another very good Thai restaurant in downtown Sunnyvale. We’re drowning in them over here.
My recommendation: the awesomely-​named SUPREME FOREST! It’s a thick peanut sauce over rice and chicken.

Pretty good thai restaurant for lunch. I usually get the tom yung soup and bamboo chicken. Service is pretty swift too.

Thai basil is probably one of the best southern Thai food Ive eaten in the south bay. Very flavorful food with decent prices however food proportions are questionable. Tom Yum’s, Pad Thai’s and Pad Si Hieu’s are a must. The service is great and the owner (Mr. Jua) is super friendly. Its a pretty low key place and kinda hidden in the cuts of the town and country village. Its an interesting set up however a little bland if your in your early 20’s and wanna bring a date.

I consider myself somewhat of a Thai food fanatic (Indian food is a close second). After eating at Thai Basil once, I realized something was a little «off» and decided I had to visit again to figure it out. I’ve been to Thai Basil for lunch several times since, and I have to say this place is a little overrated. The food service is speedy but variety and quality suffers.
No doubt about it… This place is lightning FAST. On my third visit here I timed the delivery of food to my table, and it was just under 3 minutes after ordering. And it’s no wonder, with an army of «chefs» in the kitchen (I counted at least 6), a super-​streamlined menu (only 17 items, including soup!) and «paint-​by-​numbers» cooking. What do I mean by that? Just this: with such a small menu, all the components are prepared separately ahead of time. When the «chefs» get an order they go into factory assembly mode according to the formula for that dish: (A). Put rice on plate; (B). add pre-​cooked meat/​veggie item #2; ©. cover with pre-​prepared sauce #1; (D). add prepared garnish #6; (E) Serve. No wonder it’s so fast.
But this system has one main drawback: lack of variety. Do you want panang chicken? Sorry, only the panang beef formula is offered. And they don’t have green curry vegetables, my favorite Thai dish, though it’s on the menu of every other Thai restaurant in the bay area. The other drawback is the meats and veggies aren’t simmered in the sauces for any period of time (sometimes they miss with sauce coverage and the resulting uncovered meat is bland, bland, bland).
So when you think about it, what you are really getting here is «Thai Fast Food.» The prices are actually higher than fast food but are good for sit-​down Thai food. My meals averaged from 8 – 9 bucks, including tip. Would I rather have this than McDonalds? Absolutely! But this is a Thai restaurant, and so its rating is in comparison to other Thai restaurants. And the Old Siam in Sunnyvale has much better food at the same price. I’ll go there instead, thank you. Thai Basil still gets 3 stars. mainly for speed and price.
Side note: Apparently the SJ Mercury News voted Thai Basil «The Best Thai Restaurant» at one time. I know this because of all the signs, posters, leaflets and window stickers posted EVERYWHERE here. You can’t get away from them. Kind of annoying. I know plenty of good restaurants who maintain large, loyal followings without having to constantly remind their customers of their accolades.

This was one of our favorite haunts to go to when my friends and I needed to escape work. The food was good and the prices were great for the portion sizes. The honeymoon ended when other people in our group started going there on their lunch breaks and we no longer could go out of fear that the ear’s of our coworkers not seated at our table would burn the whole time. «Yes, we were talking about you!»
Alas, a different restaurant had to be found, and ASAP.
Not too sure what the fate of this location will be with the Town & Country reconstruction because the whole place looks like a ghost town because tenants are leaving en masse.

good place for thai food. the price is right and the service is typical large establishment thai place. they have yummy pad se hew and delicious seafood soup. worth your time and money and the new location didnt make the food go downhill.

Spacious interior, appropriate for large groups. I was sweating bullets (I asked for my kang ped yang — duck curry with spinach, pineapple, and coconut milk) to be hot and they did it!) — my ears tingle when I think of it! In fact, my curry was so insanely hot my vision was blurring and I had to take off my shirt.
Recommended!
UPDATE: Heard this place might be closed now… can anyone confirm?

This used to be my favorite Thai place, but the quality of the food has gone way down. The pad thai is drenched in tomato sauce or paste and sugar because it’s super sweet and soggy. I like mine dry. They don’t make things according to your level of spiciness because I have to add many spoonfuls of chili flakes to even get any heat. It’s better when it’s cooked in it. Thai iced tea is super sweet too. The vegetable stir frys are bland. My other favorite here was the eggplant with pork and basil, but I haven’t ordered that in a while. Just sad, but I already found my replacement and it’s Krung Thai (the one behind Valley Fair). Thank god.

Picture this. Imagine that you are a baseball player and you are playing in the World Series. It’s the bottom of the 9^th inning, bases loaded, and your team is down 3 – 0. You are the potential game winner. The pitcher throws you a fastball and *BAM* you hit it deep into left field. Going… going…foul ball. The very next pitch is a strike and the game ends on a somber note. This is the experience you’ll get at Thai Basil. There are no home run dishes at this establishment. The dishes that I consumed were nasty and unseasoned. The curry beef, pineapple fried rice (wtf?), sweet and sour pork, and other dishes that I can’t pronounce were all disgusting. Even my best friend recognized that I didn’t enjoy the food. I usually eat everything off my plate, but this was an exception.
The reason that prevented this rating from being 1 star is the Asian lady who spoke perfect English… so perfect, she puts my English to shame. This may be irrelevant to the review, but her impeccable smile made me feel warm. For the dessert, you might stay away from the fried bananas with ice cream… just a fair warning.
All in all, the prices were fair, the service was average, and the food was poisonous. Beware.