Basil Thyme

I don’t usually bother writing reviews for businesses that already have a ton of positive reviews, but after having their Lisette lasagna, a delicious pile of pork, spinach, pasta and cheese slathered in a vodka sauce with plump tomatoes, for lunch today — I could abstain no longer.
Simply put, I have eaten lunch from this truck sporadically over the past three years and I have never —- do I need to put that in all caps?
Yes. Yes, I do.
…I have NEVER had a bad meal from this truck.
Basil Thyme is a couple bucks more than the average D.C. food truck (usually $ 12 for a lasagna/​pasta dish + small salad, $ 13 for an additional drink and cannoli), but it is well worth the extra duckets.
This truck came pretty close to disappearing a couple of years ago, so if you ever have the chance to sample their pasta offerings — I highly recommend that you do, because you never can be sure how long quality trucks like this will be around.

Sorry Basil Thyme, but since I was last at your truck things have changed for the worse. Not sure what’s happened but I don’t think this is the handmade lasagna that I had several years ago. It now has the heavy, glopiness of cheaper versions of tomato & meat-​sauce lasagna.

I went to GW for undergrad so I’m very familiar with the DC food truck scene. Brian and his crew have one of the best trucks around. The lasagna was always fresh and delicious. I remember I used to love the one with roast pork, spinach, and vodka sauce. The traditional lasagna is good, as is the black truffle and mushroom. The salad, while of very good quality, is awkward to eat in the same container as the lasagna and while the dressing was delicious, it would sometimes mix with the lasagna, which wasn’t my favorite. Cannoli flavors were always varied, creative, and tasty. Basil Thyme is one of the best!

Coming from an Italian family (Venetian). Not going to get this again because the sauce taste like ketchup with sugar. And the cannoli is was far too warm and with an odd texture, not much flavor either nor like traditional cannolis. Food it Italy is far better (obviously) and I know good restaurants in the area as well. This was a very sad disappointment.

Black Truffle Lasagna… awesome! The customer service is wonderful, reasonable wait for your food and huge portions for what you pay. You could easily share with someone or make it for two separate meals. Highly recommend this foodtruck.

Great, delightful lasagna with delicious, abundant fillings, great, pleasing, fresh pasta layers, delicate, rich flavors. I recommend getting the extra salad/​dessert/​drink option for just $ 1 more. Salad is top quality with no sugary dressing but a real, refined vinaigrette and fine arugula lettuce. Canoli dessert is crisp and quite pleasing. One quibble, the drink selection of coke etc. is unimaginative, I would add seltzer and iced tea to their line-​up. All in all a surprising delight.
At 2 Mass Ave NW on the corner of North Capitol on Wednesdays.

Holy cow, I’m so in love.
Typically I don’t frequent food trucks. Few have vegetarian options and most are overpriced for either the quality or quantity of food (sometimes both). However, Basil Thyme had three different options, and all of them looked fantastic. Admittedly, when I saw the cost my eyebrows shot up and I almost walked away. But a co-​worker owed me lunch and strongly recommended them.
Basil Thyme has the option to mix’n’match their lasagnas so I chose the most obvious of the vegetarian meals, «Maria», and something more exotic. It’s my personal preference to always order the most representative and popular food items when I try a new food vendor. If a taco, hamburger, or what-​have-​you isn’t worthwhile I’m cautious about getting something more adventurous. Especially since when I think of American-​esque Italian restaurants I tend to think of incredibly bland or lackluster meals.
The Maria lasagna IS basic, but their portioning of zucchini, cheese, and spices feels original. If the sauce was ever canned it’s not obvious. Their current special is a butternut squash lasagna with just the barest hint of cinnamon and sweetness. The goat cheese is surprisingly mild and fantastic. I expected the flavors to be overwhelming or too rich, but with a half serving it was just perfect. Not only that but that combination of flavors isn’t something you normally crave during the summer, but it complements their «Maria» lasagna really well.
Both lasagnas were well cooked and just the right level of warm when handed off to me. There was no excessive grease, no burnt ends, and no lukewarm spots in the middle. On the side was a spring mix salad with a light splash of dressing. My co-​worker pointed out that they have a combo option where for an additional dollar (one. dollar) you can get a drink and dessert.
For a DC lunch the price, combo or not, is fairly strong. There’s plenty of restaurants and trucks selling at the same price point with less food or with less quality in their servings. For vegetarians in particular; the options are slim and sometimes we’re charged as much or more for a scant meal. With Basil Thyme, I could easily eat half of the entrée and all my salad, then eat the second half the next day. That’s a win!

I got half of the squash (Calabasa) and half of the mushroom truffle lasagna (Giuseppe). Both were really yummy and pasta tasted fresh. I’m slightly more inclined to the Calabasa as the flavors were more satisfying, but both tasted great anyhow. Great food truck to get lunch from if it ever stops in your area! You won’t be disappointed!

Truly, it doesn’t get any better than this! I was «crushed» when they stopped coming to Union Station. I could have cried! Their offerings are in my view a «little bit of Paradise»! Sigh, I miss them so! Come back Basil Thyme, come back! My poor tummy cries out for your return!

On my recent trip to DC, I was near L’Enfant Plaza. Basil Thyme was out front one day and I decided to try some lasagna.
I’m a big meat eater but sometimes opt for vegetarian options if the flavors sound good. On this particular day, I decided to try the Giuseppe — black truffle lasagna with portobellos and gorganzola. the lasagna comes with a salad. I upgraded to a combo which added a drink and cannoli for a total of $ 13 or so after tax.
The portions seemed small to me. I was mistaken. I could only eat half my lunch that day. The lasagna was hearty and flavored well. The black truffle and portabellos were right on point. The gorganzola was not overwhelming, which I appreciated. The dish was dense and filling. The salad that came with it was forgettable as was the cannoli.
If I visit again, I think I’ll just get the lasagna which is well worth the price!

Amazing lasagna.
I got the Catena, chicken sauteed in a white wine sauce lasagna… delish.
worth ruining my diet for a day!

A good food truck marred by unfortunate inconsistency.
On a good day the lasagna from here is quite good: the noodles have a pleasant toothyness, the sauce isn’t so thick as to drown the noodles, and the cheese is nicely melted. On a bad day the lasagna is quite bad: the noodles are chewy, the sauce too thick and the cheese sits cold on top of the slice.
The variation is due both to randomness in the construction of the lasagna (i.e. varying amounts of sauce) and how much the truck heats up a given slice. The latter seems fixable but has persisted. The former is mystifying. I expect some inconsistency in food trucks due to the hurried and packed nature of the truck. But the lasagna is prepared ahead of time so the actual lasagna shouldn’t be a problem. Yet it is.
As you can tell, I’m risk-​averse for lunch. For the prices charged (and the relative lack of difficulty in pre-​made lasagna), consistency is a requirement.

Disappointed! Just came back from the food truck and my Giuseppe lasagna looks like it’s been sitting for hours and tastes like it’s been leftover from New Years. I’m only giving it two stars instead of one because I know what they’re capable of but this container of lasagna I have in front of me is just unacceptable for $ 13. Yep, the guy shaved a $ 1 from me but I didn’t say anything because I chalked it to him having to deal with karma and I figured after I enjoyed my lovely meal I wouldn’t care. Ugh, so disappointed. Happy Friday…

This is a really good food truck! I had lasagna, and it made me feel like Garfield. If the point of eating lasagna is to feel like Garfield, then this might be the best lasagna experience I’ve ever had.

Great food truck! I actually wasn’t planning on buying lunch today but I had remembered hearing great things about Basil Thyme. The special of the day also sounded amazing and I loved that each lasagna came with a side salad (so I could pretend it was somewhat healthy). The deal was sealed though when they were kind enough to give me a taste of the daily special (a butternut squash w/​goat cheese and sage lasagna) and their Lisetta (pulled pork lasagna). I loved both of them and luckily I did not have you choose because they have half and half orders!
In the end I settled on a half and half order with the special and Lisetta, a side salad and made it a combo, so I also received a drink (bottle of water) and cannoli! Definitely on the pricier side but they give you enough for at least two meals. The ingredients were also quality, something that is very important to me. I know it’s rare for Basil Thyme to come near by office so it was a real treat and I will definitely eat there again.

This was probably the best food truck I’ve had in the district thus far. Although it was also the most expensive, it was definitely worth paying the extra few bucks for the quality of this food truck. I ordered the Linda (traditional) lasagna with the side salad. And for the extra dollar, it was hard to resist making it a combo and adding both a cannoli and a soda.
The lasagna itself was fantastic, one of the best I’ve ever had. Granted, I don’t order lasagna very often, but still, I can’t remember one in the recent past that was better than this one. It was soft and literally melted in your mouth. Not over– or under-​cooked in the slightest. I’m not sure if you can describe lasagna as being tender but that is what it was. The salad that accompanied it was very good, not amazing but I did appreciate its uniqueness (tiny cucumbers, sliced cheese, and uncommon dressing) in comparison to most food truck salads. I didn’t particularly care for the cannoli though. The cream was sweet and tasty but the shell was bland and crumbled easily. Overall though, this food truck is a refreshingly delicious option among many food trucks that aren’t.

Brian and Malik know good lasagna. The Linda (traditional beef) and the Giuseppe (black truffle with Gorgonzola) are fantastic. And for $ 1 more you might as well get the meal with a drink and the daily cannoli, and then be prepared to sleep the resulting food coma off under your desk for the next few hours.
My only complaint is with the prices– $ 11 to $ 17 for lasagna and salad? Granted this is a lot of food by weight, but it’s mostly noodles. These guys must be making a killing, because suckers like me can’t stay away!

* Caution * Major food coma after consumption!
For indecisive people like me, I was glad the guy who took my order suggested that I get a half n’ half to try two different lasagnas. Bingo! I got Mama’s traditional AND the butternut squash lasagna. To play it safe, I got extra tomato sauce on the side so if the lasagna is dry, the sauce will save the day.
The lasagna was SPOT ON delicious. The butternut squash does not come with sauce so for sauce lovers it might come off as «dry» but it is still very good on its own. I was so into my lasagna that I didn’t care much for the salad but it was crisp from what I remember…

Overrated. COMPLETELY overrated. I was really excited to try Basil Thyme after seeing that it got 4.5 stars with over 200 reviews on Unilocal.But I was sadly disappointed with my experience.
The first time I attempted to go to Basil Thyme, I looked at their website for their update on where they would be located that day. They had a special location that day, somewhere in Foggy Bottom, so I trekked all the way out there to get this. They were nowhere to be found! I looked everywhere and looked at nearby blocks as well. Nope, they weren’t there. Disappointed, I got something else for lunch that day.
The second time I attempted to go to Basil Thyme, I finally found them in Farragut Square. I went up and placed my order and paid $ 11 (quite steep for food truck food, especially for the portion I got). I ordered the Linda (traditional lasagna with angus beef and red sauce). It came with a small side salad. First of all, the lasagna portion was tinier than what I expected for $ 11! Secondly, it was DRY. There was hardly any sauce or flavor to it. It tasted a bit like cardboard. There was nothing special or noteworthy about the lasagna or the salad. It was simple and not worth the money. I doubt I’d visit again.

I finally got to try Basil Thyme for lunch. I’m SO glad I work really close to the food truck area :)
All of Basil Thyme’s varieties of lasagna looked super tempting. I decided on the butternut squash with goat cheese because I’ve never had lasagna like that. All I can say is WOW. I’d hit up Basil Thyme every week if I ate carbs like that! You gotta try this variety. The lasagna noodles were cooked perfectly and I loved the extra chunks of butternut squash on top. I can’t believe I’m so in love with squash.
Anywho, I got the combo for $ 1 more which includes a drink and a cannoli. I opted for a bottled water and the cannoli of the day was pumpkin. I’m not even a huge fan of pumpkin, but I tried it. The flavor was great and it wasn’t too sweet. I DID have to save it for the next day since the lasagna was very filling.
So, there it is. Try the Basil Thyme truck. I plan to try every variety of lasagna they offer.