Basil Thai & Bubble Tea

This godawful restaurant should be ashamed of itself. My wife and I walked in and even though there were other open tables, the server tried to seat us at the table closest to the front door where it would have been cold as hell. Fortunately, the other server right behind her asked us if we wanted to sit closer to the front, so we moved up front by the register. In hindsight, this may have been worse because I saw a rather «oily» server wiping his face with his bare hand and carrying on about his business, carrying water glasses actually, with his oily fingers near the rim, where your damn lips go. Someone else quickly brought us a couple ¾ full glasses of water with no ice, which is okay because I like water without ice, but it rubbed me the wrong way and was poor plate presentation; it looked like someone had already been drinking from the glasses, you know what I mean? Anyway, my wife and I both ordered the hot and sour noodle soup; she got tofu and I got beef. We also ordered two Thai iced teas without the bubbles. The server didn’t bother to ask us how spicy we wanted our meals on the pepper scale, fail.
The Thai teas arrived first and were subpar as hell… they tasted like the Thai iced tea version of Kool-​Aid (my apologies to Kool-​Aid, I wouldn’t expect quality if I drank your product) and they were four damn dollars, fail again.
My wife’s meal came out a good four minutes before mine and it was so heavily spiced and pungent that we both later commented that it smelled a bit like vomit. But she was hungry and so was I, and we only had an hour for lunch so I politely said it was the lemongrass and changed the subject. Not to mention, the tofu appeared to have been taken straight out of water, cubed and dropped directly into the soup before they brought it to the table; it had absolutely no flavor or texture. Next up was my soup as the server silently put it on the table. I wasn’t expecting USDA Prime cuts of beef, but it was like leftover cuts from McDonalds. I kid you not. I’ve had beef jerky that was more tender. I quickly ate as much as I could stomach so I could stop being hungry and accomplish this thing called lunch. Yep, it was a total fail.
But I suffered my own failure when I actually paid $ 28 dollars for lunch! I even tipped $ 4 because technically, the service was on par for a hole-​in-​the-​wall restaurant. $ 32 for one of the worst lunches I’ve had in the state of Indiana. That is messed up.
On the bright side, at 10:30 pm my wife still feels nauseous and terrible after eating there and wishes we had a little puppy to snuggle with… so maybe we will end up finally getting a puppy because of our experience. Maybe we will name him Basil? However, I won’t be back there and I definitely won’t be walking my puppy anywhere near there either after seeing the «beef» they serve.

No, no, and I don’t think so. It’s 1:30am and I’m still trying to swallow the cesspool that was served to me at lunch today. In a town where a professor has won the Nobel prize in Chemistry, this restaurant has concocted a bowl of soup that smells like puke.
On service: one of the several post-​pubescents that approached my table (the one that actually delivered the cesspool) was pink, swollen, and dripping with sweat himself. The menu said «tom yum base» in my soup but I think it was more like «broth-​of-​some-​young-​guy.» What is going on here? FAIL.

I doubt that I will return to this place. The prices are high ($ 2 for one small eggroll. Are they insane?) and the food is just okay. I can make my own green curry at home and not have to worry about the person who is making it coughing in it or not washing their hands after multiple bathroom trips.

Basil Thai is a long shot from «upscale». It sits in a strip mall right next to a Taco Bell, and it probably only seats about 20. We walked in and a young Purdue student came out from the back. Covering his mouth because he was eating something, he muffled «two?» And seated us. Exactly what I expected from the hole in the wall thai place. The food was delicious. We ordered two pad thai and two mango snow bubble teas. $ 14. It was cozy and casual, and I will definitely be returning.

Met family for lunch, and ordered the pad thai with chicken. I’ve never had pad thai that was doused with so much sauce before, and the sauce tasted like a store bought variety. It was gross. The green curry and eggplant that others ordered were better, but still not great. I wont return.

Serve good food every time! Thai food is probably my favorite cuisine, so I eat here a lot! Some recommendations are: the curry pineapple fried rice (trust me, it’s not sweet! It tastes divine!), any of the curries are always good, the special — bamee moo dang is really really good, and so is the pad kee mow and pad ga prow! I would totally recommend this place, just try to branch out and get something different instead of pad Thai!

This place has the best thai food! Try their curry and fried rice and if the menu seems overwhelming, ask the servers for recommendations! Our server James was really helpful. Oh yea the girl worker there is cute ;)

Came here again for lunch and ordered the moo ping and a peach green tea bubble tea. Again, I had good service and a great lunch. No complaints here. Bubble tea was good also.

honestly the best place for Thai food in the area. get the chicken pineapple fried rice, it is unbelievably delicious!!!

I’ve eaten here more than once. I generally order panang curry at Thai places. Here it was absolutely awful with over spicy seasoning and large chunks of dark meat chicken. Not my thing. Next I choose pad Thai since that’s pretty universal. It was also awful. Very vinegar and extremely sour tasting. Inedible really. When I told this to our server she actually argued with me that this is how pad Thai was supposed to taste. Finally she took the food back and removed it from our bill. The place itself feels dirty and is very small. The service is god awful. Their food is bad. Do not eat here.

The service is awful. When I order something to go, they don’t let you sit down and let you go away when some others come in. Feel assaulted. Ridiculous service!!!

I usually like my food spicy, just like my women. When it comes to the food, it’s a developed taste, especially to those unfamiliar with Thai cuisine. This is likely the reason that they explicitly make the point of «no-​refunds» at the beginning their menu. After 1 – 2 visits and finding the right food item and then getting the item again and again, one can easily develop an affinity for a subset of Thai cuisine and various item’s at Basil. The price is reasonable for being the one-​and-​only representative of Thai cuisine on campus. That aside, the service takes some hard-​swallowing and intermittent choking at times. Predominantly fronted by fellow college student employees of which half manage to maintain a seemingly self-​guided pretentious guise. Some of these kids just need to learn how to come correct, simple as that and this restaurant would easily be da sheet (great).\
Update:
They chill af now. Shet’s fire (great). Plenty of demunitive and neotenous asian girls to attract your attention, generic white guy. Quality is on point and consistant. Nothing more to ask for in the Thai category. C’mon, it’s the ONLY Thai place and, I would say, Asian place that does it right (on campus).

This is a small little restaurant, but I highly recommend the curry dishes. The atmosphere is very casual and simple. You pay after your meal.
I have tried the green, yellow, red and duck curry. My favorite is the duck curry. The value of the food is great, you will not leave hungry.

While on the expensive side, it’s proximity to campus makes this a regular joint for me. It can get very busy here and the seating is far from comfortable. The food, however, is always good: pineapple fried rice, spicy basil fried rice, and the catfish are quite good.

I was struck by the statement they have on the front of the menu that said something to the effect of «we won’t refund your money if you don’t like our food.» — I wondered «what kind of clientele have they had to need to put that on the menu?»
Then I tasted their food. It wasn’t just the worst thai food that I’ve ever had, it might very well be the worst *food* that I’ve ever had. My Pad Med Mamuang was flavorless and so salty that I couldn’t keep eating it.

My favorite place for lunch !!! I love their ever dish, Especially the hot & sour noodle soup and pad kee mow with very very spicy !!!:-)

I tried to really love their pad thai but I just couldn’t. I’m a huge fan of pad thai in general, so I’ve given Basil Thai’s a chance several times– It’s bland and missing flavor. They do give you a lot though, I always have leftovers.
My go to is usually the yellow curry with added shrimp. It’s pretty good and the best thing I’ve had there and I recommend.
I’ve had two other noodle dishes there– though I can’t remember their names– they were ok, not great. I left dinner feeling unsatisfied.

Went there yesterday. Had an enjoyable meal, food was pretty bland, I managed to shovel down their pad thai chicken ok. Their yellow curry is mediocre, although the potatoes taste like chemicals. However, that’s not why they’ve dropped so far in my eyes.
Listen up, I get it if servers are angry that people don’t tip sometimes. However, you shouldn’t be expecting much if someone orders between $ 5 – 7 bucks of food, especially when you’re bringing it maybe 10 yards from the kitchen. And it’s ok to fume to yourself.
But when you have to confront a customer (a lady friend of mine) and be like, «excuse me, but was our service bad? Because is there a reason why you’re not tipping?»
That is uncalled for. Especially if you say it loud enough for the whole restaurant to hear and push the credit card receipt towards the person to make them tip. What kind of service is that?!
It’ll take a LONG time before I forget this.
Service is ok, par for a hole-​in-​the-​wall. But if you’re hiring people that are like that that I’ve just met, I’m sorry, but no. Just no. Protip: Don’t pay with your credit card.

I absolutely love Thai food and this is the best thai restaurant on Purdue’s campus!
Pros:
— Pretty good food, I usually get the pad kee mao or the pad se ewe and both are delicious!
— Chicken spring rolls are soooo good (but for $ 2 overpriced)
Cons:
— Can get super crowded so sometimes you may not be able to get a seat
— No lunch specials
— Kind of overpriced
— The staff can be kind of rude if they are having an off day
Nevertheless, if you want awesome thai food, Basil is the best at Purdue!

3 – 4 for the food, 1 – 3 for the service (depending on which server you get).
Not all of their food is great, which is a problem because if you get something that is either not well cooked or doesn’t taste great you won’t be able to send it back. They have a strict policy against sending food back. Their menu says something like «we are very proud of our food and the way we cook it so we won’t accept any food back.» Really? Modesty, people, come on. This one time I had an awful mango salad there that was just drenched in some extremely sour dressing and clearly I just ended up not eating that night.
Some of the curries are okay, the pad thai is decent, but I usually get the pork with eggplant which I find to be pretty good. The only problem is that they put so much sauce that by the end its almost inedible because of all the salt added to the salt. The bubble tea is also pretty good, many times I just go in and take out the bubble tea.
As other reviewers have pointed out the service is a huge problem, probably stemming from very bad management. The owner sits in the tables closest to the counter and I’ve heard her sit there yelling on the phone or loudly making fun of customers that weren’t in the restaurant. One of the waitresses rolls her eyes (even when there is really no need) as she’s talking to you. The white blondish waitress is really the best to get. Also, I feel like this is the only Asian restaurant I’ve seen that you actually get treated BETTER if you are white. Personal observation. The food can be pretty good (specifically ask for less sauce) but bad management/​servers take out a lot of the joy of dining out.