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this place is GREAT for their BASIL FRIED RICE...or their 2 or 3 item lunch special - which usually includes pad thai
- 1 star cuz the prices have risen since my freshmen year (more than a 10 percent increase BOO)
Thai Basil is one of two safe choices in the Asian Ghetto, the other being Gypsy's. The reviews here say that prices have gone up and quality down recently, but I haven't come enough to tell the difference in either.
I ordered #6, the Cashew Nut Chicken, for lunch on a Sunday. It costed $6.50, and came with steamed rice. There were onions and carrots mixed in with the cashew nuts and chicken. Portions were satisfactory, and the taste was good, although the amount of flavor in the different ingredients was uneven. It also wasn't healthy, but I didn't feel that bad because I didn't eat a lot of the oily-looking sauce.
The service people don't speak the best English, but they are nice. Food does take a little while to come out, though. I waited about 10 minutes with there not being a huge line when I ordered.
There are about ten tables inside the restaurant, each seating about four, but you can eat at the wooden tables outside. Be warned that, at least on the weekends, there is usually water on the table benches at lunchtime that you will need to wipe off with napkins if you don't want your pants to get soaked.
This place is a hair off the beaten path. It is hidden in the back of this deep covered area surrounded by other small restaurants. Judging by the 7 placards on the wall they have earned many awards and have been established here for over 10yrs.
I had the Tom-kha noodle soup with chicken. I was very pleased with this dish. Even though it was a coconut milk based dish it wasn't too over powering or too rich which i liked. The portion size was just right. Not too much to where you felt stuffed after being done and not too little to where you are still a bit hungry. Overall it was delicious good food at a great price!
An added bonus to being right down the street from Cal is that this place has free wi-fi and water!! I'm actually doing the review in the restaurant!! Cool huh?! Plenty of seating too.
My roomate used to get Thai Basil every other day.
He is the Thai Basil frequenter prototype -- Asian, not especially interested in change of food, price-conscious, portion-minded, and food-risk-averse.
This place is okay. That's about it, but there's much better food outside the Asian Ghetto.
The Cashew Nut Tofu is pretty good though. Try it if you come here.
Expensive, long lines, and a lady who's so rude you want to strangle her with a rice noodle...but the food is good. I've heard from thai people at Cal that the quality isn't that authentic but I grew up eating American style thai food - give me my pad thai with a bag's worth of C&H please!
They could definitely give you more per plate tho I feel like. Additionally, they don't keep fresh limes in stock and use limeade instead. I recommend their Basil fried rice, pad thai, pas see ew and pad kee mao.
o thai basil.. you have fed me well throughout my college years.. o i miss you so!
I came back here for dinner with a friend yesterday night. and the pad see ew was delicious!! I've mainly ordered their Pad See ew here thats why I had to come back to have a reminiscing moment with my favorite! I loved how thick the noodles were with full of shrimps.. Too bad they only gave me 3 broccolis......! On the side, I had my favorite thai drink of Thai Iced Tea. Nice, sweet, and milky! just like how i like it.. Good amount also!! If you ask them for less ice though, they will charge you an extra 25-50 cents....
Quick and fast for students! I am all for it! Good selections against the wall with few pictures! The lady at the front is very nice and understanding. Good amount of seats inside Thai Basil.. No AC though! but good luck finding spots in the middle of asian ghetto amongst all the students!!!!!!
The pad-see-ew was delicious. They're generous with the amount of egg and chicken they put in, and the flavor was great. It reminds me a lot of the char-kway-teow noodles that I get in Singapore.
Note: I need, need, NEED to find a good Singaporean restaurant in Berkeley.
Anyway, the service was friendly and the restaurant itself is clean and offers a good amount of seating. The portions are also pretty big, so I packed up my leftovers for lunch the next day. (But, typical me, I ended up eating it as a midnight snack that very same night.)
If you see a long line, don't go. I love this place, the Pad Thais is delicious, the Chicken Chow Fun is delicious. Everything there tastes good. If there's a line though, expect them to get your order and wait a loooong time. It could be 10 minutes, I've waited up to 45 minutes, and it can get even longer.
But it is delicious, it is cheap, and it's worth it if you have something to do while waiting.
The best Pad See Ew I've ever had. For that alone, I come back over and over again. I haven't experienced long waits for take out food like others have mentioned and I've been a frequent patron since 2007. So there are no complaints from me in that department. My only complaint is that their servings are getting smaller and smaller.
I order pad see ew most times I come here but once in awhile I like to venture out and try different things. Here's my recap of other dishes:
1. Pra Rama Chicken- YUM! better than tuktuk's pra rama chicken.
2. Pad Thai- I've had better and elsewhere. When I had this, I was disappointed and wished I ordered Pad See Ew.
3. Yellow Curry- Good. not the best I've ever had but it will suffice if you're craving curry.
4. Garlic Pepper Chicken- Hit and Miss.. sometimes the chicken is too dry or too salty.
5. Tom Yum Gai- Mediocre/ Good, If you feel like soup on a cold day. Don't expect too much because it's not exceptional. More mediocre than good.
Overall, if you're going to come here, try out the Pad See Ew and Pra Rama chicken. They're the most solid dishes here.
Part of the good ol' Asian Ghetto in Berkeley, a local favorite for late night eats and when too much brain power has been drained from hitting the books.
If you like Thai food, this place is pretty good. They're a little too salty and saucy, but if you like your food that way, you'll like it here. Prices are a little higher than the rest of the place, but I find Thai food is usually like that. This place isn't nearly as fast as the other restaurants in the Ghetto.
Greasy thai cuisine pretty much sums up Thai Basil. The food is good and the price is arguably right (except for $8 dishes of fried rice). Classics like pad thai and pad see ew are crowdpleasers, and the wait is usually okay despite busy lunch and dinner hours. They accept credit cards and phone orders, so that's a big extra in my book.
from my first year in college where i had to portion one dish into two meals till now where i can eat a whole pad see ew and get a thai iced tea =P, this place has been absolutely awesome. i can't think of another place that serves amazing pad see ew and thai iced tea. it's also interesting to see that the same ppl that have worked there and the changes it has gone through throughout the years. i absolutely adore this place!
minda heart thai basil/azn ghetto
For the last four years of my life, Thai Basil has deserved 4 stars. But I just went back for the last time and found out that they've downgraded the quality of ... just about everything.
The pad thai sauce is redder and tastes crappier than the old orange-colored stuff. Even the questionable meat got more questionable. The yellow chicken curry has also been watered down, and (maybe it's just me) now you get more carrots and potatoes than chicken. I am really disappointed because this was the best place in the Asian Ghetto hands down.
What's the point of the huge portions (yeah, I made two meals out of my $8 fried rice) if you can't wrap your mind around finishing the second half?
At least the pineapple fried rice is still decent.
I love eating here.
Its cheap.
Its fast.
Its delightful.
I used to work a few blocks away and I would go to Thai Basil multiple times a week.
My favorite dish is Pad See Ew.
I like that you can have it with no meat, and no eggs.
And it takes them no time at all to make.
I always recommend this place to all my friends.
As much as I love Stanford, the food there is bland and overpriced and all in all, kinda sucks.
After moving some of my stuff to Berkeley, I stopped by the infamous Asian ghetto to try some of their food and decided on Thai Basil. Synopsis: Somewhat fast, pretty cheap, and comes out piping hot and delicious! I'm gonna like food at Berkeley...
It's $7 total for a big a$$ meal that you can split between two, or get leftovers that last well. Although the portions have been getting smaller lately :( They also have free tea :)
Their pineapple curry chicken, thom kha soup, and this spicy green bean dish with chicken that I forget the name of are my favorites. I love that they have pics of the food on the menu.
On the other hand, their chicken is terrible quality, and the people are somewhat rude. The wait is not 30 minutes though; look inside, if there's five people in line you'll have a 15 min wait for your food, if there's more and you're in a rush, don't go.
To the haters: this is the best of Asian Ghetto, it's not a 5 star restaurant, it's a good deal.
One of the few places here that takes credit card. That in itself is enough to keep me coming. I would say their best dish is either the pad see ew or the basil chili chicken. The former is delicious flat noodles with chicken and broccoli, with a sauce that's more sweet than savory. Chicken tends to be a little dry though. The latter is pure delicious on a cold day - just the right amount of heat while being a little sweet. Maybe I have a sweet tooth. Either way, this place is good times.
Long waits are only a problem if you come during a normal lunch hour. During the school year, it will be empty at 11:59 and packed at 12:05 as everyone gets out of class. Time it like a starcraft pro.
My second favorite spot after Gypsy's in the Asian Ghetto. You gotta love the authentic grandma's in the back cooking with masks over their mouthes. The food's alright, nothing special, but it definitely is a good place to get some spicy food in the Berkeley area. The basil fried rice is one of my favorites on their menu, along with garlic pepper chicken.
This place is a little bit more pricier than the other spots in the Ghetto, and they usually take a little longer to get your food to you. If you want a better dining experience (sit down, no blums loitering, etc.), I'd recommend just going down the block to Thai House.
My friends and I rolled here for a quick bite before heading to the city. Durant food court is convenient and the variety of food works out well if you have a group of folks. It offers not only a variety of food, but such a assortment of smells:delicious food, bad homeless people stench and trash if you're lucky enough to get a table outside.
Thai Basil has ample indoor seating. I got the BBQ pork over a generous tray of rice. They were stingy with the sweet and sour dipping sauce though. Having spent the prior 3 hours in a vegan zone, the meat hit the spot. It's cool (and somewhat depressing) to visit these old stomping grounds when my metabolism was so much faster and my wallet so much thinner.
It's one of several restaurant in the Asian Ghetto / Durant Food Court that actually has seating. While it's good for a quick bite admist hardcore studying, it's not good for those who think they can bring their notebooks and cram while waiting for their order. The noise level here is usually pretty loud.
Friends used to complain that the size to price ratio here is not big enough compared to other places in the ghetto, but all the other places are slowly raising their prices and decreasing portions anyway.
Favorite: pineapple fried rice. the pineapple they use is really firm, which makes me believe that they use fresh pineapples, but they probably don't, in which case, does a good job of fooling me.
The chicken is not recommended here.
I understand the reasons for coming here during late night affairs in college. It gets old fast though...
+ Quick food
- Pad thai, noodles, and other rice dishes are way too oily n' greasy
- Place is not well kept
Final Call:
Those into Americanized Thai will enjoy the grub here.
-------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------
Munched on:
1. Pineapple fried rice
- Not enough pineapple, overkill on grease
2. Pad Thai (veggie and chicken)
- What happened to the veggies and chicken??
One of the better places in Asian ghetto in terms of food quality. The service is slow, and they always seem to argue with each other, but the entrees are well made compared to its neighbors in the area. I like the yellow curry and the basil chicken fried rice (the latter's portion is huge).
Basic thai dishes here
Always order pad thai #21
Size is quite large
Inexpensive
Long lines and wait
Ordered the pad thai ($7.25 included tax) and waited a really long time for my order. I noticed they're always super busy and can be rude to non-asian people. Not cool. But cheap $ and greasy food will last for 2 to 3 meals (CeCe size portions)! haha
There are soooo many eateries in that mini plaza!!! Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Middle Eastern, Italian, massive size donuts, etc.!! I wanted to try everything!!
My rule of thumb is if there's a long wait, it's gotta be aMAZing. Thai Basil however is an exception; it's only got decent food
During peak hours, Thai Basil always has a longest line in asian ghetto This is a very popular place to eat, but the quality of the food is not justified by the long wait. I suggest beating the rush or eating late at this place to save yourself time that can be better spent elsewhere.
My personal favorite here is Pad See Ew Chicken. For those who don't know what it is, it's kinda like chow fun. Slightly greasy but still enjoyable. Sometimes I'm still left hungry after eating it. Suggestions for other popular dishes are Pad Thai and Pineapple Fried Rice.
I could eat here every day of my silly life.
Favorites:
Tom Kha Soup (if you haven't had this, you'll thank me)
Pad Thai
Regular fried rice
LUNCH SPECIALS!
While I do think their chicken is alwwwwways over-salted and not the best quality, I do believe they have the best pad thai in Berkeley which is definitely a comfort food for me. Their bottle of fish sauce with thai chilis is great...I can't eat a meal without it sitting at my table. And their Thai Ice Tea is consistently good.
While the old uncle working the cash register will stare at you like you're the dumbest person alive and then yell at you when you try to use your credit card for anything less than $5, just deal. The food is worth it. And you can't beat the lunch special...sooo much food....soooo much salt....nom nom. Must limit my intake here before I start getting high blood pressure.
The food is quite greasy...but it's delicious. The portion is generous as well.
The Pad Thai isn't that great. Instead, I recommend getting the Pad Kee Mow or Pad See Ew (excuse the spelling if it's totally off). The combination basil fried rice is also really good!
so, admittedly, i'm the leftover queen.
i'll eat mine.
i'll eat yours.
i'll eat your friends' who are sitting at the other end of the table (who i haven't met yet) that are giving me the stink eye b/c i'm already eyeing their half eaten entrees.
am i ashamed?
of course not.
i WOULD be ashamed of myself if i threw away food that people would kill for on the other side of the world.
thai basil conversation:
me: can i have a box please?
female cook behind the counter: do you want one or two?
me: one, please.
(cook hands a box to me. i turn around, take five steps, turn back around, realizing that my spicy basil catfish w/rice (which wasn't spicy and was average tasting) will require a second box...)
me: actually, can i have another one, please?
cook (scowling): i asked you if you wanted two, and you said no!!
yeowch.
...the trials and tribulations of the leftover queen...
RELIABLE LATE-NIGHT THAI FOOD
I stop by here occasionally when I am craving late-night Thai food. I usually get my food to go because the small dining room is crowded, noisy, and bright.
Pad Thai
Tonight, I ordered the pad thai and I thought it was very respectable. A little stingy with the shrimp and chicken but it was not too sweet and had a little kick to it because I asked them to make it spicy.
They make the food to order so you may have a short wait.
College would not have been the same without Thai Basil. I fell in love with Thai food when I first came to town so I went back this past weekend to relive my college years.
The #5, extra spicy: Basil eggplant chicken never fails. A friend's friend put it once: "they must put crack in this stuff." As soon as the first bite hit my tongue, I had flashbacks of all the late night study sprees, fraternity hazing events, the drugs (the illicit kinds), the music (the fast kinds), the alcohol (the tequila kinds), the parties (the good kinds) ...
I never wanted to relive my high school years, but I'll never pass up a chance to recollect an experience I had in college. I'll come back here whenever I want to remember the good times and Thai Basil helps to solicit them from the deep regions of my polka-dotted memory.
Thai Basil is a Berkeley student standby. It can't be considered the best Thai food (because anything that's a standby can't be the best) but it works to satisfy the asian food craving. Most of the time I order 2 only the Basil Eggplant tofu or the Pad Kee Mao. Both are served in huge portions and the rice is never overcooked or too wet. The eggplant is by far my favorite dish served at the restaurant, but it can be a bit too greasy most of the time.
I went in for lunch the other day and had the lunch special, which consisted of rice and a choice of two items. I got the cashew chicken and the basil tofu though I have learned now that the majority of their meat dishes are usually overcooked and I would do better not to order the chicken in the future.
The flavors are a bit too muddled and not distinctly Thai like I would hope. Even so, it serves well as a quick bit to eat in the middle of the day.
When I first came to Berkeley as a 17-year-old freshman, I was quite misguided. I thought that to get to campus, I was supposed to walk south on College. I thought that a boy kissing me meant that he must really, really like me. And I also thought that the Asian Ghetto was exciting and full of delicious places to eat.
Three and a half years later, I've managed to realize that none of the above is true. However, the one place I still come to in the Asian Ghetto/Durant Food Court is Thai Basil. It always promises heaping portions of satisfying, slightly greasy food at a reasonable price. When I do get lunch take out, I always opt for the lunch special -- $5.75 for 2 or 3 items (see photo: http://www.yelp.com/bi...). At dinner, I almost invariably get the pad see ew.
The wait here can get pretty ridiculously long, so I'd suggest that you program their number into your phone to call ahead.
Whenever I'm in Berkeley and I have a spare hour and half I go here. You really need patience to eat here especially during the school year. Basically it's guaranteed that your wait is gonna be around 30 minutes long even for just Pad Thai and on top of that this place is cramped there isn't enough seating for all the people who want to eat here. And when you do get a seat (lucky) you can care less about personal space cause theres gonna be tons of people up in your cooch sitting wayy to close. The food itself is either a hit or miss, I've had some delicious dishes on the other hand I've had some friends who think otherwise.
let me make this short and sweet so you can quit reading this and you can get your ass over there to try it!!!!
BEST PAD THAI EVER. EVER. (They have plenty of awards to back this up, plus me and all my friends who eat pad thai on the reg in and all around the bay area agree---their pad thai is SOOO GOOD). It's cheap, slightly sweet, has all the right flavors--basically perfect.
My two other top favorite dishes are the pineapple fried rice and ***THE PINEAPPLE CURRY CHICKEN***. Even if you are not an avid curry-lover, or have never tried it before--this dish is the best place to start! I've already converted some of my friends who said they'd NEVER eat curry, and they all say this dish is delicious! It's spicy (from the jalapeno and spices), doesn't have too strong a curry flavor, is complimented by the sweet pineapple chunks and the sauce goes perfect over their fluffy white rice.... YUM-O!!!
(ughhhh, I just made myself hungry writing about it!!)
For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat (PAD KEE F---IN MAO FTW);
I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink (not really, those small-ass plastic cups hold like one shot of water); I was a stranger, and you
invited Me in (ehh, the interior's alright);
Yes Thai Basil, yes. Not ashamed to say this was my favorite place in all of Asian Ghetto. Their food has consistently been the most delicious and flavorful out of all the places, which try to mask their averageness with cheap prices, oversized portions, or lots of unnecessary sauce. Thai Basil just gives you what you want, the way you like it.
There have been many nights when I bring back a bag of Thai Basil food and it's fantastic when I get it home and dig in. There is little wait for your food aside from the long lines of students who might be in front of you, but again, long lines are usually a good sign people. If you're willing to wait during the busy periods, you won't be disappointed.
Oh man, Thai Basil has some bomb food.
The food always tastes great, and the price is set right for any college student, which means its right for the working class too. Everything I've ordered here has been pretty good, except one thing: the tom yum. I wasn't pleased with their soup at all, but everything else is right on.
good service + good food + good price = good times.
I think you'll find better quality Thai food at other places, but Thai Basil is good because you get a hefty portion of decent food for a reasonable price.
I always choose between the following (from my fav to almost fav):
- Pad see ew
- Combination fried rice (really good if you ask for it extra spicy!)
- Pepper garlic chicken
- Pineapple fried rice
I really think the bad outweighs the good when it comes to Thai Basil. I know it's a perennial "Best of Berkeley" and the front window is flooded with Yelp stickers, but hear me out.
Good: Flavored fried rices (Basil, Pineapple, Curry) are very unique and filling. Also, I'm not usually a fan of pad thai but this place really pulls it off pretty well. Finally, the thai iced tea might be the best in berkeley.
Bad: Service. If they forget something, good luck trying to communicate to people with broken english in a noisy atmosphere. I remember I ordered a lunch special with eggplant tofu and cashew nut chicken. They gave me eggplant tofu and yellow curry for some reason. After about 5 minutes of deliberation, they TOOK OFF THE EGGPLANT TOFU and replaced it with cashew nut chicken. Frustrated, I just left and vowed not to come back.
Worst: The pad-see-ew, my favorite classic thai dish, is absolutely terrible here. What's with the bean sprouts? The flimsy, stuck-together noodles that don't absorb the sauce? Where the hell is all this grease coming from? IMHO, you can't have a good thai restaurant without good pad-see-ew.
The thai food in Berkeley isn't leaps and bounds above other places, but I'd say there's a pretty high standard. I recommend trying everywhere out for yourself and I think you'd agree that Thai Basil isn't as good as it's raved about.
Can't really complain. Inexpensive and delicious. Their pad see-ew is amazing, and whatever my friends get is always well-received. Their egg/spring rolls come with a wonderfully sweet (albeit heavily artificial) sauce. Unlike some reviewers here, I've never had them get my order wrong. The solution to this problem -- not guaranteed to be foolproof -- is to give them both the number AND the name of the dish so they'll have two chances to get it right. Easy enough. As for the wait, it's not impossible by any means (ten to fifteen minutes), but you might want to call ahead if you can.
You know that "delicious and comforting" feel about their food? It's called MSG, and lots of it. I saw them haul in a fifty pound bag of the stuff and considered whether or not I should continue eating there. There was really no choice, though; the MSG was too irresistible to quit. Like me, you'll keep coming back for more.
I only recently tried Thai Basil for the first time and am now incorporating it into my regular lunch rotation. What I have ordered off the menu has been flavorful and fresh, and the lunch special - while obviously less fresh - allows you to try a variety of things and is a pretty good deal as well.
I'll admit that 4 stars is a rating that may be partially inflated as a result of comparing Thai Basil to other places in the Telegraph corridor, many of which I can hardly tolerate anymore. But I think that's fair; why compare it to the best sit-down Thai places? If you're near UC Berkeley's campus, want Thai food, and like the idea of sitting outside to eat it, this is the place.
Neighborhood: UC Campus Area
Category: Thai
Neighborhood: Downtown Berkeley
Category: Thai
Neighborhood: North Berkeley
Category: Thai
Neighborhood: UC Campus Area
Category: Restaurants
Berkeley, CA
Category: Thai
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