Thai Basil

UPDATE: 2 weeks later — Tried two other dishes
Pad See Ew: Edible, but nothing to write home about. Everything was a little dry starting with the noodles and onto the chicken.
Green chicken curry: Also edible, but nothing to write home about. Chicken is dry and the dish itself is incredibly plain. Other than chicken and curry sauce, they include one soggy slice of eggplant. No red peppers, even though it’s on the menu.
I’ve downgraded Thai Basil from 4 stars to 3 stars

Came here for lunch. Prices are fair on the lunch combos which comes with a spring roll and soup but portions on the mains are on the stingy side. Food was great, very authentic Thai taste. But not sure if it was just our table or if it was happening to others as well — the place seemed to be infested with small flies. I usually just swat them away subconsciously and don’t mind much of them, but I found myself to be doing more swatting than eating while I was seated. And it’s –5 degrees outside! If this is happening in the dining area, I don’t know how I’d react if I were to see the room where my food was prepared.

Not impressed. The food was OK not great. Massaman curry was good with chicken. The fish cakes were tasty and the mango salad. The Basil chicken was OK not awesome. Garlic beef wasn’t good at all. But worst of all was the service. It was horrendous. The slowest service I have had in a long time. Just too frustrating.

I love this place. I was first introduced to Thai Basil by a friend of my husband, and since then, I’ve been in love with their food ever since. The restaurant is nicely decorated. The food is what keeps me coming back. I love their curries, especially the Panang (coconut milk and peanut based) curry, Massuman (which traditionally has beef and peanuts as well), and their red curry, which tastes delicious with chicken or prawns. I noticed that they have red curry duck but have yet to try this. Their mango salad is delicious, with crispy onions. My family and I quite like the eggplant and tofu dish which has a nice basil flavour to it.
During my visit this evening we had red curry chicken and shrimp pad Thai. The noodles of the pad Thai stuck together more than I would have liked but at least they were not oily and the prawns were perfectly cooked. For these 2 dishes and a side of rice, our dinner cost $ 31. Well worth it when I felt I wanted to drink the last of the curry sauce after we ran out of rice!
We will definitely be back!

Are here two times and both experiences were below expectations especially compared to their downtown location. We ordered their pad Thai and it was poorly made, overly wet with too much runny sauce, noodles were overlooked, flavour was bland. The biggest disappointment is there satay beef skewers, this was my favour and a must order for appetizer everytime I visited this restaurant downtown. But this location over cooked it, the beef was chewy and tough.
We made reservations prior to dining there for the second time for me to give it a second chance. The restaurant was busy during my second visit but not enough nor good enough reason for inattentive staff to be standing around chatting amongst each other and missing our waves. Tables around me were getting noticeably upset and annoyed, as was I.
Won’t be visiting again, this used to be my favourite Thai restaurant and for those that may have read my Bloor street location review may have noted that I’ve visited this restaurant over 30 times there. But this has been a very very disappointing location.

Overall — 4.0÷5.0
My favourite uptown spot for Thai curry dishes. Also can’t go wrong with the BBQ Pork Neck appetizer! Service is also quick and courteous. The décor is also classy with various Thai elements and low lighting.
Haven’t tried any of the other rice or noodle dishes so I cannot vouch for it. Some folks may find their curry portions a bit small but I find it just great if you couple it with an appetizer or two.

Been here about 3 – 4 times now, usually just to satisfy my Panang Curry and/​or TomYum soup craving. they make it pretty well, with just the right amount of spice and sweetness for both.
the atmosphere is nicely rounded out with cultural décor, but it does get pretty loud as the tables are close together. the service is decent. when you can get some. it’s pretty hard to flag someone down since it gets quite busy during dinner time.
all in all they get the job done, and I always leave full and happy. :)

Great décor but definitely not authentic Thai. I’ve been to Thailand several times and the food wasn’t even close to what I’ve tried in the past. Also the service leaves a lot to be desired.

Located in a plaza on Major Mackenzie, Thai Basil is not difficult to find. There are plenty of parking spaces here.
When we came in, it was decently filled, but we still were able to get a spot in the restaurant. I love the decoration of the store — it’s really Thai styled, but not over the top Thai style. Their Thai iced tea is delicious, definitely worth trying.
Food prices here are less than $ 10​.My friends got the curry with rice, which was actually had delicious authentic taste. This was served separately, so you are able to choose how much curry you wanted to add — if it’s too spicy, you add a lot less.
I got the pad thai, and unfortunately, it was one of the worst pad thai’s I have ever had. The pad thai was much more sour than usual pad thai. I felt like they added less sugar to mix in the taste. DO NOT COME HERE FOR THE PAD THAI, but come here for the rice and iced tea!

2.5−3 stars. Food is 2.5 stars. Décor and atmosphere is 3 stars. Multiple flies around our table, doesn’t feel clean. Food crumbs all over the floor.
Pad thai — tofu was horrible, has a weird taste as if it were stale. Flavour was lacking, overall a very bland signature dish. Chicken was tender.
Tom Yum noodle soup with shrimp — flavour was okay, noodles were bloated, shrimp hd a fishy taste. Both dishes were not served at optimal hot temperatures.
Demographics — mostly caucasian, minimal asian. Dimly lit with background music. Will not return.

Tried this restaurant on a Wednesday night with a party of 6. My first impression was that the décor of this restaurant is very nice, and the ambiance is definitely on the comfortable to romantic side. good for a small party of friends or even a couple.
Now onto the most important part which is the food. The restaurant i find has very up and down in terms of food some good and some bad.
The first dish we tried was a the crispy shrimp/​seafood. This dish was by far the best one they had, as the sauce had a very good flavour and texture, just the right amount of sweet and salty.
The Second Dish to arrive was the Green Curry Tiger Prawn, this one was very disappointing as the green curry itself to begin with was not spicy at all, and also the «tiger prawn» was not tiger prawn as advertised but rather regular frozen shrimp. if the restaurant charges more for tiger prawn and advertise as such, they should provide tiger prawn at the very least. and if you were to cook it curry it is supposed to be you cook the prawn separate with marinated to get the flavor before you put it in the curry to soak it in.
The Third Dish was Pineapple fried rice. This dish was average, the food had good presentation value, however the flavour was not better then other thai/​viet restaurants that serve the same, in fact you could tell there was not much effort spent putting the right spice into the rice.
The Fourth Dish was Smoked Duck, which was not only small in size, but also defeated the purpose of smoke duck, as it had way too much sweet sauce on it, and you cannot taste the smoked part if there was any at all. at the price of 14 something they charged pre tax you expected a better portion at least or better quality one or the other.
The Fifth dish was the baked seafood, which was actually kind of nice, it was placed in a coconut and a thicker richer texture, the flavour was actually pretty good, and the seafood was plentiful inside. it was a very creative dish and the presentation value was nice.
The Sixth Dish we did was the steam fish, which was fillet, the fish was largely tasteless, although it looked good when presented, you can tell it was done properly.
The Last we went through was Desert, we had the tapoica desert, which was nice and simple which was tapoica with a coconut based cream.
Overall i feel this restaurant has a lot of potential, as it has a solid menu of choices, and the environment is nice, however many dishes had flaws in them. I believe a focus on the cooking and marinating is necessary to improve

This is a restaurant that you go to for the authentic Thai experience rather than simply to fill up your stomach till it hurts.
Surprisingly their prices are reasonable and many of their lunch combos are under $ 10. Portions are small through. The soup bowl is so tiny I thought it was dipping sauce for the spring roll. I assume it’s their culture.
Wonderful service. Clean, spacey restaurant with extra fancy décor. You should totally take a girl out here and show her how cultured you are.

I keep coming back to Thai Basil. There don’t see to be many Thai restaurants in the 905 area so j can’t say this is my favourite, but it probably would be.
This time I tried their Thai Iced Tea, Friend rice baked in young coconut and baked seafood in red curry. Curry here is always delicious and flavourful. Slightly spicy with hints of sweet creaminess. No flavour overpowers one another and instead compliment each other very well. Whether this be red or yellow curry, it is always delicious. Not to thick and not too runny.
The fried rice in coconut was also delicious. The rice was fried with coconut juice and also strips and chunks of coconut meat/​flesh. It was aromatic and sweet tasting.
I can’t wait to go back and try more!

I really like this place, it is my favorite Thai restaurant in north GTA. They have great selection of curries, very good tom yum goong (my favorite soup), and for non-​adventurous their pad-​thai is quite good too. My favorite dish there is smoked duck with tamarind sauce — yummy!
Rating is 4 stars because of service, I’ve been in this place like 10 times but rarely seen smiles on waiter’s faces and often didn’t even get «thanks» and «good by» after paying the bill (despite leaving good tip). Yet, the food is good so I come back again :-)

One of my favorite Thai Restaurants. The service at Thai Basil is great, friendly staff and food comes quickly. We came here for a family dinner and ordered Chicken & Beef Skewers, Pineapple Fried Rice with Shrimp, Papaya Salad, Chicken Pad Thai and one of their Curries.
The Skewers were nicely flavored and not dry at all. Came with a nutty dipping sauce.
The Green Papaya Salad was a highlight. I don’t like papaya but this one was a really refreshing and light appetizer. It also had a fair amount of spice to give it a kick. ⁵⁄₅
Pineapple fried rice was pretty standard but overall tasty. The rice had a mixture of pineapples, shrimp, ham and raisins. The raisins were pretty interesting but it worked for me ⁵⁄₅
Chicken Pad Thai was pretty standard, it was a bit greasy to me but still tasted pretty good overall. 3.5÷5
We’ve been coming here every once in a while and the food has always been consistent. Highly recommended for those who have never gone.

I had dinner with a couple girlfriends who have been here several times and loved it. Typical Thai food. It was decent. I ordered the papaya salad and spring rolls. It was decent nothing special, I wasn’t a fan of the papaya. should have stuck with the tried and true mango salad. The spring rolls were good though.
My girlfriends had the Chicken Pad Thai and Chicken shrimp to go. They enjoyed their meals, they gave their meals a 4.5÷5. I felt it was more of ²⁄₅ so I gave them an overall score of ³⁄₅. The one nice thing was they were really quick with their service.

This place is very nice! Tastes great, good seating, lovely staff, and the décor is beautiful! Very authentic and very delicious. It’s definitely one of the top Thai restaurants in Markham and worth the drive for those of us who don’t live quite that close.
We enjoyed the pad Thai very much here. Usually, pad Thai is very mushy and sticky, but here it’s well made, doesn’t clump together and tastes great! I found their red curry very much too sweet.
The best part of dinner was their steamed Thai mullet. It’s a whole fish cooked in broth with a delicious array of vegetables and a spicy, refreshing sauce. :)
The only thing I don’t recommend is their smoothies or milkshakes. Nothing special, and the mangoes did not taste fresh. I believe they use a syrup base that I once used for bubble teas.

This place is by far my favourite Thai restaurant in Richmond Hill. Its use of spices make each dish unique and flavourful. My favourite dishes are its Banyan Shrimp Rolls, Thai Green Curry and Mango Sticky Rice. If you give these dishes a try, I assure you that you would not be disappointed.
Banyan Shrimp Rolls ($ 7.95):
Thai Basil’s Shrimp Rolls are fried to perfection. The crispy rolls consist of minced shrimp and ham. A generous dip in the plum sauce along with a squeeze of lime bring a sweet and tangy flavour to the rolls. Unfortunately, it only comes with four pieces, leaving you wanting for more as you eat your last bite.
Thai Green Curry with Chicken ($ 10.95):
Thai Basil’s Green Curry is rich and silky smooth in texture. It has a strong coconut flavour and a tolerable level of spiciness. The green curry includes eggplant, red pepper, lime leaves and basil leaves, which together enhances the overall appeal and flavour of the dish. A good paring with the green curry is Thai Basil’s Baked Fried Rice in Young Coconut ($ 13.95).
Mango Sticky Rice ($ 6.95):
Its black and white sticky rice is drizzled with a generous layer of coconut milk. If you are a fan of sweets, this dessert is a must try. The sliced mangoes compliment the sweetness of the rice and milk. It is a great final addition to your meal.
On top of everything that I mentioned, the customer service and décor are both amazing!

Loved this place. We came for a birthday dinner, there were 10 of us, noticed another table for 10 set up. though ‘oh nos… Gonna be busy and food will be slow, dang’.
Not the case, there must be 10 people working in the kitchen because we all ordered something different and everything came at once and was well cooked! The other table also ordered at the same time AND almost all the other tables were full!
Décor, loved it, when you first walk in there’s a great wall Stine thing fountain, dark wood with Thai touches classy casual
Noise level: there’s music playing its not very loud, to allow for conversation. Awesome. Note: they play music from all over the world not just Thailand.
With a full restaurant of talking people we could still all hear each other.
Food: what counts the most. I love my dish. I got the tofu with garlic and chilli. It was nice and spicy. Yum! Huge portions!
Staff: everyone was nice. No one smiled though, it was weird
Price: pretty reasonable for the amount of food you get.
All and all thumbs up. Will be back for sure!

Absolutely my favorite Thai restaurant in all of Toronto. I’ve been to so many different so called ‘authentic’ Thai restaurants and it doesn’t compare to this. I’ve traveled to Thailand and this restaurant is the most authentic.
All their food is full of flavor. I’ve tried their curry beef mussamun and their green curry chicken. My favorite dishes there! For some people green curry might be a little spicy for you but overall the flavor of the basil is not too overpowering but just enough to bring in the flavor of the curry.
Another one I have tried recently is the fish boiled in the soup. It has so much flavor of the lemongrass and the soup is so flavorful that you could simply drink the soup and taste the fish. Goody!!!
Desserts I love there are the mango and coconut rice. And I’ve also tried the black rice dessert but kind of too sweet for me. Another simple tasty dessert is the deep fried banana with mango ice cream! Mmmm mango ice cream!
A recommended Thai restaurant for sure!