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One review for Basil Leaf Kitchen & Sports Lounge
All Reviews
Basil Leaf Kitchen & Sports Lounge
1/27/2010
At least two other restaurants have occupied this location, which has been renovated, renamed, and under new ownership. The place is huge and spacious, with lots of tables and booths. The lounge area is in the middle of the establishment, and is almost like a private room with lots of comfy chairs, a flat-screen television, and also a lot of space.
We dropped in the day after Basil Leaf's grand opening. The menus still smelled fresh from the printer. You will find a good variety of pretty much everything you would expect in a Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant, like pho noodle soups, noodle dishes, sizzling platters, and lots of different combinations of noodles, rice, vegetables, and meat (particularly beef, chicken, and pork).
I decided to try a beef noodle soup, the most basic kind of pho and one I always like to try early on when I am checking out a Vietnamese restaurant. I ordered it with medium well beef. The bowl brought to me contained an ample portion and tasted incredible. It was perfectly seasoned. The beef had already cooked through, but this to me is not a big deal (although I know it is to some picky pho lovers). What mattered more to me was that the beef was lean, tender, and plentiful.
My companion ordered a stir fried beef and noodle dish. The first thing we noticed was how large the plate was. It was huge! He could barely finish.
We started our meal with green onion cakes, a favourite appetizer of mine in Asian restaurants. They were light and crispy, with just the right amount of salt. One of the best onion cakes I have had in a while. They even brought it before our meal, and waited until we were finished before our mains were brought. Quite often I end up eating my onion cake for dessert.
The service was attentive, almost excessively so. The restaurant was mostly empty as it was not quite lunchtime yet and I think the staff needed something to do. We were brought takeout menus, repeatedly asked how everything was, brought a refill of tea, and a sample of kimchi, which was a nice touch even though I am not a huge fan of the spicy, pickled cabbage.
I expect that as word gets out about how great the food is at Basil Leaf, along with the service and reasonable prices, that it will become a popular Chinatown destination. I certainly hope so.