Holy Basil Thai — Restaurant in Sydney

Very disappointing food, despite good Google reviews.

The Larb Gai salad had good quality chicken mince, BUT, no lime at all that I could taste. Kinda wrecks the flavour balance. Hot, yes. Salty, yes. Sour, NOT AT ALL. :-( Tastes like hot & salty chicken burger, not like larb gai. And the lemongrass (?) in it was crisp and straw-like, which is how lemongrass gets when it's a month or more old and all dried out. I've eaten lots of larb gai in 4 countries including Thailand. The flavouring of this one was by far the worst. Threw the second half in the bin immediately.

The Tom Yum Goong soup was the colour of a murky bottled grocer chicken soup or pale brown gravy (see photo). It looks nothing like the fresh, red-tinged soup with fresh herbs on their menu. When I put a spoon into it, you couldn't see any of the spoon below the surface of the soup. No tomatoes in evidence despite being listed as in the soup, but plenty of carrots which are gross when cooked, and were NOT on the menu because everyone knows Tom Yum soup doesn't have carrots in it. Due to murkiness, I'm concerned they cut it with milk and as someone who eats non-dairy due to allergies, I just threw that away as well.

A full waste of $42 or whatever it cost. It's the first time my food from any delivery service was so bad I threw it all out after tasting some of it and looking at the rest of it and not seeing the item I...

Such a cute restaurant and a hidden gem of the Artarmon business area. They have super-affordable meals for both lunch and dinner, which are also really tasty. I've had their green curry and egg fried rice and thoroughly enjoyed both. My boyfriend loves the pad kee mao as well as their money bags.

For lunch, they have a special of chicken, beef, pork or vegetable dishes (a select few) for $10 or those same few with prawns for $13. I think this is pretty good value for a cheap and tasty lunch!

The interior is lacking, but charming. It's like the old Thai place you'd go to with your family for a lazy afternoon meal. The service was great - staff were happy and friendly when I was ordering!

Thanks a...

Review on Restaurant Pricing & Inflation

Lately, restaurant prices have gone up, which is understandable given inflation and rising costs. However, holy basil is taking it too far—charging extra for the smallest things, like a garnish of coriander for $2 absolute ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!!

Staff are also very arrogant and rude!!

This kind of pricing feels less like adjusting for inflation and more like a blatant money grab. While customers expect to pay more for quality ingredients and fair wages, unreasonable add-on charges create frustration. Restaurants should be transparent and reasonable with their pricing instead of nickel-and-diming customers for...