Sweet Basil — Restaurant in Brooklyn Park

Update 2025- Shortly after discovering this place, my S/O at the time had a bunch of dietary restrictions imposed, which meant I didn't eat here for a number of years, until recently.

It is, unfortunately, not as good as I remember. At all. The pricing versus portion size is a bit on the expensive end, but that could just be me being out of touch with how expensive eating out is in 2025. I received tofu instead of chicken in a recent order and it was rather awful -- and I enjoy tofu!

The food's still tasty, service is still great, but I'd take it down a half step below "nice casual sit-down restaurant" quality, but still above the likes of Leeann Chin.

I've made the mistake of not going here for the 10+ years I've lived nearby. What a little gem of a restaurant.

Pros: The staff is obscenely friendly Shrimp pad thai was delicious Pad Thai to go was moist and loose, instead of the very common dry and smashed/compacted into the tray Beef mekong curry was delicious Fair pricing!

Cons: Location. This place is weirdly tucked into a corner with little to no parking near the front door. Spice levels are "white people spicy" -- you can choose 1 through 5, we chose 3 not knowing what scale they use, and there was little to no heat in the dishes. Our 3s were below what I consider mild, we'll be ordering...

Food and service was excellent. I’m eating my leftovers as I write this review, and the leftovers are amazing too. There was three of us, we shared the appetizer sampler and then we each had a different entree. the egg rolls are probably one of the best egg rolls I’ve ever had and I am picky about egg rolls. Their cream cheese rolls instead of wontons were so good! I could eat those all day, every day. Chicken satay and fried dumplings were ok. One of us got the sesame chicken, which was good but it was unlike any sesame chicken I’ve had before, I normally expect a sweet sauce but this was definitely a savory sauce. Again it was good but different than I expected. One of us had the spicy red curry, which was probably my favorite and I would definitely order again! Then the third entree was spicy basil fried rice with chicken which was fantastic! You can pick your spiciness level which I love and there’s extra spice at the table that you can add. I highly recommend this place. So nice and clean, attentive staff, they even had a sign inside that said rude customers would get a $10 fee...

Updating my 2 yr old review: I haven't been back since. I met a friend & so hoped the food would be good. It came out fast so that was good. But ordered the same thing, Spicy Thai Chicken which is advertised as a stir fry & that's what it used to be. A giant dish of it but mostly fried rice, no sauce, very dry, 2 pieces of jalapeno for a large dish. Not spicy at all. Menu says served with jasmine rice. No. It was fried. Don't these people have the recipes from the past and have figured it out by now?? Still a 2 star place and it's too bad as it's within 2 miles of my house. Reading a couple reviews explained some things. This used to be my favorite place especially for lunch. Went tonight for dinner before going to a volleyball game at U of M so time was important. But not to them....it too 40 min for our food. We ate a little & left. 3 people came in for pickup. They all waited & had called ahead. And my food was so spicy I could not eat it. The same dish I have ordered since my 1st time there. Will not be back. I did not know original owners...