Green Basil Dimsum & Pho — Restaurant in Fairfax

Oh my, good job Green Basil for "bringing it back". The dimsum classics like tripe, chicken feet, hargow, turnip cake, sticky rice in lotus leaf, pork ribs, and shrimp cheung fun are simply exquisite.

Should dimsum be declared the 5th major food group? Yes. Is dimsum tastier than most all food options in the area? Yes. Should dimsum be considered for dinner? Heck yes. Is dimsum considered healthy meal? Yes.

The closest high quality dimsum is Tysons Corner which is just 10 miles too far between any dimsum joints. There are other dimsum places, namely, a place in Chantilly but it is slightly more expensive and quality is just slightly below Green Basil.

This new Green Basil under new management for about a year by new exciting young owners is a refreshing sight. The rumor is that the dimsum chef is from Hong Kong. And the icing on the cake is Green Basil makes dimsum available pretty much every day and doesn't stop on weekends before 3pm like most all other dimsum places. To be honest, I can't recall any time truly good dimsum is paired with good pho - what an original combo meal I might add. Dimsum at Green Basil is just perfect for any gathering, new happy hour trend, or simple business meetings in my book.

Good dimsum should be on everyone's bucket list, or deathrow meal. Green Basil is the lone beacon for top-shelf dimsum in the area so don't wait too long before Green Basil's dimsum chef from Hong...

I have been to this place three times now within a few weeks. That is how good this place is. I wanted to wait until I have had a few visits before finally writing a definitive review of the new restaurant. You can get Pho and other types of Vietnamese food anywhere in the area, but this place puts all of those to shame. Not only are there more meat and veggies and a very good quality and fresh Vietnamese noodles (noodles quality hugely determines the quality of the Pho), they don't serve you with overflowing soup, which is what many other places do in order to make the bowl look full. Just delicious!

Now let's go to the dim sum. You may think it is weird to have dim sum in a Vietnamese restaurant, but they are not serving you traditional Chinese dim sum, what they are serving you are their version of various selection of dim-sum style cooking of various menus: steamed spare ribs (Sườn Non), deep fried egg plant with shrimp paste (Cà Tím Dồn Tôm Chiên), Steamed Chicken Feet (Chân Gà), Sticky Rice with Chinese Sausage (Xôi Lạp Xưởng) to name a few.

During my first visit, I ordered my favorite (not pho!) - which is called Broken Rice here (Traditionally called Cơm Tấm Dac Biet). This has always been my go to food when I was in college in San Francisco. You get all the proteins and veggies in one plate.

My latest 5-Star recommendation in the...

Visited over the weekend and because they just opened you can tell they’re still trying to figure out their flow since service was slow and theres some miscommunication here and there.

I was a little skeptical at first because I never seen a pho AND a dim sum restaurant in one lol. Pho was pretty good (broth had a slightly sweeter taste than other pho places) but nothing new to me.

Got a few dim sum dishes to try and it definitely tasted more viet than Chinese. We got shrimp dumplings, shu mai, turnip cakes, and shrimp rice rolls. We would’ve ordered more but some of the menu items weren’t available yet. The shrimp dumplings had lemongrass in it which was different from what I am used to but still good. Shrimp rice rolls were a little over cooked so the rice was a bit gooey and broke apart easily. Our fav was the turnip cakes.

Also got the nuoc mam chicken wing appetizer. First bite I was confused because there wasn’t any sauce on it and realized the sauce was all on the plate. The sauce was really good and would recommend to toss the wings a little more before serving :)

Will come back and visit and update my review after the staff gets used to everything. Seems like a promising restaurant. I’m hoping that they do well because the previous restaurant at this...