Basil Thai — Restaurant in Federal Way

My first meal after fasting for 11 days straight because I fell ill and spent the night in the emergency room.

We stopped here on our way home from the hospital because I really wanted some Pho but we couldn't find a Vietnamese place. The did have soup so I opted for the Thai beef noodle soup to go with an order of gyoza. My wife had a meat and vegetable dish, I can't remember which one sorry and she ordered it at a level 3 spicy. She said that it wasn't spicy at all and my soup was very very bland with hardly any flavor. You would think that after not eating any food for 11 days that almost anything would taste great but not in this case. The gyoza was good however and the dipping sauce they gave me was probably the best part of the whole meal.

We got our food to go I can't attest to the actual restaurant and my wife just ran in and got the food so I'm not sure about the staff either. There were no complaints about them from my wife so I'll go out on a limb and say that the service was decent. I doubt that I'll ever go back and eat a meal inside now that I know how bland the food is. It's pretty far out of the way so as a traveler, you probably wouldn't even be near this place unless say, relatives of yours that you might happen to be staying with on your journey live nearby. I definitely wouldn't make it a point to seek this place out just for a meal on your vacation.

Thanks for reading.

Update: 2.19.16 One of the owners of Basil Thai contacted me both here on Yelp and on Facebook. (Nearly every review I post goes out in triplicate to Yelp, Trip Advisor and Facebook). She was apologetic about the flavor of our food and offered us a refund and asked us to let her cook for us again. As a customer, I really respect this and admire her courage to reach out. I declined the offer for a refund as I did eat the food but I wrote back and told her that I will make it a point to give Basil Thai another try and that I will ask for her and introduce myself so that she knows who I am. The other reviews from Yelpers are really good so maybe my tastes are just vastly different. Either way, they have earned another visit from me and I will share again after I make that happen. Thanks...

I’ve gone here multiple times and love it!

The food here is always well prepared and very flavorful. I have ordered multiple types of curry, but my favorite to get is the panang curry. The portions are generous and the consistency of the curry is perfect (it isn’t too thick or thin, so it is soaked up by the rice well without having too much rice or curry left over to achieve this balance). I’ve also ordered the spring rolls and would definitely recommend them.

After trying here, it’s become one of my favorites if I’m craving Thai food.

I have yet to eat inside, but the dining area is well decorated. I always order carry out, and love seeing the layout and decor. It feels cozy inside with cushioned seating and warm toned decor. The counter for the register as well as for fresh food to be set out is wide at the center of the restaurant and we’ll organized. It’s never been too busy inside, but it makes it nice and quiet when I visit.

The food is also always prepared pretty quickly for takeout...

Not great, but not the worst either. The Panang Curry was decent, but everything else was subpar.

Lunch specials were served in flat bottom boxes, so the sauces ran everywhere, making the fried stuff get soggy.

Pineapple Fried Rice was awful, no exaggeration. It had that distinct old-fryer-oil taste, mixed with strong fishy notes. Note that it was the Chicken version, and this was not the good fishy notes. We threw this out.

Cashew Chicken was bland. My first thought was 'generic Chinese takeout'. If the price were lower it'd be kind of ok, just add flavor with sauces.

Garlic Chicken was ok.

I would suggest not going, but if you do, stick with the curries. If I had only gotten the Panang I'd have a better review, but it was all downhill...