Thai Basil — Restaurant in Fullerton

I have been going here for more than a decade, and it's like an on-again-off-again relationship! When it's on point, the food is yummy. When it is not, it's such a bummer. This review will focus on our latest visit.

THE FOOD: Their menu is pretty extensive and offers almost everything you could want in a Thai restaurant. Our party of 6 ordered a bunch of dishes to share family style. Here's how each one fared:

Beef salad - It was excellent. The ingredients were all fresh and it had that good balance between the sour sauce and savory meat.

Tom yum gai - This hot-and-sour soup with chicken and mushroom was surprisingly bland. In the past, it's been too salty. Clearly the cooks have have consistency issues.

Angel wings - We actually ordered the buffalo wings, but instead got this appetizer (chicken wings stuffed with glass noddles and shrimp). We were going to complain about getting the wrong dish, but no server was nearby and we were too hungry at this point. Fortunately, it was good.

Pad Woon Sen - These glass noodles came loaded with veggies and chicken. Flavor was good, though there weren't as much noodles as we're used it.

Thai fried rice - A standard fried rice dish; nothing to write home about.

Spicy scallops - This was the big disappointment, as it came with only 6 pieces of scallops for $19.95. The cooks tried to hide this fact by piling bamboo shoots over top. Worst off, it wasn't really that spicy or flavorful.

THE SERVICE: During my latest outing, the service was mixed. One server was quite helpful and attentive, while another one seemed annoyed anytime we asked for something. The third server was decent, but never smiled and didn't say much.

Now, I say this knowing that customer service at most authentic Asian restaurants is a low priority. (I'm Asian and grew up in this culture.) But I raise it here because I have been to Thai Basil when the service has been amazing (clearly their A Team was working) and when the service has been utterly horrible. So, clearly management needs to do a better job at training.

THE SETTING: It's a good sized restaurant, though you might have to wait a while if you have a party of 5 or more because there isn't a lot of space for bigger groups. Our party of 6 was seated near the front, where it's rather cramped. If you're a party of 4 or fewer, no problems -- they have plenty of comfy booths.

Fortunately, it's beautifully decorated, the bathrooms are clean, and there's usually parking in the large lot (it's in the same strip mall as the Dollar Tree and Smart and Final).

THE CONCLUSION: I really want to give Thai Basil a 4 out of 5, but based on my recent outing here, I have to lower it to a 3 out of 5. The subpar customer service and inconsistent food does not justify the increased prices. But in my heart, I WANT them to get better because I have great memories eating here with my...

We had heard good things about their food and reviews were good, so decided to try them out. So about a month ago we ordered a few items to go, brought food home and midmeal found chicken in our vege pad sew! We had ordered it with tofu and without fish and oyster sauce, they got that part right but that means their cook despite seeing all that added chicken to it, i.e, two proteins! We just don't understand how any cook can add chicken to a tofu dish! Even if you mix up orders somehow, adding 2 proteins to a dish should've raised a flag for the cook! That's not just a simple oversight. When we called them, they were really nice about it and offered a credit on our next order. Well last week, we decided to give them a 2nd try. This time they outdid themselves. First off we were told they will give credit for 1 dish in liu of the previous incident but then 5 min before pick up, they called to tell us that they're now under a new management (in last 1mo!) and all previous records were lost, so they can't give us any credit. Basically that they don't believe us. We said okay, that's fine, and agreed to pay full price. Brought food home to find out they got 2 out of our 4 dishes wrong!! They gave us pad thai instead of pad sew and basil tofu in place of tofu with mint and chilli sauce!! Thank God no chicken in any of of it, we don't know how. We were so disappointed we didn't even bother calling them back. That was enough of an experience. We will not be ordering from them again. We have also been telling our friends and family to be on alert if they ever order...

Let's start off by saying this could be a great place. What makes a great place... food, cleanliness and service. Food because go to eat. Cleanliness because who wants to eat in a dirty place. Service because why would I spend more on bad service, when I can get it in a fast food restaurant. Okay enough with why... here is my experience.

I walk into the door and am not greeted. I have to walk over to the counter and tell them for one. They then point to a table and say right over there. I sit and get a menu right away. I look it over and decide what I would like to eat. Put the menu down and wait for someone to come over. About 3 minutes go by and then someone asks what I would like. She takes it down and gets me my drinks. Overall, very average service. I watch others come in and notice there is no consistency in what they do. One person walks in and gets pointed to the table. Another group gets greeted at the door and seated with menus.

I ordered satay and pad thai. Food was good. They brought me the satay first which is good but within 4 minutes they brought out the pad thai. Mind you the reason you do not bring out the main dish right away because you don't want them to feel rushed and don't want the food to get cold. I took my time and loved it all.

Now I did notice that no one really smiled which could really help. It really is the small things that matter. So, what you have here is great food, a clean environment and a lack of consistency...