Basilico Greenville — Restaurant in Greenville

My wxperience was bad all the way around. When I looked at the menu prices I was preparing myself for something indulgent. But this place is worse than Fazoli's. First off it is very loud. What used ro be a 5 Guy's has been dressed up with cheap decor and loud big bad music that bounces off the walls and windows. There is no sound absorption so you can hear everyone talking on top of that. The black table cloths are accessorized with a bottle of olive oil from the grocery store or Sam's, McCormick salt and pepper grinders, and red pepper flakes. Then they put down a paper placemat. I waited 20 minutes for the waitress to approach my table. I ordered a glass of wine and calamari to start then the red snapper with a Cesar salad. The Calamari had no taste. It was tender though, so that was a positive. The marina sauce is supposed to be a signature, but it tastes like a jar tomato sauce. We Couldnt finish it. The salad came out a bed of lettuce, some shaved parmesan that tasted like plastic, some grated parmesan that looked and tasted like it came from a off brand container - pure salt. The salad dressing was also prepackaged. It comes in a condiment container. It's s creamy Cesar FLAVORED dressing, again salty. The 7,000 croutons were flavorless. I pushed it to the side because at this point I was praying that my dinner would compensate. I ordered the snapper picatta - $36. It came out completely drenched in butter. The pasta was soggy and I'm sure from a box. The asparagus spears had been cooked until they were water logged and translucent. The fish was tough and dry. It smelled like lemon scented garbage. And the half bite tasted like lemon and margarine flavored garbage. When the waitress returned and asked if it was good I Said no and sent all 3 dishes back. No one asked why practically untouched food was sent back. As a matter of fact until then the service was nonexistent. I has asked for the check. My family and I were talking and now she comes back interrupting 3 times. Takeaway: Price sets an expectation of the product and the service. I won't try this place again. They clearly are not passionate about the food and experience. With so many places in Greenville that are passionate about the entire package delivered, Basilico...

My husband, son, and I ate there this past Saturday night. All in all, it was okay. There were some things this restaurant does great, and some things that they could improve on. Basilico does not accept reservations for parties less than 6, so we arrived relatively early knowing we might have to wait. When we arrived, we were told our wait would be 25 - 30 minutes. We found a spot to sit and wait outside. On my way out of the restaurant to wait, I help the door open for a party of four that was coming in. After putting their name in, that party of four came and sat outside next to us. Despite putting our name in first, that party of four that I held the door for was seated 25 minutes before we were. We ended up waiting for an hour to be seated.

The inside of the restaurant is small but quite cute. They'd done a nice job making it come alive for Valentine's weekend. All of the employees worked really well together and helped one another. All of them were very friendly. Like most restaurants today, they seemed stretched thin, but they really did a good job working together as a team to make it happen. The ladies' bathroom needs some serious work. It is very outdated and gross and one of the stalls doesn't lock. This isn't some basement bar - stalls should have working locks.

Our table really enjoyed the chicken parmesan and penne al vodka. The chicken piccata was a bit bland. The strawberry cheesecake was beautifully plated but was the consistency of egg custard and wasn't to our liking. I am not well versed in Italian cheesecakes though and this might be what that particular type is supposed to be like.

All in all, we were very frustrated by the seating situation. We don't mind waiting, but it makes customers feel bad to be 'passed over' for other customers. The food was good but not great. I would eat there again if other people in my party really wanted to, but I'd stick to red sauce based meals and I definitely won't ever suggest...

We went for a late lunch-early dinner. When we walked in we were greeted by a very friendly guy in the front and some amazing desserts in the dessert case. He and the wait staff were very warm and friendly. I was very surprised just how many servers there were for this medium-sized restaurant. There were six total, one nicer than the next.

We started out with the appetizer sampler. Very delicious. A tiny bit overdone, but everything was nice and crispy. The tomato sauce for dipping was very good, too. After the appetizer we decided to split a Caesar salad. Also delicious. I was a little surprised the dressing was on the side but that was fine. Lots of slivers of cheese on the salad which made it extra yummy..

Instead of trying any of the fantastic looking entrees on the menu, we went with pizza. We asked for mushrooms and sausage. This has to be one of the best pizzas we've had since moving to Greenville 6 years ago. The sausage was sliced not crumbles. The crust was thin, crispy yet fluffy and airy. It truly was perfect. Not a lot of sauce on this pizza but if you like cheese, this is the place to go!

Something else we noticed that was really great about the atmosphere. The music. It was all popular songs you would recognize, but done by female artists in a jazz- bossa nova style. It really helped make the ambiance special and relaxing.

I found the place quite accidentally by just searching "pizza near me" when we were by the mall, and Basilico popped up. It had great reviews, so that's why we decided to try it. I'm glad we were able to also give it a 5-star review. Can't...