The Basil — Restaurant in Long Beach

Ah, Thai food. How have I missed thee!

Formerly Thai Basil many moons ago, when 7 Seas Tropical Fish was the main tenant of the plaza, The Basil bangs out delicious Thai food at a affordable price. Stopping by for lunch, I perused Thai Basil's $10.95 lunch specials (additional for beef/shrimp/brown rice/fried rice), and chose pad thai. Being the national dish of Thailand, it's the de facto bar which all Thai restaurants can be judged by.

Lunch Special Pad Thai- Tangy & bright, which good pad thai should be. The generous amount of food was pleasing to my tummy. I relished each forkful of noodles. The included vegetable egg roll was crunchy, whereas the salad was a typical iceberg lettuce salad. At $10.95, this meal was a bargain.

Service was good. The food didn't take long, at all. Ample seating via booths & tables, The Basil shares a private parking lot, and is locate on the right of The Donut Place.

With prices rising on just about everything, The Basil's $10.95 lunch specials are a sight for sore eyes & stomachs. I was thoroughly impressed by their pad thai, and am looking forward to frequenting the restaurant more, as Thai food is one of my favorite cuisines, and I always wonder why I don't partake of it more often? Knowing the $10.95 price may not last long, considering everything going on in the world, I plan on taking advantage of it often & again....

Kids always love that food so ended up here to switch it up from the typical.

Food - The reason for the 3 star review is based on quality of food. Ordered Tom kha Kai and the bowl was tiny with not enough chicken, mushrooms and a lil too sour. I forget the dish name with far noodles, but the flavor wasn't good and the noodles weren't as soft.

Drinks - The large Thai tea is huge, good in flavor and great price.

Prices - Avg prices on dishes.

Service - The 2 people I seen seem nice but should check up on tables a lil more.

Venue - Clean and decent size but could use a remodeling.

Overall disappointed with quality of food. Probably won't come back and give other...

Some dishes were good (Pad See Ew with tofu, Tom Yum soup), but the others were practically inedible, and I don't say that lightly. The Pad Woon Sen was somehow both flavorless and had clashing flavor. The Papaya Lime Salad had no lime, no spices, no peanuts, and tasted only of mediocre applejuice, to the extent that I wonder if they literally did use apple juice.

If you end up eating here, stick to dishes that are hard to mess up, like Pad See Ew. The Tom Yum gets 4 stars, Pad See Ew 3.5, Pad Woon Sen gets 1, and papaya salad gets 0.

At least they were fast? This was...