Basil Cucina & Catering — Restaurant in New York

My wife ordered from Basil the first time. The food was not bad. A week later I ordered a meal for delivery. It was over an hour and a half later when the food arrived. I live just down Forest Ave. The food was cold. I called just to let them know. The young lady on the phone was very understanding. She offered a partial credit to use on the next order. So tonight, a week later, we thought we would try again. We called 5:15pm to order two pies and something else. They remembered the credit and told me it would be $28 with credit reflected in that price. So now the wait begins. At 6:45, an hour and a half later, that sounds familiar, we received a call from the restaurant explaining that it would be another 15 minutes longer. 15 turned into 45 mins. So, at 7:30, I called back, 2 hours and 15 minutes after initially ordering the food. They said the driver's phone died, so he took the food back to the store. They told me it was sent out again with another driver. Now, they didn't say they realized the food was probably cold 2 and a half hours later, and they didn't tell me they remade the order, but by this time I had no illusions about how this was going to turn out. But again, the girl on the phone was very understanding and I guess she was trying to make right some of this disaster, somehow, but I was prepared to tell her to just forget about it. But she said there would be no charge and I didn't want her to feel bad after that gesture by telling her to keep it and besides, the driver was already on his way. I had a feeling that we would probably have to throw most of it out anyway. So after hanging up, my wife called another restaurant, a little closer to us because by this time the kids' stomaches were growling. That was 7:38. The door bell rang at 8pm. It was the other delivery. They delivered in a little over 20 minutes. It wasn't until 8:17, a little over 3 hours since the order was made to Basil, that the ordered finally arrived. As I offered the driver his tip, because I knew he wasn't the one who failed to show up earlier, he stopped me saying, "that wasn't enough". Yea, folks, he actually tried to charge me for the order that was supposed to be gratis. He even went as far as to insist I pay full price without the credit I was given for the prior week's hour and a half /cold pizza delivery. That's when I told him he could keep it. Obviously, no one at the store told him the correct amount. He then backtracked and asked me to take it when I told him it took 3 hours to get here in the first place. He actually tried to tell me that my house was really far. Yeah, Forest Ave takes 3 hours to traverse by car. Not even in the worst rush hour traffic, pal. I understand how snafus can occur, but this place does this over again and can only offer excuses for their mistakes. This is my experience. Their prices are not inexpensive so I guess they figure they can afford to write off their mistakes. But they will surely lose more customers with this kind of attitude. I don't recommend anyone to give them their business. They certainly lost ours over these incidents....

Update 10/3/19: Recently I had some issues with ordering/delivery with Basil. I was very frustrated. Today, the owner (Joe) personally came and delivered me my usual order (complimentary) and had some good conversation about his business, how he got here, and how he is constantly improving his business. For him to take an hour out of his day to come personally deliver an order and listen to a daily customer says a lot about him and how he runs his business. I will definitely continue to support Joe and Basil Cucina, and I hope for their continued success. I really appreciate a business owner who cares about his business. If you're looking for a great local business to support with great food and amazing prices, give Basil Cucina a try.

Original Post: When Cucina Mia closed, we were devastated as we ordered lunch there 5 days a week. Now that we found Basil Cucina, we're super happy and satisfied. Our go-to are the salads — Bang for your buck. The "small" salads are very generous and remind me of Sweet Green. The Honey BBQ wings are excellent, the sandwiches are great, and overall food quality is up there (although there are a few menu items I'm not a fan of). The only real downside to ordering for lunch on a busy schedule is that delivery can take sometimes an 1hr+, but as of recently has been...

I was the there yesterday for a quick lunch. I ordered the meatball parmigiana I had high expectations and was looking forward to eating a delicious meatball hero. It’s unfortunate I did not take a picture of the horrible meatball hero I purchased. I spent $14 and threw it in the garbage after the second bite. I was going to throw it away at the initial first bite but I was trying to convince myself that it’s not that bad. How ever after the second bite I quickly tossed it in the garbage !!!! The main issue was the bun in which it was served the bun was soft thin and soggy. I knew when I grabbed the sandwich something was wrong when there hero went limp in my hand. As I bit into it the soggy bun was horrible. It appears as if they put the hero in a microwave oven to heat the hero and melt the cheese. I didnt go back to return the sandwich because I dont like to fuss but this was absolutely horrible and will never buy another meatball hero from there ever again. Every one knows meatball hero’s are supposed to be baked in the oven and hero is supposed to have a delicious outer crust. Not this soggy...