Thai Basil Park Central — Restaurant in Phoenix

It looks really pretty, well-plated even for to-go, short wait time for pick up, and it's good quality in terms of the veggies even with the frozen green beans, but it's not Thai Food. this is American and bland... as for meat they use the cheap beef so it's tough. Out of the central Phoenix Thai places, I chose this because it's close to my work and a little cheaper, but that was a mistake. I'll have to stick with Tom Yum Downtown Thai for more authentic food and flavor. I ordered Thai hot and it's a little spicy but no other flavor... it basically tastes like steamed meat and veggies with crushed chili pepper and nothing else. (sauteed Thai Basil signature in particular, and I ordered about $30 worth of other dishes) If you don't care about "real vs American" then you'd probably be ok with this, my coworker loves it, I just do a lot of traveling in Asia so I have different standards. This place doesn't have Thais in the kitchen either so that probably doesn't help the food, hiring farangs to cook. When I go for "ethnic" food I prefer that the people know what they're doing, like going to a sushi place with all non-Japanese cooks. (I don't eat sushi in America much because of this) Also the crab puffs (not thai): I know it tells you on the menu it's fake crab but it's like all fake crab and no cream cheese to cover up that fake flavor. I think they're handmade though, so...

Food/Taste/Flavor: 3/5 for very different ratings between the two dishes #37 Peanut Curry (Panang) with beef at mild spicy level - 5/5. The coconut and peanut flavoring was great since it was a bit sweet with a nutty aftertaste. The broccoli and zucchini were soft without being mushy but it was a bit sparse in protein.

#44 Pad-See-Ew with pork at Thai hot spicy level - 2/5. The noodles were cooked well and the spicy level was great but there was not much flavoring to the dish overall other than the spice. The protein was a bit lacking and it just felt like we were eating spicy noodles with vegetables overall

Ambience: n/a - ordered food to go. Loud oriental ambience music was playing right as you walk through the door but it’s reasonable once you’re no longer in the entranceway. Love the little kiosk front at the cash register

Service: 5/5 - the younger cashier was really friendly and processed all the people coming in and out with a smile. There were 5 pick up orders within the 10 minutes we were there waiting for our food.

Value for price: 4/5 - friendly service and reasonable pricing. The food flavoring differs heavily based on the...

Among the worst Thai food I’ve ever had. Ordered through door dash. Everything was very bland. I saw another recent review stating that this place serves the worst Pad Thai in Phoenix. I’m from out of town so I can’t say whether that is true but it’s for sure the worst Pad Thai I’ve ever had. Little seasoning but oddly sweet. But not sweet as in tamarind paste sweet, sweet as in it seems like they just added sugar to it. Basically noodles with a hardly any bean sprouts, a few pieces of tofu and a reasonable amount of bland chicken. No lime or lemon wedge even. No ground peanuts.

The Tom Yum was very watered down, no oyster mushrooms, just chicken and porcini mushrooms. Worst Tom Yum I’ve had by far.

My partner had the papaya salad. Again, very bland and only three pieces of shrimp.

If you know what good Thai food tastes like, AVOID this restaurant.

If you’ve never had Thai food or eat it infrequently you might find it passable…

Given other reviews it’s unlikely to be a once off, it’s more likely that the owners or management...