Thai Basil By Amy — Restaurant in Royal Palm Beach

I relied on great Google and Trip Advisor reviews to try this place. On the positive side, the staff is nice and accommodating and the Thai iced tea was good. The worrisome part started when I arrived to pick up a takeout order on Saturday night and there was just 1 customer eating in. Then, all 4 dishes we had were disappointing. The difference between the reviews and our experience is not a great thing. Maybe this is a recent change in how the restaurant is, but talking to a couple of people who know local restaurants they also indicated that the place doesn't have a strong reputation. Dish-by-dish, here's what we found.

Chicken Panang: Unusually, it had lots of 2 inch green beans in it. The issue, though, was the curry sauce. Rather than lots of coconut milk like we usually get, the sauce was lighter and much less tasty. I think they used cornstarch to give it some thickness but that left out the nice coconut flavor and the sauce was also very light on peanut.

Chicken Basil: Unusually, lots of sliced carrot in there. The sauce here to was lacking flavor and didn't even look right. Usually, the sauce on this dish is brown probably due to soy and oyster sauce. The sauce was clear here with not much basil flavor or spiciness. I've never had this dish be sort of bland like this.

Noodles, Drunken and Pad See Ew: In both noodles dishes there were two issues that were both huge for us. 1. The noodles: At most local Thai restaurants the noodles are nearly and inch wide, tender, thick and delish. If you see the noodles in an Asian Grocery, they are sold fresh not dry. This restaurant did not use the standard restaurant noodles for these dishes. Instead, the noodles looked to be from the dry packs where the noodles are about a quarter inch wide and not tender. Instead, they just get gummy if overcooked. For me, why get these dishes if the noodles are the like you could easily get at home. 2. Almost zero sauce for both. The noodles had some oil on them and very little taste. Both of these dishes usually have good amount of very good sauce. Not so here. I've never seen anything like it for either dish at a Thai place anywhere. These were easily the worst of both noodle dishes that I've ever had the misfortune of trying to eat.

So, to the restaurant, you seem to be very nice people so...

Easy to find in a large plaza, Thai Basil brings Asian food to an area that really lacks it. Most of the plaza is empty which is sad to see. Walking in, the host stand is way too close to the door. A bit awkward when another party is walking in with you. Luckily we were seated pretty quickly.

The restaurant is not aesthetic and not much detail has been put into the dining room appeal. However, the food and price points do make up for it. We ordered an appetizer and a soup and they hit the table fairly quickly. The fresh rolls were great! The menu said it's created with teriyaki chicken but you can't really taste any flavor with the ground chicken they put inside. There's also carrots and bean sprouts accompanied with a light dipping sauce. The Tom Kha soup was thick but delicious.

Our two main entrees were great. I ordered the singapore noodles. It was a bit saucier than I'm use to but I liked the concept of ordering a dish and adding your choice of protein inside.

Our server brought our check to us at the perfect time and we were able to be in and out for dinner. I thought the food was pretty good...

Absolutely delicious Thai basil with chicken. The owner is lovely and the food was really good. The owner grows ghost peppers and makes a ghost pepper oil that is outstanding. The vegetables in my dish were cooked perfectly and the onion was great. Very flavorful and I could eat that daily. Next time I will try something different.

This is a small restaurant and not fancy inside. The place is clean and the food is really good. It takes a lot for me to give 5 stars but they deserve it. The quality and flavor of food rivals other Thai restaurants that I have reviewed and their prices are lower.

See you next Monday for bar poker across the parking lot. We are eating here instead of at our venue. Ate here twice more and had red curry with vegetables and chicken. The ghost pepper oil, the best.

April 2023 Update: Six months ago I tried Thai Basil and I still love it. The owner, Amy is lovely and the food is as good as you will find anywhere. See you...