Basil Asian Bistro — Restaurant in Wooster

We went to Basil based on a recommendation and have visited twice for lunch in last 4 weeks. Both times service is very good. Atmosphere is great and suspect the scene for dinner is nice. I would classify as a "higher end" restaurant but not super expensive.

The food we had was good and always hot (temp). We've had multiple different items...Szech Mussels (Delicious) Green Curry Chicken (Tasty) Pad Thai Chicken (so-so).....The Pad Thai needed more flavor, fairly bland and missing cilantro. I hate to say this because Molly Woos is so "chain commercialized" Asian food but I think MW's Pad Thai is better, Veg Spring Roll (good), Veg Deluxe (standard) and Korean Spicy Jam Bowl Soup (not bad)....description made me think it was going be similar to Kimchi jjigae (but with chicken stock?) but it's not....doubt I'd order it again....too many noodles in the soup for my liking. Again Service was great. What I thought was particularly nice, a waiter came to our table impromtu to check on us and it wasn't even our waitress when we sat outside vs. the usual line "I'll let your waitress know" (I gave review an extra star just for that).

As there are not many selections in our area, Wooster is close enough to drive to and Basil is a very nice option. We'd definitely return and try other...

Got there at the end of the day and the place was super CROWDED. However, the place is big so there were still tables available. There were multiple hosts at the frontdesk busy checking something on computer. Checked in for a table and one hostess told us it'd be just a minute. Waited for for 5-8 minutes at the desk but not get served and not update. People were still coming in. Some of them had reservation and were immediately served with tables. Some of new guests just checked in waiting on tables. After that, hostess told me again it'd be just a minute. Seeing frontdesk seemed overwhelmed, I went to sit down at the waiting area. After another 8-10 minutes, I noticed that a few other groups of guests who arrived after us got their tables but there was not sign for serving us. I went to front desk and asked hostess again. Now the one talked with me was on the phone and another hostess looked at waiting list, and apparently they have skipped our group which was the first on the waiting list. I am still not sure they just didn't really want to serve us, or something else. I wish they had told us earlier that waiting time could be long depends on how many customers coming in. No explanation, not apology, no reaction. We just left. It was a terrible experience...

EDIT 2/24/24: Three years later and this place has not improved. Their crab rangoon tastes exactly like crab rangoon you'd get at a cheap Chinese takeout restaurant. Absolutely nothing special about it. Sushi is decent, not bad but not out of this world good. Kung Pao Chicken is also awful. No flavor whatsoever. The fried rice is clearly Walmart frozen fried rice from a bag. For a restaurant of this caliber, the food is unexceptionally bland. Avoid this place and find somewhere better to eat in Wooster. Trust me, there are PLENTY of better options.

EDIT: Here's an idea, how about editing your website and Google listing to say that you are now closed on Mondays? We drove an hour just to go to lunch here. Thanks for wasting our time.

Food came out quick and was hot. Chicken satay was excellent. Pad see ew was not good. I've only had pad see ew that tasted like this in one other restaurant. Too many different vegetables and no sweetness whatsoever. Not enough noodles. Way too salty. I'm not sure if this is how pad see ew is supposed to be prepared, but almost every other restaurant I've visited makes it differently and I like the other version much better. I'd come back but definitely skip the pad see...