New Thai Favourite: Thai Basil

I love, love, love Thai food. This is probably the reason why Bangkok remains to be one of my favourite Asian cities. I even had cravings for Pad Thai when I was pregnant with DD#1!

Anyway, we were looking for a place to eat one weekend and we chanced upon Thai Basil in Richmond Hill. I vaguely remember seeing this same restaurant downtown so we were quite happy to check it out.

The interiors were contemporary where the dining room was decorated with modern images of Buddha. 

Thai Basil @ Richmond Hill

As it was our first time in this place, and we were getting hungry, we just looked for the “thumbs up” icons throughout the menu. While there was quite a substantial amount and variety of favourite dishes, we ended up carb-loading.

We had to try their Pad Thai. It was quite authentic, not like some places where the sauce was like ketchup or was too sweet. It was sufficiently packed with chicken (which is our choice of meat) eggs, tofu, green onions and bean sprouts. Served with peanuts and fresh lime, it was very tasty. Not the best Pad Thai ever but still good.

Pad Thai @ Thai Basil

We also tried another dish that was not very spicy as a compromise to DD#2 who does not like spicy food too much. I wanted to try some Spicy Basil but ended up with Fried Vermicelli in Yellow Curry. The fried rice vermicelli had pork, eggs, green & red peppers and tossed with yellow curry. It was also a good one.

Fried Vermicelli in Yellow Curry @ Thai Basil

 To continue with the carb-loading, we ordered Pineapple Fried Rice. Now, this is a must try in this place! The fried rice was mixed with eggs, pineapple, ham, raisins, cashew nuts, beans and topped with dried shredded pork. It was beautifully presented in a pineapple cut in half. A meal in itself as it also had some chicken.

Pineapple Fried Rice @ Thai Basil

 Now, the hands-down winner for our group was the Thai Red Curry. DD#2 had a taste of it and agreed it tasted awesome (it was such a tiny drop, she was just most likely just being agreeable to the general table consensus). We chose beef this time. The red curry was sweet and spicy with bamboo shoots, eggplants, red peppers, basil, pineapple and coconut milk. Best with Jasmine rice. Super Yum! Not quite the tongue-scorching curry I’ve had in the streets of Bangkok but it was something we all truly enjoyed! So much so that my mom went back less than a week later with our aunt to have red curry again!

Red Curry @ Thai Basil

I've read reviews that the lunch special was also good and I have yet to try the Tom Yum, which I heard was delicious! I might just end up trying every item on the menu as we will definitely be coming back again and again!