#81 for 2021
We were celebrating a birthday. My cousin said she made reservations at their favorite Thai food restaurant. I trust my cousin. She has good taste. We were a party of 15. There was going to be lots of food. My cousin kept pushing we get there all on time. All of us. In fact she was having us get there early.
I like the name. Holy Basil. It fits. To say the decor was the traditional setup at many Thai restaurants does not do it justice. It was lavish and outstanding. Everything looked brand new. They seem to have a full bar and definitely had an exquisite wine cellar. A 2nd floor was a little cramp. It is where the restrooms are. They only open for dinner. They also fill up very fast. As busy as they were the service was excellent. I thought for sure there would be long pauses between the plates but that did not happen. And did I say the place was getting packed? I went upstairs to use the restroom and freshen up. That floor too was packed. They just opened up for crying out loud. All this excitement was making me more hungry.
No need to look at the menu my cousin knew what she wanted and had ordered prior to arriving. If you have not been here before I suggest looking at the menu online. It is quite extensive and will take you awhile to get through. It will be also difficult to decide what to order. So many dishes to make you salivate.
10 different selections were ordered many were doubled. Mango salad on whole snapper, ox tongue, pork belly on greens, spicy beef salad, pad si ewe, duck curry, banana frawn salad, bbq chicken, chicken wings and spring rolls.
The duck curry stole the show for me. Rich and savory loved it with the rice. Didn't last long on the table. Mango salad with the snapper was another winning dish. The vinaigrette and crunchy salad made a nice pairing to the delicate soft flesh of the snapper. Turns out that's their signature dish. Impressive. I like the ox tongue with the spicy sweet sauce. I wish there was more greens. The tongue was not as tough as I thought it would be. In fact it was quite tender and delicious. The pork belly, like lechon, went the fastest. What do you expect from a table full of Filipinos + one Korean who loves pork. Should've ordered 3 of those. lol. What I liked about this pad siu ewe is the greens were not cooked with everything else but blanched then added for the final mix. They still had a crunch and didn't have a bitter taste from over cooking. Just right I'd say. Now the banana frawns were interesting. They were okay. Just like the bbq chicken and chicken wings. They were also good but I have had them before except there was a richer depth of flavor from some of the subtle seasoning they used. Spring rolls are spring rolls. I ate one only to taste because that's something I have had many times. I wanted more of the other dishes to fill by belly.
Over all excellent, excellent food. I could not be any happier. We all had more than enough and there were no left overs except for rice.
I now understood why my cousin was adamant to getting us all there by 4:30pm. I would do the same. Although they don't open till 5:00pm you always have those, especially in a large group, who will come more than fashionably late. read more