Basil Thai Kitchen

Ordered take out and overall it was pretty good. No frills home cooked take out thai food. I did appreciate that they offer vegetarian options as most thai places don’t offer an alternative to the fish sauce. For two noodle dishes and spring rolls it came up to about $ 30 with tax+tip. Not bad but not «cheap» for neighborhood take out. Better than the other neighborhood thai spot Thai Room

Im not a fan of thai food but the pork noodle lunch combo i had here was really good. I didnt like the mushroom soup or springroll though.

It is almost impossible to get great Malaysian food without travelling out to Richmond Hill or Scarborough. Basil Thai Kitchen is a neighbourhood restaurant that is family run. The foods is delicious. One of the dishes that I was surprised to see was the tea leaves salad, a Burmese specialty. It’s hard to describe – both refreshing and also savoury. Not so exotic that you won’t like it and it is definitely a rare dish to find on Toronto menus.
Really liked the shrimp assam. Tasty and great with the jasmine steamed rice. Also had the sole fish with eggplant and basil.
Happy to return and support a local business. Do not come here and expect high end fine dining. This is a place for those who appreciate excellent Asian food in modest surroundings. I noticed a lot of people stopping by for take away. They all seemed to be regulars because the owner spoke to them as if they were old friends.

I recently ordered two vegetarian dishes from Basil Thai, and they were wonderful. The vegetable fried rice was nicely flavoured, and had a generous portion of mixed vegetables. I ordered a flat noodle dish with vegetables and requested it spicey. Not only was there a perfect amount of heat in the noodles, but this dish was light and flavourful. Unlike other area restaurants, this dish wasn’t swimming in oil, which made it truly enjoyable. I won’t hesitate to order from Basil Thai in the future.

I go here for Burmese food mostly. I’ve tried the Malaysian & Thai dishes too. Everything I’ve had has been great. My father is from Burma so we have ordered Burmese dishes off the menu days in advance for special occasions. It’s been incredible being able to have some dishes we know. Try the Beef curry and roti if you drop in.

I had eggplant gravy. It was delicious… my husband had a sea food dish. It was good too. Will visit again!

2.5*
I wasn’t «wowed» by this place as I had expected to be. The food was quite tasty but I wouldn’t recommend dining in unless your grabbing some lunch. If I was in the area I might come back for lunch but certainly I’m not going out of my way to return.
Portion sizes were not huge and we needed to use all the steamed rice to soak up the sauce and fill our tummies as the food was not abundant. The mango salad was not worth half of the $ 7 they charge. It consists of slivered unripened mango with brown sugar sprinkled on top. The Fish was delicious as was the roti bread.
The interior was not very appealing and it did not help that the place was empty the entire time we were there. The pricing was also not particularly cheap, but I didn’t feel terrible paying it as the restaurant is clearly a family operation.

Shrimp fried rice delicious
Pas Thai — OK

Love Thai food. Highly rated but I would say overrated. Best dishes we had was green curry chicken and chicken fried rice. Other dishes we had were sweet and sour chicken, cashew chicken and rahnanang beef. All okay, but too much sweet and not enough spice for Thai food. A basil beef or spicy beef would have been nice. Fried bananas to finish were okay but the ice cream with it was a must.

Based on the dishes I tried, I don’t get the hype surrounding this place. Though like the reviewer Carrie K I did not heed the warning to avoid the pad thai…
This place doesn’t deliver, but I figured it might be worth the trek based on all the glowing reviews. I placed my order by phone and picked up the food at the resto.
The curry beef rolls were crispy and delicious; I could eat those all day. :) I was hoping the rest of the meal would be as good.
Next up, the chicken green curry. I’ll admit that I prefer a slightly thicker curry. I found this one to be very watery, quite bland and full of soggy, greyish vegetables. Though described as «hot» on the menu, it was definitely on the sweet side.
Finally the pad thai. As I mentioned earlier, I failed to take note from previous reviews that this is a weak dish for the place. I would tend to agree with the reviewers who described this dish as «abysmal». Definitely nothing like my husband or I have had in our travels to SE Asia
This place is a little out of the way for me so I’m not sure I would go there again, but should I give this place another shot I will definitely give the Basil Chicken and some of the Malaysian dishes a try (and more curry beef rolls!!).

I really, really, really wanted to love this place. We recently moved to East York and were looking forward to discovering the little gems.
I should have taken note of other reviews before ordering because I opted for the pad thai. The sauce was mediocre, the noodles almost tasted microwaved and the chicken was grisly — the kind you can’t chew through. The portion was generous, though. The same was true of the cashew nut chicken — if you’re hungry and not too picky, it’s an okay dish. My husband liked the flavour of the sauce but I found it too smokey (as though artificial smoke flavour had been added … or, the bottom of the pan was burnt). As a plus, the veggies were well-​prepared and the cashews weren’t soggy like you sometimes get.
As others have written, there isn’t much ambiance. But it’s clean, and I’ll take that over décor.
Looking at other reviews, it seems the curries would have been the way to go. As many of those comments are older, I’m hoping the advice still holds true. I love to support family-​owned, independent businesses. In the case of this one, I just haven’t found their specialty yet.

I’d take away a star for only being open for lunch on Fridays, but that wouldn’t be a fair assessment of the Randang Beef, Panang Chicken or my absolute-​favorite-​definitely-​going-​to-​get-​buried-​with Hot and Sour Soup.
Family owned and operated, there’s always a friendly smile at the door AND they remember you. Decent prices and killer food, minus the $ 7 mango salad made from half-​a-​mango.
One of the few good things about Main and Danforth.

Fantastic Thai food!
I ate here last weekend and have been thinking about the meal ever since. As other reviewers have mentioned, this is definitely not a place you go for the ambiance — tile floors, few decorations, picnic quality tables. That said, there were 11 of us for dinner and our service, if bare bones, was polite, efficient, and timely. You could do worse.
In future I will get take out and love it. We had a bunch of dishes (noodles, rices, curry, spring rolls, sweet and sour chicken, seafood, veggies) and everything was delicious. Except the pad thai. The pad thai was actually pretty abysmal and I’d skip it if I were you. Get anything else — all of our other dishes were great. There was variety in the flavours of the dishes, just the right level of spice, and plenty of meat/​veg in everything.
This place is a total find. My new go-​to Thai place.

Now that there are 8 bajillion Thai places in town, it’s easy to get led astray. That’s why I’m happy to heartily recommend this place. The pad thai is good but not great. What is great is just about everything else. Red and green curries are extremely nuanced and tasty. Basil chicken: the best ever. Eating in may not be everyone’s cup of tea because the place is very open and there’s a lot of kitchen noises in your ear. Far more often, I take out from here.
I’ve been ordering from here about once a month since it opened under Jean’s management many years ago. The quality has never slipped. People are very friendly and warm. Love this place.

I’m rarely super impressed with restaurant food. I sort of have a God complex in the kitchen («I could totally make this better. Why are we here?»). But this place was awesome.
My husband and I just moved to the Danforth area and decided to give Basil Thai a shot. Anything sounded better than cooking dinner. While driving there, I noticed we passed a few pawn shops, some check cashing places– usually signs of an exciting night to come. We found parking right in front of the restaurant, which conveniently allowed us to keep our eyes on our car.
We started with the paratha. It was warm and crispy. Sadly, it was gone in a matter of minutes. I ordered the pan friend malay noodle. It was amazing. The flavor was great. Serving size was big, tons of chicken and shrimp. I asked for extra veggies and they were cool with it. My husband ordered the Singapore Noodle. It had a nice smoky, curry flavor. He loved it. We decided to order the fried bananas for dessert. I’m pretty sure the old couple next to us must have felt uncomfortable with all the moaning. They were perfect… the bananas. Not the old couple.
Visit this hidden gem and you will not be disappointed.

Not to be mistaken with Thai Basil further west in the Annex, BASIL THAI (sorry for the emphatic caps) is probably one of the most underated Thai/​Malay establishments around.
Originally owned by Jean and Harry, who are now the proud owners of celebrated Jean’s Vegetarian Kitchen, Basil Thai has never disappointed me or my tastebuds when it comes to their splendid take on savory Southeast Asian fare. The family who now own Basil Thai (apologies as I know not their names) are always all smiles and welcoming whenever I pick-​up my take-​out orders, not to mention their sheer expediency as I can always depend on my meals being ready within 15 minutes which has been indispensable whenever I need to feed hungry guests.
Here’s a sampling of their delicious offerings that I’ve had the utmost pleasure to eat and highly recommend;
Fried Bean Cakes, which is fried organic tofu served with their home-​made peanut sauce which is hands down the BEST peanut sauce ever!
Roti Pratta with Curry Chicken or Beef, the roti is unlike the crumbly daal variety more like a fried crêpe but thicker and not sweet
Pad See Yew flat rice noodles bursting with chicken, shrimp, egg and bean sprouts, very filling.
Gago Gado, a Malaysian dish of udon-​esque thick noodles with tofu, boiled egg and vegetables; topped with peanut sauce, this one will give you «The Itis» guaranteed!
And what meal is complete without Fried Bananas, in this case 8 pieces of sinful fried debauchery sprinkled with sugar, this is my hubby’s kryptonite hehe.
The portions of their takeout entrees/​apps are extremely generous and cost wise range from $ 4 to $ 10 which is fairly reasonable for food this good.
Take note they are closed on Mondays, so Thai cravings on the east side be damned on that day.
Weird note: Try not to accidentally wander into the nearby food and bevy establishments which are notorious for their skid-​row-​ish curbside appeal, and if you witness a girl draped in an anaconda (seriously my hood is ghetto like that) or nearly get run over by a grossly overweight fellow puttering around in his self styled cellophaned personal mobility «Pope mobile», don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Hidden gem alert!
Excellent, authentic Thai food (menu also features some Malaysian and Burmese dishes)
The décor was, well, non-​existent — but you don’t go to places like this for the décor — you go there for the tastiest green curry this side of the DVP (spicy, but not too spicy).
Great service, great food — definitely worth the trip to the east side of town.

The food, the staff — it’s a big olé WOW! the only downside: the hours.
5 — 10 p.m.
Their takeout menu notes lunch specials — Fridays from 11 am — 2 pm
I’d like to be able to go there for lunch on a weekend.
Biggest hits lately — the walnut chicken, pork rolls and fried bean cakes. The fried bean cakes — ‘organic tofu served with our home-​made peanut sauce’. Killer. The pork rolls aren’t those nasty smooth cigarillo-​shaped things with minced pork. They’ve got chunks of identifiable pork in nice, crispy, lumpy rolls made in the back.
In season, there is sticky mango rice available.
Our waitress (she was really wonderful), recommended fried bananas with green tea ice cream for dessert. Great idea!
The takeout business seems to be its mainstay (about 10 men arrived in SUVs in a 30 minute period to pick up on our last visit), though by the time we left on Friday night, there were about five tables in use.
Washrooms are the Toronto resto standard, downstairs down a long corridor. Clean — with more air fresheners and pot pourri than I’ve ever seen in a tiny washroom.

Hidden on the east end of the Danforth is a lovely Thai restaurant. Found this restaurant while surfing on Unilocal.
Surprisingly this place is pretty big to seat a big group of 12 and still have a few more small tables available. They are mainly a take-​out restaurant, as many of the customers came in for take-​out, and the service was a little bit slow. However, the food was great and it accommodating for many different people — seafood lovers, vegans, etc.
Definitely recommend the basil fried rice and the fried sole fish with eggplant but for those curry lovers out there, stay away from the roti curry chicken — no curry taste, just coconut favour. But the Roti itself was really good.
Most of the dishes were under $ 10 — definitely a good deal!
Will be back to try the noodle dishes!

This joint is really close to me. When I have a noodle craving — I go for their Singapore Rice Noodles. It is a thin noodle in a curry paste — I always ask for extra veggies.
The owner is a really nice guy. The food style here is really a blend between Thai and Malaysian cuisine. One of the few good places to eat on the Eastern end of the Danforth.