Hey there kids,
I sacrificed life and limb trying to get to my next review, Basil Leaf (10023 – 107 Ave). It started off with me getting home late from Grande Prairie (I travel lots for work), I decided to grab some delicious pho. I was planning on going to my usual place, but as I drove down to Chinatown and parked in the most sketchy and unnerving alleyway in Edmonton, the restaurant was closed! As I made my way back to my car, there were some…’unfavourable’ people gathering in the alleyway.
Hand over your asthma inhaler!
I attempted to sneak through the other side of the alleyway but they were coming towards me that way. So I decided to go back the other way, now they’re hanging out next to my car. I contemplated trying to find another pho place in Chinatown and hopefully come back to an unoccupied vehicle, but didn’t know any places that were currently open at that time. So, in the end I ‘grew a pair’ and briskly walked directly to my car and was surprisingly unmolested, after driving for a bit, I found Basil Leaf to still be open…hmm, well that wasn’t as good as a story as I thought.
No, keep talking...
Basil Leaf is a nice clean-looking restaurant in Chinatown, born from the ashes of an old Chinese grocery store that rumour has it, ran into trouble with Asian gangs that threatened to burn it to the ground.
Hey guys, after we're done acting tough, can we play Starcraft 2?
Basil Leaf has a ‘Beef Satay Noodle Soup‘ for $8.95, when the meal came out, the smell of the soup was strong and totally whetted the appetite. There was a nice peanuty smell, not as strong as Taste of Vietnam but was delicious nonetheless. The broth has a rich orangey colour to it with lots of chili oil. It contains tomatoes, cucumbers and green onions. The beef is sliced impossibly thin, which is an interesting touch, the beef cooks almost instantly when its dipped into the steaming hot broth.
As I excitedly dived in, I was met with utter disappointment. While the look and smell carried lots of promise of a delicious meal, the flavour of the broth was surprisingly bland, like if you just added enough salt to water to get a bit of flavour and then added chili oil for spiciness, that’s kind of how it tasted. With the thinly sliced beef, they didn’t seem to put much into the meal and overall, there didn’t seem to be a lot of solids in the meal. Overall, this meal had lots of promises going in, but sadly falls short of expectations.
Review
Broth: 2/5 Portion: 2/5 Overall Taste: 1.5/5 Value: 2/5
Overall Satisfaction: 2/5
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