Red Basil Thai Kitchen

One recent afternoon, I met up with my ex-coworker, Linguine, for lunch at a place local to him.  I don’t think I’ve seen him just about since I quit my job, so we had a lot of catching up to do over Red Basil’s super cheap lunch special – $6.95 for appetizer & entree. 

 

At the time, my appetite was still wonky, so I was working on intaking calories anyway I could, which includes drinking things with calories (I’m normally a water drinker).  The Thai iced tea here was solid – creamy and slightly sweet. 

My lunch special arrived and I was surprised (not in a bad way) that everything came together on one plate.  Chicken satay for my appetizer choice, which was OK (I wasn’t pleased with their choice of white meat, but that’s personal preference) and of course… 

pad thai for my main course.  I always get pad thai the first time I eat at a Thai restaurant, for comparison’s sake.  This one was decent – a little too wet, and I was a little sad that there was no lime included for me to squeeze over it.  I really like the squeeze of lime, for the acidity to balance out any sweetness and counter the savoriness when I’m eating Thai food.  So while this was tasty enough to eat again, it was definitely not what I look for in amazing Thai food.  You know what this is…

Yvo says: Great place to have in the neighborhood for Thai – cheap lunch special, solidly tasty food, clean interior – nice enough to go sit down for a meal, honestly, so slightly better than your average takeout place – but not a place to go out of your way for food.  Since my ex-coworker lives in the area and wasn’t feeling too hot, I didn’t much mind going to his neighborhood for lunch, but I doubt I’d return.  If you live in the area or are in the area, though, the lunch menu is very inexpensive and the food is worth a try (Linguine was happy with his choices, though I didn’t photograph them, and says he goes there fairly frequently). 
not destination dining, but give it a go if you’re in the area