Sweet Basil Cafe

Always top notch. I had the Crawfish Étouffée served over Cheese Grits. UNBELIEVABLE! My wife had the chicken tortilla soup which she said was superb. Just a great place for lunch.

My favorite restaurant in Florence. I’m an extreme foodie and this place Never disappoints. The shrimp burger is my favorite sandwich and of course the red, white and blue salad is to die for. The homemade desserts and fruit teas your taste buds will be thanking you for stopping here!

Enjoyed lunch at Sweet Basil today. Had the salad plate combo. Chicken Salad offered nice big chunks of white meat & celery, but dressing was a bit runny for my liking. Tomato Aspic needed a bit more seasoning (lemon, perhaps?) and firmness. Fruit Salad was fresh & tasty. Service was excellent, prompt, friendly. Store was clean and inviting, with many appealing choices. I’d certainly recommend this café for a luncheon.

Okay, wow for a lunch place. They had a very diverse lunch menu, so I ordered the weirdest thing I saw: Grilled Chicken Benedict. I like grilled chicken, I like eggs Benedict, so why not? So this is a grilled chicken sandwich served on a croissant with asparagus tips and apparently hollandaise sauce. They had 4 different sides, so I choose the fresh fruit just to see how fresh it was.
This was a great lunch! The chicken wasn’t dried out, and the flavors of the sandwich were unique, but balanced and quite good. The fruit was all really fresh (no fruit cocktail in sugar syrup here) which is usually what restaurants serve as their fruit salad.
The food was impressive, but at 12:15 I think the service should have been faster (it is lunch and we only get 30 minutes after all). Took between 20 and 30 minutes for the food to come out. I’d come back for sure, if I have time.

I absolutely love sweet basil! Never ordered anything that wasn’t good. To top it off the employees are always friendly and make me feel my business is appreciated. They sell a variety of wonderful soups, spices, cakes, and other things as well. So glad I decided to give them a try!

I had the BBQ chicken with white sauce and crumbled bacon on a bed of cornbread. WOW, this was a flavor explosion, very peppery white sauce. A very eclectic menu. Super friendly staff. I highly recommend this place.

I came here because of the reviews I saw on Unilocal.
The menu is quite large and took a little time for me to study. I decided to try one of the Farm to table specials: Tomato Pie which came with Red, White, and Blue salad.
I love tomato pie when it’s done right and based on the reviews of this restaurant I had high hopes. It did not meet my expectations. There was way too much cheddar cheese on top which was not melted well and tasted much like eating spoonfuls of chunky cheese. Once I removed some of the cheese I could taste the tomatoes, basil, and crust a little better which redeemed the entrée slightly. Unfortunately, the portion was not heated all the way through either, not ice cold but not warm at all in the center.
The Red, White, and blue salad was fresh greens topped with slices of strawberries, blueberries, chopped pecans, and crumbles of bleu cheese with a poppyseed dressing. It was VERY good, much better than I expected it to be. Everything tasted so fresh and the amount of each component was perfect. Each ingredient was well represented and tasted wonderful together as a group. I can understand why this is a popular item.
I might would return if I were in the area but I wouldn’t make a special trip to come back. I definitely wouldn’t get the tomato pie again.
They had some neat items in their «gourmet grocery» section.
Prices were a little high, especially since you order at the counter, fix your own drink, and seat yourself. I felt the price unreasonable for the tomato pie but not for the fresh r, w, b salad, if that makes any sense.

Red White and Blue salad with poppy seed dressing is wonderful!

Sweet Basil is awesome for many reasons, but here’s two:
1. They make and sell just about everything in the store (except their wine selection, which is pretty extensive I might add). But it creates a homey atmosphere of «what’s ours can be yours», and they make some good stuff, I’ll tell you. Buy their poppy seed dressing, it’s out of this world good.
2. Their sandwiches are crazy tasty. Most recently I ordered the White BBQ Chicken sandwich on a multigrain roll. The chicken was good and blackened, and had great smokey flavor, and their homemade white bbq sauce was outstanding. It also had lettuce, tomato, and bacon on it. I highly recommend it. But I’ve never had a bad sandwich here.
One of their sides of the day was sweet potato fries. They were great: very well cooked to a crisp, and had that nice sweet/​salty flavor.
One thing I do wish they did differently is make their own bread. The bread they use is good, but you can see it sitting in the kitchen in the wrappers they bought it in. Truly great cafes bake their own bread, and that sets them far apart from the rest. But overall, Sweet Basil is an awesome café, and about as good a lunch as you’ll find in the Shoals.

I’m so glad I found this place. Gourmet sandwich shops are my absolute favorite. I almost wish i could have a party or wedding here just so they could cater.
They also have a nice gourmet food and wine selection.