Basil Leaf

Basil Leaf has closed

This gross place is finally closed… I’m even more scared to say that a Sushi place took its spot.

This place is some of the most vile food I’ve ever tasted. The place is really dirty. And I mean REALLY dirty. It smells awful too. I got takeout, so I was willing to look past the façade but when I got the food home, the grease had leaked all over the bag and was getting all over the table. Not a good sign. When we opened the cartons, the food smelled like the restaurant and left us really unsatisfied and feeling sick.

Went here for the first time today. So disappointed. The service was nice but the place wreaked of urine and the food tasted dirty.

Yes, it’s in a strip mall setting. Yes, they have super cheesy graphics in their logo and the menus. No, the place isn’t impeccably spotless. But! If you take it at face value it’s pretty damn good.
The people working were very friendly. The menu has a good assortment and a MEGA plus for me is they have a separate vegetarian menu. They use Vegefarm vegetarian meat products which I was unfamiliar with so I special requested Tofu Curry which was delicious.
My guy loves phở so that’s what he got and he had no complaints, which is actually pretty good for him.
They also have full range of bubble tea drinks. The Thai Tea is a classic favorite and did not disappoint at Basil Leaf.
We came on a relatively dreary Sunday afternoon but the place was steadily busy which is always a plus in terms of food freshness and turn over.
They advertise their lobster specials everywhere in the restaurant and we actually saw them restocking the tank with (very) live and active lobsters. The tank did seam overcrowded once they filled it up but the lobsters were all kicking around and didn’t seem lethargic.

It was a great find! My boyfriend and I just got into the area and were looking for some good food for lunch. We ordered banh xeo, phở and a curry chicken vermacelli dish all of which was amazingly good. The dishes are well priced and the dishes are big for the money.

Don’t order anything else other than their triple lobster specials. I’ve eaten here countless times since they opened a few years back and really really enjoyed it back then. However, the food have progressively worsen over the years and they suddenly no longer take credit card to save money. Don’t be surprised if they change ownership any day now.

Sorry to say something has gone wrong here. The quality of the food has just gone down hill over the past 2 years. Ate here with the family last week and we were dissapointed. I think they may have started using MSG in the soups for flavor. yuk. It’s a little dirty now and the service was very slow.

For a neighborhood Phở place, this is as good as it gets. Good food and friendly service — that’s all there is needed to a place where the price point tops out at $ 7.50. If you like phở — eat here!

The food was OK (I wasn’t impressed with the phở ga, but my boyfriend liked whatever stir-​fried beef thing he had ordered).
What was not OK was the waitstaff changing the channel on the TV in the dining room from a cartoon to one of those «true stories from the ER» shows. WHILE WE WERE EATING. I didn’t feel comfortable saying something, but I probably should have. I lost my appetite and couldn’t finish my lunch. A waste of our time and money. We’ll eat somewhere else next time we’re passing through Stoughton.

«What the hell was that smell?» was my first reaction. I cant even explain how bad the smell was, never did figure out what it was…
I ordered spring rolls and when they arrived they had chicken in them… thats never happened before. They were decent, definitely not the best I have ever had.
I also ordered the pork chops… I got one measly pork chop and it had a weird after taste. Im pretty sure there was msg in it and the oil they cooked it in was old. The rice was mushy .
Very disappointed. I came here years ago and the food was great and the portions were good. Wouldnt recommend it.

Hate. Seriously no redeeming qualities.
First– we order summer and spring rolls as appetizers. They did not come out together, and beyond that I had my main course before my friend had his spring rolls! The timing of this meal was completely messed up. It was like the kitchen was cooking one item at a time in no predictable order.
Summer rolls were awful. They came with tofu. and the tofu was FRIED. The whole point of a summer roll is a refreshing cool flavor. why would anyone ever fry the tofu? And why not say this on the menu?
I had the Vermicilli Bowl with Tofu. Again. the tofu was FRIED. I am not even sure that this was tofu, it looked more like skinny fried batter with nothing in it. Just awful. I could not even eat it. but the waiter never seemed to care.
Friend ordered Curry Vermicilli Bowl. First– he gets curry soup. WHAT?! Then they say oh okay well bring you noodles. Then they bring them and dump them in the soup, and this took 10 minutes. At this point, the soup is cold. They heat it up. another 10 minutes. Friend starts to eat it. the chicken is dark and looks like chicken feet. There is NO white meat at all, and we were not even sure that the chicken was chicken. Just gross.
To top it all off– server did not seem to care or want to rectify the problem when we were so clearly unhappy.
We went to McDonalds next door. SO much better than this place will ever be.
NEVER go here.

I went here three times since it opened and all three times, I got food poisoning from the crispy noodles with mixed veggies/​seafood (what I usually order at any restaurant). It tasted good until I came home and sat in the bathroom for hours. I only went back because the first time I thought it was just my stomach but it’s really the food.
Vietnamese food run by Chinese family? No thanks. I rather have real Vietnamese food at Phở So 1 in Randolph.
Other things I’ve tried are:
–Crab Rangoons, which were decent. The filling could use a little more crab. Too much cream cheese.
–Phở is bland. I never order phở at a Vietnamese restaurant because I rather have the real deal at home. I wanted to see if it was any good since it is run by Chinese people.
–Vermicelli bowl with eggrolls, pretty good!
–Shaved ice. It was good, but took them a long time to make it and my shaved ice was half melted by the time I received it. What’s so hard about opening canned fruits? Just kidddinggg hehe…
Good customer service during the day. Waiters are hardly on the floor during the evening, they seemed to be occupied with something in the back.

my 1^st review from a restaurant in Boston. We had just finished going to the aquarium and I really wanted my best friend from Japan to try Phở and Vermicelli, so we opted for viet food. Great choice!
On the top of my head… I can’t remember any of the dishes’ name. I’m sorry! I’m Chinese, not Vietnamese. But we did order SHRIMP SPRING ROLLS, which were delicious btw, especially with the sauce. I ordered (my usual at any vietnamese place), VERMICELLI with EGG ROLLS, and then ordered PHO for my best friend and her boyfriend.
For an Asian restaurant in Boston, this place was damn good. I mean… even better than some of the Phở places in Westminister. The vermicelli was one of the best I’ve had, and the phở didn’t disappoint either. As to whether they used msg in their broth… I can never tell, but whatever they put, seal the deal!
Very good. I’d definitely come back here again for more vermicelliiiiii~

Unilocalers,
My family and I went to Basil Leaf last night and some things changed since the last time we were there in June. The menu was different and the Vietnamese Phở no longer authentic. I have a feeling the cook left and the family made up stuff when it came to the Vietnamese noodle soups on their menu. The broth was a murky gray, the flavor completely off because they used beef bones and daikons… made it into a Chinese broth. Completely cut out the main spices for a great bowl of Vietnamese soup.
Fans of Phở, you’ll know what I mean… It was a «WTF» moment when the soup came out. Even though they gave us the usual basil leaves, chili peppers, lime and beansprouts on the side, it cannot hide the amateur attempt. So disappointed because this was not a bad place to get a great bowl of beef noodle soup!!!
They do have ample parking and the prices are pretty low. We also got the sweet and sour soup with chicken (small bowl) and a pork chop rice plate. The soup was ok but they skimped even on the beansprouts and pineapples… not that much chicken. The pork chop in the rice plate was a bit dry although still tasty.
The place was ok, it’s just not the place to go to if you want Phở.

There are so many good things at Basil Leaf — but there is one amazing thing — the Lobster Noodle Soup. I’ve had this dish now twice (this is my second visit) and after the first visit I’ve craved it for the month that just went by. Amazing. The other dishes including the Peking Pork and the bunn vermicelli options are all good — but the soup is where it’s at. I’ve read some of the other reviews, but you have to get a bit more out into the soups to really get this place. We also had some appetizers of chinese sausage that were rock solid. GET THE LOBSTER NOODLE SOUP!

How this place defines itself?
Answer: Vietnamese cuisine/​restaurant
But what is it really?
No, it’s a Vietnamese/​Chinese/​Thai/​all over the board restaurant.
At Basil Leaf, the noodle bowls are as big as your head, but it’s filled with so much broth, and not much of anything else, that you can jump in and swim.
Aside from that, the service was very slow too. Usually, phở comes out really quickly, it’s supposed to be like that. Phở’s are not cooked-​to-​order, only assembled-​to-​order. Half of my chow fun noodle was finished before my sister’s phở arrived. And we waited 15 mins for a tea refill. C’mon, open lid on the teapot means more tea, please!
When asked about a particular important ingredient that’s missing in the noodle soup, a waiter said they don’t have it because they don’t want to spend the money to buy it. Okay!
When arrived at this Vietnamese restaurant, we had a Chinese man, who spoke English as our host, a Vietnamese girl who spoke mainly English as the waitress, and another random woman who works there we found out speaks Vietnamese too.
However, we found this fact out after my brother-​in-​law said the food’s shitty in Vietnamese. :)

Weird.
That pretty much sums it up.
I went there for lunch and there was a flat screen TV in the corner on really loud! On what? On former President Bush blabbing about who knows what.
So I ordered a hot and sour soup. She asked big or small or something like that because her English was sub par… and so I said big because that’s all I was eating.
She brought me and my guy EACH a bowl the size of a kiddy swimming pool. I kid you not. It was huuuuge and the worst part… it was mostly broth and not enough yum yums. I think I had 2 pieces of shrimp in that huge body of broth.
Meh.

Well, I had a change of heart and decided to try Basil Leaf again. I’m glad I did, because it has improved from the last time I went. My wife ordered the Phở Dac Biet again. Gone was the daikon radish smell. But also gone was that heaping bowl. It seems that they might have stepped down the size of the bowl too. I tasted the broth and it wasn’t very beefy. My guess is that instead of separate broths they might have made a more neutral broth to be used for both chicken and beef. The broth was also loaded with MSG, yet still lacked depth in flavor. It had this odd green tinge that didn’t come from the fresh herbs. There was probably some leafy green vegetable used in the preparation of the stock.
It was a bit unsettling that one slice of brisket had a greenish iridescence to it. My wife was concerned that it was spoiled, but I bravely (or foolishly depending on how you look at it) tasted it and it didn’t taste spoiled. It was a little dry so I surmised that it was sitting at the top of a batch of slice brisket and just oxidized. I googled it after I got home and I found out that green iridescent yet perfectly edible meat, especially brisket, does exist from the processing plant. It just usually gets picked out before serving to the customer because of it’s unappealing nature.
I ordered a grilled pork sub and the pork chop, omelette and pork skin rice plate. The pork chop was well-​marinaded but the marinade wasn’t as traditional. It wasn’t as garlicky, citrusy and fish-​saucy as most of the well-​established Vietnamese restaurants in Dorchester and Chinatown. The omelette, which was really more like a slice of eggloaf, was a large piece and the shredded pork skin had just enough toasted rice mixed in without tasting too mealy.
But the best part of the meal was the grilled pork sub. It was served on a toasted Vietnamese roll that was crumbly and flaky on the outside and soft on the inside. It was slathered on the inside with the typical mayo spread and wasn’t loaded with Maggi seasoning. In fact, if there was any Maggi, I couldn’t really taste it. I’m glad, because I’ve had too many subs where they were too liberal with the Maggi. There was plenty of grilled pork and pickled carrots and radish and herbs. The last time I was there, they listed two mini subs for $ 2.95. This time it was one regular sized sub for $ 2.95. It was worth every penny.
While they still can’t get the phở right, at least everything else seems to be falling into place. Until they can get their phở to where it needs to be, I can only give them 3 stars. Either way, I’ll be back to give them another shot.

That would be a third time confused and bewildered by the Vietnamese food from a Chinese restaurant. I grew up with a Vietnamese family next door, and eating at their house was nothing like eating at this place.
The décor was plain and fine, nothing to really to to recommend itself. It looks like it was put in the place of a closed down dunkin’s. The TVs were quickly changed from Chinese shows to golf when we sat down– also not a great choice.
The only things that I appreciated about this place were: the prices were really low, the service was so bad that my friend and I were able to sit there and talk for a really long time, and the food was only ok — worth the money that we paid for it.
The spring rolls were good, the peanut sauce was decent, the plate I got, I can’t remember now exactly the Beef with Satay Sauce I think? They repeated your order only with the menu number I apparently got «M10», my friend got «M14.»
The bathroom situation was confusing to try to understand, every once in a while one of the employees or somebody else would walk out of the bathroom, when we hadn’t seen them walk in — there wasn’t alot going on in the restaurant so it wasn’t possible to miss them walking in, so they must have been in there for a long time. Odd. Also by the end of our meal the entire place filled up with the smell of laundry detergent — Tide, I believe, I dearly hope they do their own linens and that is what we were smelling.
It took forever to get our food packaged up, LARGE servings, but once we finally got it packaged separately, and just so with peanut sauce for each, they never seemed to come back for the check. We ended up leaving a fairly large tip, just so we could get out of there in our own time frame.
They have ALOT of parking. I might go back, but I would share a dish with a friend, and set my standards lower, or ignore the fact that they label themselves as a Vietnamese Noodle Shop.