yuppie restaurant review

I took my good friend, Charles Albright (Milhouse, Knightmares, Sunshine Smile, Megacools, Rock the Light, the Frenchmen, and many more)** out to a birthday dinner last night. He's a vegetarian, so we tried to go to Andy Nguyens, but it was closed for a private event. Bummer. Charles suggested Thai Basil. I had never been there and had heard mixed reviews, but it was Charles' night, so I said OK.

The decor is pretty fancy and they have their SN&R best of signs posted all over, including the one from this year. They have a big selection of wine and beer in a refrigerated case (well, big for a Thai restaurant), which is nice. They have Phuket beer (heh heh) and Tiger and some Japanese, Chinese and Americanese beers, too. The wine list is OK, but overpriced. I don't see why a glass of Mondavi Cab should be 6.25. Overpriced was the theme of the evening. Thai Basil has a limited menu compared to Amarin and it only has one price for everything (except at lunch, when you can get "small plates" for 7.95, not sure how small they are). The price is 10.95 for dishes in which there is (I think) chicken, beef, or tofu, and 12.95 for shrimp or maybe something else. I think this is a stupid system. We wanted a veggie dish and there were only a couple to choose from, including prig king, a spicy green bean dish, but why should green beans be eleven bucks! We started with veggie rolls (the starters are lower priced). These were bland and mostly lettuce filled. The sauce was pretty good, but very fishy. Luckily Charles is not that stict of a vegetarian. Then we split a spicy red curry with tofu. It came with rice at least, but was not spicy at all and pretty bland. Then we got a wide noodle dish with a black bean sauce. The sauce had a good smoky, salty flavor and I love fat, soft noodles (heh heh), but it still did not excite my palate. Just OK. Not enough basil, not enough spice. For dessert we all split the fried banana with honey and ice cream. I rarely order dessert so it's been years since I ordered this at Amarin, but I recall it being fucking delicious. At Thai Basil the banana came out wrapped in eggroll wrapper and the grease it was fried in tasted a little old. It wasn't that tasty. However, the company was wonderful and we had a great time. Sorry Thai Basil, you are somewhat weak in my opinion. I really want to get out to Pattaya Thai again and review that. It's this total yuppie hole-in-the-wall out on Watt in that yuppie neighborhood North Highlands.

**Charles thought it would be funny that I namedropped him as part of the "indie elite"