By Gloria Glyer

Cuisine: Think fresh, think Thai
Setting: Open and au courant
Service: Attentive and unobtrusive
Prices: $–$$


Year after year, readers of this magazine vote for Thai Basil Cafe in Sacramento’s midtown as the region’s best Thai restaurant. Recently, the Divas visited its sister restaurant, Thai Basil, in the Laguna area. (A third Thai Basil is in Roseville.)

Manager Suleka Lindley greeted us warmly, and server Martin Sithipone took our large order, making helpful suggestions along the way. Our table was in the back; the only negative was that half of us were looking at a service area. Tableware for nearly every course was a different piece of blue-and-white china. Take time to notice the designs and styles—they are intriguing.

Starters began to arrive before we had ordered wine. It was my fault—I should have asked Sithipone to wait a bit before putting in our order. The menu is overwhelming, offering more than enough choices for all, especially vegetarians.

My favorite dish was the deliciously fresh salad rolls called po pia sod—cucumber, lettuce, rice noodles and tofu wrapped in rice paper. They were delicately seasoned and accompanied by a nicely savory dipping sauce. Gung yang—grilled tiger prawns—were tender but firm, and served with a zippy sauce.

The creamy tom kha gai (Thai coconut soup) was brimming with chicken and mushrooms. It tasted of lime juice, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, onion and cilantro. But the slightly spicy flavor was memorable.

Pad kee mow (drunken noodles) is a favorite of mine. The thick, wide rice noodles, coated with a delicate garlic-chile sauce, arrived atop a bed of lettuce and bean sprouts. The yellow curry dish known as gang garee gai featured chunks of carrots, potatoes, onions and chicken in a mild sauce. The contrast of colors and textures made for a winning dish.

But the som tum—spicy green-papaya salad—was marginal in appearance and flavor. Also not up to my expectations was the tung tong: golden-fried egg-roll-wrapper cups filled with a mixture of ground pork, chicken, prawns, crab and water chestnuts. The filling was mushy and flavorless. The beef satay—skewered grilled beef—was rather tough, but the accompanying diced-cucumber sauce added tang and crunch.

We also ordered pad thai (rice noodles with tofu, egg and bean sprouts), gra tiam prik tai (Thai scampi), pad prew wan (veggies in a sweet-and-sour sauce) and lad nah (thick rice noodles and broccoli florets).

Save room for dessert—and be sure to order the ube ice cream. Made from taro root, it is a deep, intense purple color (the perfect color for shoes, if not necessarily for ice cream).

I especially liked the sweet tropical grill, featuring grilled mango, pineapple and banana, served over ice cream and topped with toasted coconut and sweet rum sauce. Another winner: banana chunks encased in fried pastry, accompanied by coconut ice cream. We also ordered Thai custard; sweet black rice with coconut ice cream; and fresh mango with sweet rice.

Diva Commentary

The Divas raved about the coconut soup, drunken noodles, pad thai, grilled tiger prawns, yellow curry, sweet tropical grill and sweet black rice.

Said Joan Leineke, “The coconut soup had the right spiciness, and the pad thai was good, but with a little too much sauce. I liked the chewiness of the drunken noodles.”

Paulette Bruce-Miller appreciated the restaurant’s roominess, and Gayla Mace called the setting “clean, crisp and casual.” She said she would reorder just about everything we sampled.

But the Divas had a few complaints as well, saying the sweet-and-sour veggies tasted like old-style Cantonese, the satay was not distinctive, the mango with sweet rice was leathery and not sweet enough, and maybe, just maybe, the veggie rolls needed more flavor.

Choosing the Wine

Guest Erin Larkin was eager to see which wine Bernice Hagen would order. “It’s a challenge to pick a wine to go with Thai food,” said Larkin. Hagen chose a Kendall-Jackson 2003 Chardonnay and a Columbia Winery 2003 Gewürztraminer. “The Gewürz was a good choice for this food,” said Hagen. “Enough sweetness—it complements the spicy food. The Chardonnay was fairly light but was not a very good wine, and it was not complementary to the food.” Leineke likened the taste of the Chardonnay to burned firewood.

Thai Basil, 8785 Center Parkway, B120, Sacramento; (916) 681-8424; Lunch 11:30 a.m.–4 p.m. Tuesday–Sunday, dinner 5–9 p.m. Tuesday–Thursday, 5–10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 5–9 p.m. Sunday, closed Monday.

For the rest of this story pick up a copy of Sacramento magazine's August issue.