Basil Cart

Oh Thai food.  I love it.

Correction.  

I love it when I'm in Sydney (where the now closed Sailor's Thai will always hold a special place in my heart, specifically the canteen, although I dined at the full restaurant too, or even casual delivery like Spice I Am.  My favorite still is Longrain, even though sometimes inconsistent, and always the best choice for a group and I always yearn for their caramelized pork hock!  Longrain even has a location in Tokyo, which I can also recommend.).  I've loved it in Singapore.  But in the US?  It so commonly lets me down.  I've tried high end Thai (like Michelin starred Kin Khao, that was actually good, but not extraordinary), I've tried fast food style, and everything in-between.  There is never one particular thing that fails, sometimes, sure it is the spice level, or the freshness of produce, but usually, the flavor profiles just aren't as complex as I want them to be.  There is something magical about good thai food, this perfect harmony of sweet and sour and spicy ... and, well, we just don't see it often here.

The best I've found in SF, for the curious, is Lapat's Thai Noodle Bar (not particularly authentic, but really extensive, interesting menu, and well prepared), or for reliable but quite Americanized Thai, there is always Osha (which I've used for many private events).

Anyway, the takeout and delivery heavy days of COVID lead me to try another in SF, this time, one without a storefront: Basil Cart.

"Akin to the street food of Bangkok, vendors have a focus on what they do best. Basil Cart will provide what we do best while using high quality ingredients (non-GMO and sustainable meats) for our mindful and health-conscious community of San Francisco. "

Basil Cart operates out of one of the "cloud kitchens", located at 60 Morris St, a warehouse converted into a slew of mini kitchens.  They are available for pickup, or, more commonly, delivery.  They don't have *tons* of reviews on Yelp so far, but those that exist are strong: 4.5 stars overall.

I know very little about the business, besides that they offer a large Thai menu, and also do some catering.

Delivery

"An online food delivery service built for easy and reliable ordering for groups 🤩 "

I ordered delivery via a catering service, Catermate, which I think is relatively new in the area.  They are good for handling large group orders, and have a curated list of restaurants they work and deliver directly from.  Delivery was on time, I received a text message when my order had been picked up, and when it was delivered.  No issues at all, and they even included a hand written customized note to my team!

Side note: Stuck doing a lot of pickup and delivery these days? Want to try some free food and new pickup or delivery services?  Here are some codes for free money!

• Door Dash ($15 off, $5 each of your first 3 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Caviar ($20 off, $10 off your first 2 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Ritual ($6 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Delivery.com ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Grub Hub ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Seamless ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
• Allset ($5 off) [ Pickup only ]

I was pleased with my delivery experience. The hot food arrived hot, the cold dishes were still chilled, and everything was very well labelled.  It arrived right on time.  Kudos to the Catermate team for the ordering/delivery experience.

Cuisine

The Basil Cart menu is fairly extensive, all your Thai classics, plus a couple less commonly seen items.  All are well designated if they are gluten-free or vegan (or, uh, really, "vegan friendly").

Starters

The starters section of the menu from Basil Cart is extensive to say the least.  Healthy options like avocado fresh summer rolls, plenty of fried things, soups, and hybrid items like potstickers, egg rolls, and even thai samosas.  And, uh, fried calamari?  We ordered several items.

Basil Fried Calamari. (gf). $13.95.

"Lightly battered calamari tossed in Thai basil, jalapeño and lime served with sweet chili sauce with ground peanuts."

Not a common appetizer at Thai restaurants (the last time I had it at a Thai restaurant was probably back at Muum Maam in Sydney), but I love calamari, and I love sweet chili sauce, so, this sounded like it had potential.

The calamari was large rings, not the more standard smaller style you find at American style restaurants, and no body pieces like often found in Italian fried calamari.

The batter was quite flavorful, but soft and soggy.  Obviously, a downside of delivery.  Much of the coating was falling off.

I liked the generous slices of jalapeño and plentiful Thai basil, but I don't care too much for red bell peppers, so I avoided those - and they seemed rather out of place anyway.

It sadly did not come with the sweet chili sauce it was supposed to.

Overall, I think this was likely good when fresh - the calamari wasn't chewy, fishy, nor rubbery, and I liked the flavor of the batter, but it was pretty soggy when we got it.  I threw some into the toaster oven, and it crisped up nicely, although was a bit greasy.

***, but it had potential to be so much more.

Update: I had some cold the next day as leftovers, and actually liked it more than way.  Really great texture of the calamari, although the coating was obviously soft and soggy.  Tossed on top of leftover papaya salad it was quite enjoyable.  ***+ as leftovers.  My favorite of the appetizers.

Vegetable Egg Rolls (vegan). $7.50.

"Fresh mixed vegetables; served with sweet chili sauce."

The spring rolls came 5 to an order, and smelt like freshly fried food, in a good way.  Mmm.  They did include the sweet chili sauce with this.

Because this was delivery, they were a bit soft though.  A quick toast in the toaster oven revived them with no problem.

The spring rolls were ... fine.  They did re-crisp nicely.  Inside was fairly standard spring roll filling - mushy cabbage, carrots, maybe something else.  Lightly seasoned.  The wrappers were a bit oily.  Sweet chili sauce was average, quite sweet.

Not really my thing, but they were "fine". **+.

Samosa Puffs (3). $12.95.

"Homemade savory spiced chicken and potato stuffed in flaky pastry shell."

I dislike chicken, but Osha Thai has a (vegetarian) version of thai samosas that I truly love, and I have always found quite unique, so I took a risk on these, mostly really wanting to try another version of what I thought was a signature dish at Osha!  I guess thai samosas *are* a thing?

These came with no dipping sauce.

These were good.  Much bigger size than an Indian samosa, or the ones at Osha Thai.  The style was quite similar to Osha though - super flaky pastry wrapper, thick and flavorful, albeit a touch greasy.  Inside was really well spiced potato bits and a few small pieces of chicken.  Since I don't care for chicken, this thrilled me.  There was no other filling, unlike the Osha ones that also contain carrots and peas.  The filling was quite flavorful and savory, although strangely a bit sweet too.

Overall, these were a solid item.  I really enjoyed the pastry, just wished it wasn't quite as greasy.  I enjoyed the filling, but wished these were a vegetarian version.  Still, tasty.

***+.

Craft Greens (Yum)

The "craft greens", er, "salads" section has 4 options, including a glass noodle salad and a crispy rice salad, neither of which sounded particularly "green" forward.  Since we were ordering so many noodles and heavier dishes, we skipped those, opting for the lighter sounding options.

Turkey (chicken?) Larb (gf). $13.95.

"Ground chicken tossed with Thai lime dressing, cilantro, red onion, kaffir lime leaves, mint, cilantro, and a touch of crushed roasted rice served with Romaine leaf lettuce."

I've had larb exactly twice in my life, but I really loved it from Lapat's Thai Noodle Bar, in SF, where I had a catfish version (not so much the version from House of Thai, also catfish).  Basil Cart allows you to pick your protein on nearly every dish ... except the larb, available in a poultry version only.  Now, unless it is duck, I rarely want anything to do with poultry, but, I wanted to try the larb so badly that I got it anyway.

The larb was listed in one place as turkey, and another as chicken.  I'm still not sure which it was. I'm not really a fan of either, and this tasted, well, like poultry.  At least it was ground.

The dish was tasty overall - lots of flavor, although, like many of the dishes, it was a bit too sweet for my tastes, although it did have a nice acid component from the lime.  I liked the juicy tomatoes, fresh harsh red onion, and juicy greens.  The green beans were a bit out of place, and I don't like bell peppers so I ate around them.

Overall, fresh and flavorful, and I'm glad I got it, but, I wished it wasn't chicken based.

***.

Papaya Salad (gf, vegan-friendly). $11.95.
Add prawns ($3).

"Shredded green papaya, garlic, peanuts, Thai chili, cherry tomatoes, and green beans tossed in Thai lime sauce; served over mixed greens."

So, the "vegan-friendly" designation almost made me not order the classic payaya salad.  A good papaya salad has seafood funk!  It should have fish sauce, it should have tiny little dried shrimps ... vegan?  Eh?  Minus one point, just in concept.  I crave a good fish sauce base, like the version from Kin Khao.

And to be fair, I actually *did* decide not to order it, but someone else in the group wanted it.  So we got it.  To the papaya salad you could add prawns for an additional $3, the only protein option, which I did, hoping to jazz it up a little.  Minus one point for not having crispy caramelized pork or beef options, like the ever memorable version with crispy sweet pork on top at Sailer's Thai Canteen (and the ok version from the updated format of the full restaurant).

The salad was fairly standard, lots of shredded green papaya and carrots, fresh, juicy.  Some thinly sliced beans, halves of tomato.  And, some peas?

Flavor was where it let me down.  Which, I blame on it being vegan.  It just didn't have that deep funk to it, it needed fish sauce.  It needed mini dried shrimps.  It was also not sour, mostly just a bit sweet.  Like many dishes from Basil Cart, just, a bit too sweet for me.

Anyway, it was fresh and fine, and there was *plenty* of peanut to provide crunch and flavor, but, I wanted some depth to this, some fishy funk, and spice.  About on par with the generic and unremarkable version at Chai Yo.

The prawns were large size, juicy, well cleaned, not rubbery.  Good prawns.  6 were included for the add-on price.

***.

Update: it was actually much better the next day, as the papaya and lettuce clearly soaked up more sauce. Still not complex flavor, but, I liked it more.  Good topped with the leftover calamari.  ***+.

Curries (Gaang)

Curries (mostly) come vegetable based by default, but you can add in non-GMO tofu or chicken ($1.50), extra mixed veggies ($2), Revier sustainable flank steak ($3), or prawns ($4).  They come a la carte, but sides of regular, brown, or sticky rice are also available ($1.50, $2.75, $3.50, respectively).

The curry options weren't particularly novel, all your standards: red, green, or yellow curry, plus pumpkin choo chee salmon or massamun beef curry.  We ordered several.

Massumun Braised Beef Curry (gf). $17.

"Revier sustainable beef braised with Massamun curry and coconut milk with white sweet potato, carrot, red onion, and peanuts."

Massumun curry comes only in a beef version, and was the choice of one of my co-diners.  I was a bit put off by the look when I opened it, just piles of oil!

The curry itself was ... fine, although, yes, very oily.  Flavor was rich from coconut milk, but like the other dishes, I wanted it spicier and more complex.  I didn't really like the flavor much at all.  I did like the thicker style of curry, due to the peanut.

Massumun Braised Beef Curry: close up.

Once I dug in I found chunks of steak similar to those in the other beef dish we selected, although larger.  It also had the same carrots as many of our dishes, and of course hunks of white sweet potato.

The carrots, like in other dishes, were a bit mushy, the potato was average.  The beef though let me down somewhat.  It really does have nice flavor, seems high quality, but, it was a bit chewy.  I think I just don't like flank steak.  The larger hunks here worked better than the thin slices in our noodle dish however.

Massumum curry is never a top choice of mine, besides sometimes loving beautifully fall apart slow cooked beef sometimes used, so I wasn't surprised to feel pretty meh about this, particularly given the use of flank steak.

***, largely due to my own personal preferences.

Update: Cold leftovers, of *just* the beef, were tasty enough.  I certainly wouldn't get it again, but I didn't mind finishing up some hunks of meat.

Green Curry (gf, vegan). $13.95.
Add Mixed Vegetables ($2).

"Spicy. Eggplant, basil, red bell pepper, and green beans stewed with Thai green curry spices and coconut milk."

For the green curry, we went all on on the veggies, augmenting the eggplant/green bean/red bell pepper base with the mixed veggie add-on for $2.  This seemed to add bok choy, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and potatoes?  I'm still curious what happens if you don't add on - would this just be the curry sauce and very minor veg?  

Anyway, I asked for our order in general to be spicy, which it wasn't, but this dish even said spicy in the name.  But ... yeah, it was not spicy at all.

Fairly standard green curry, coconut milk based so creamy, decent flavor, veggies cooked well enough, veggie size pieces good, the eggplant certainly required cutting.

Overall, fine, not remarkable, I wanted more spice.

***.

Noodles & Rice

The carb heavy portion of the menu is filled with assorted fried rice entree dishes (yes of course there is one served in a pineapple ...), and a few noodle dishes (both dry and soup versions).  

Just like the curries, the noodle section (mostly) comes vegetable based by default, but you can add in non-GMO tofu or chicken ($1.50), extra mixed veggies ($2), Revier sustainable flank steak ($3), or prawns ($4).  

Not a menu category I usually spend much time on, and yet, I picked three dishes from here.

Pad Se Ew (gf). $13.50.
Add steak (+$3).

"Fresh wide rice noodles, cage-free egg, bok choy, and broccoli."

For my first noodle dish, I went for my standard Thai noodle choice, pad see ew (sorry pad thai lovers, I moved on from pad thai long ago ... it was a great intro to thai food for me, but I find the sweeter nature less appealing now).  I added steak just to make a bit more interesting (again, just given the choices of chicken, shrimp, steak, tofu, or veg).

The noodles were decent, not too mushy, but clearly not "hot out of the wok".  Fairly greasy though and they sat quite heavy.  Some dark soy sauce flavor, but not much.  I liked the bits of egg.

Veggies were cooked ok, broccoli, bok choy, and a (random) carrot.

The steak was ... ok.  A bit chewy, which I guess is expected for flank steak.  A bit fatty.  But the flavor was good and the quality was clear.  If only it wasn't flank steak.

Overall, this was "fine" but not remarkable, and I'd prefer something less heavy.  The greasy level really threw me off.  Slightly less enjoyable than the versions from Modern Thai and Navin Thai.

**+.

Pad Key Mow / Drunken Noodles (gf, vegan). $13.95.
Add mixed veggies (+$2).

"Fresh wide rice noodles, vegetables, bell pepper, Thai basil, garlic chili."

I've never had Pad Kee Mow (commonly known as "Drunken Noodles") before.  I've often wanted to order it, but its been the item always nudged into the "if we need something else" slot.  Which, inevitably, we never do.  So I finally ordered it, not entirely knowing what to expect, but looking forward to tasty noodles (and no, there is no alcohol in here).  To these I ordered the extra veggies, to keep it vegan friendly for a fellow diner.

I liked the pad key mow more than the pad se ew - it was slightly less greasy, but it too felt pretty heavy.  The veggies were well cooked, but I wasn't into the bell peppers or summer squash (because I don't like them in general), and the cauliflower felt a bit out of place.  Noodles were the same as pad se ew.  Flavor was mild, it seemed slightly soy based.  The thai basil and chiles I was expecting to make this a spicer dish weren't really present.  I did miss the egg from the pad se ew.

Overall, fine, glad to try something different, but it was pretty similar to the pad se ew, just, with veggies, no egg, a touch more flavor, and less grease.

***.

Update: I had a lot of leftover noodles, and had some of this cold, with some chili crunch on top.  That was much better :)

Kao Soi (gf). $14.50. Toppings.
Add Prawns ($4).

"Spicy. Egg noodles in curry broth and boiled free-range egg topped with fried onion, pickled mustard greens, bean sprouts, and crispy noodles."

And finally, a *really* random order for me.  I don't tend to go for carb heavy dishes in general, and so many noodle dishes was already more than I generally would pick.  And soups?  Meh.  And yet, I picked a noodle soup.

Why?  Well, it sounded very unique, and Yelp reviews were really strong.  Plus, uh, perhaps I was drawn in by the "crispy noodles" and "fried onion" aspects.

I was fascinated by it, and enjoyed it far more than I expected.   My favorite of the savory dishes, no question.

This large dish contained the egg noodles (thin style, unlike the pad se ew and key mow that used wide rice noodles), and the crispy noodles (a bit soggy actually, likely from moisture from the cooked noodles), plus a lime, cilantro, bean sprouts, fried onion bits, and what looked like mint.  I didn't find the pickled mustard greens.

I actually really liked the egg noodles.  In general, I'm definitely an egg noodle not rice noodle girl, and these were really nicely prepared, slightly al dente, had some savory quality going on (I think they had a light sauce on them?), and, well, they just seemed remarkably fresh.  Maybe after all the heavy, oily dishes I was just appreciating the simple noodles?  Noodles, the fresh ones, were the shocker hit.

The rest of the toppings helped compliment the soup, although I'm not really sure why I'd want both fresh and crispy noodles, particularly as the ones I perched on top obviously got pretty soft fast.  I liked having the fresh veggie garnishes.

Noodles? ****+.  Toppings? ****.

Kao Soi: broth.

The main body of the soup was packaged separately, so that it wouldn't get soggy.  Major bonus points for doing it this way.  The broth also contained the add-on shrimp (5 of them, plump, juicy, cooked fine), and, yup, a hard boiled egg.

I'll admit, this was odd to me.  Everything about this dish was novel and new, which, well, I loved.  I can't say I want a hard boiled egg in my soup, but, hey.  Authentic I guess?

The curry was delicious, although this wasn't really a "soup" in a thin sense, the curry was just as thick as any of the actual curry dishes, just, this had no veggies in it, and comes with all the toppings and noodles, rather than being served over rice.  It was quite rich, flavorful, well seasoned.

Anyway.  It had a touch of spice, more than the other dishes, although I certainly wouldn't call it "spicy" as advertised.

Curry itself: ***+.

Kao Soi: Composed.

I truly enjoyed putting together my perfect bowl, with the fresh noodles in the curry sauce (which, uh, I did thin out a little to make more soup-like), fresh crisp bean sprouts and herbs, and the crispy noodles, although I think just the noodles and curry, or even curry & rice, would be pretty glorious.

I'm so glad I tried this, favorite savory dish, **** overall, would get again in a heartbeat.

Wok Fried (Kap Khao)

Just like the curries and noodles, the wok fried section (mostly) comes vegetable based by default, but you can add in non-GMO tofu or chicken ($1.50), extra mixed veggies ($2), Revier sustainable flank steak ($3), or prawns ($4).  They also come a la carte, but sides of regular, brown, or sticky rice are also available ($1.50, $2.75, $3.50, respectively).

Cashew Nut. (gf). $13.50.
Bonus: prawns?

"Sautéed white beech mushrooms, onion, bell pepper, carrot, cashews, white sweet potato, and roasted sweet chili paste."

This one we left as standard, no add-on protein or extra veg, as it seemed to have plenty going on in it.  It came with prawns however, which we weren't opposed to.

The mix of veggies was as expected, same carrots that seemed to show up nearly everywhere, bell peppers that I avoided, green onions, and plenty of slimy beech mushrooms and a couple hunks of shite sweet potato, with a distinct pattern to the outside.  There was also some bok choy not included in the description.  It was all rounded out by plentiful cashews.  They really did NOT skip on the cashews!

The veggies were all cooked fine, I liked the mix of textures, and crunch from the nuts in particular, although, you have to like slimy beech mushrooms of course.  It was pretty heavily sauced, with a fairly sweet chile paste, not much spice nor depth.

Overall, flavorful (but sweet) and a bit different from our other dishes.  Not one I'd order again though, just too sweet for my taste.

***.

Prik King Salmon. $18.95.

"Salmon, Prik King curry paste, green beans, red bell pepper, kefir lime leaves."

I am not generally a fan of cooked salmon, but, I wanted seafood besides the calamari starter and prawns you could add on to things, and this was the only non-prawn dish.

The salmon was battered and fried, rather oily, but quite tasty as a result.  The coating was quite flavorful, and it wasn't fishy.  Not crispy, perhaps from takeout, but, flavorful.  Portion included many pieces - 6 generous sized hunks of salmon.

The green beans were, uh, too green beany for me?  Fresh and crisp, well cooked, but, just not my thing.  I also don't care for bell peppers, so the plentiful bell peppers I rather avoided.  I did like the red onions.  Carrots were a bit mushy.

But the salmon was tasty, the sauce flavorful and a bit spicy, and I enjoyed it.  Not something I'd necessarily order again, but was a nice change.

***+.

Update: I liked it as leftovers too, both lightly reheated in the toaster oven and cold.  It held up very well until the next day.  The green beans, in the sauce, cold, I actually liked too.  As leftovers? ***+.

Sides

The sides menu isn't really exciting, just the rices (regular, brown, coconut sticky), mixed veggies, and steamed edamame.

Side Steamed Vegetables (vegan). $5.50.

"Steamed broccoli, bok choy, cauliflower, cabbage, zucchini, yellow squash, and carrot."

To lighten our load just a bit, we opted for sides of steamed veggies, rather than lots of rice.  The veggie mix was the same as what you could add on to any of the entrees.

This was just a pile of steamed veggies, but they were good, fresh.  I didn't find any zucchini, but otherwise it was as advertised.  The veggies were well cooked, and I really love juicy cabbage.  I do wish the mix included mushrooms.

Price seemed a bit high for the portion and simple nature.

***.

Coconut Rice. $3.95.

For rice, I only tried the exciting one, coconut.

It was decent, mushy and sticky as I wanted, a bit creamy, and lots of toasted coconut shredded on top.  Good enough coconut flavor.  Savory and aromatic.

We also had plain white jasmine rice, but I didn't try it.

***.

Peanut Sauce. $1.50.

I ordered extra sauce because I'm a sauce girl.  Through and through.  I knew I'd want more sauce, for ... something.

The peanut sauce was hot (I think intentionally, but perhaps just from being in the bag with hot food?).  It was thick, peanuty, and, well, good.  It made me want some roti to dunk in.

***.

Dessert

Of course I was eager for dessert!  I'm a dessert girl through and through, but its been ages since I've had Thai desserts in particular.  While I love my pies, fruit crisps, cake, cookies, etc, etc, I was excited for a slight change of pace.  I really miss the extensive lineup of Thai desserts you can find in Sydney, like at my favorite little thai hawker cart, Thanon Khaosan, Samorsorn thai, or the mediocre ones from classic Chat Thai or Home Thai.

Basil Cart offers 2 dessert options, both featuring forbidden sticky rice, one with mango, one with lime custard.  I of course ordered both, but alas, only the mango version was delivered.

Mango with Coconut Forbidden Sticky Rice. $10.50.

I never have high hopes for mango sticky rice in the US, just due to the mango quality.  We just don't have access to fresh locally grown mango here, and it just doesn't compare to options where it is grown locally.

Still, I order it frequently, as I do love coconut sticky rice, and usually a sweet coconut or condensed cream helps "save" it slightly.  I was thrilled to see they used black sticky rice, a full mango, and the mint garnish was a nice touch.

The mango was as expected in the US, fresh, ripe, but, not as flavorful as I'd like.  ***,

The black forbidden sticky rice was glorious, exactly what I wanted, so sticky and glutinous.  And of course I loved the sweet coconut cream on top.  The rice and cream alone made this worth getting.  ****+ for the rice and cream.  

At $10.50, this was on par with higher end restaurant pricing, not like the usual $5 or less that most takeout mango sticky rice is (e.g. the mediocre version from Bang San Thai, or equally mediocre version from Modern Thai that I dubbed too pricey at $7).

Overall ***+ since the mango wasn't great, and its such a huge percentage of the dish, but I'd still get it again in a heartbeat, because, ZOMG, that sticky rice.  It made me really wish that we had received our order of the sticky rice with custard!