Holy Basil 2, Sydney CBD

Wanting to see the Vivid Festival, my family decided to eat out in the city beforehands. Holy Basil always has great food and close by to where I work so I headed off there right after I finished to meet the fambam!

It was my grandparents' first time eating Thai food and they requested nothing be too spicy so I definitely ordered on the mild side of the menu. And of course little pots of green tea for them!

Kai Yang (Laos charcoal BBQ chicken), $13.90

 The first to come out was the grilled chicken which had a lovely marinade that had been grilled to little charcoal-y bits. Delicious on its own, but you could always dip it into the sweet chilli sauce or chilli sauce if you're after that kick. We didn't expect the bowls of rice we ordered o be quite that large - it could easily have served three people per bowl!

Pad see ew (with chicken), $12.90

After enjoying the pad see ew last time, along with the fact that it's a favourite of my sister's, it definitely was a must order! The smoky flavour that permeates the noodles is what makes it so special and I really do like it, albeit the fact that it's just a tad too sweet for my tastebuds.

Gang masaman (beef masaman curry), $16.90

Massaman curry is a very mild curry that's quite creamy from the coconut milk in the recipe as well as the final drizzle on top. It's the best stirred through rice!

Som tam (green papaya salad), $10.90

I definitely wanted to introduce my family to the Thai papaya salad, requesting it to be very mild. I love how my grandma still found it extremely spicy haha! They were surprised that it was actually green papaya, as it's not something they've ever tried before.

Crispy fish (with green mango salad), $44.90

This was what I was looking forward to all night though! I could seriously have eaten it forever...They fillet the fish, cut it into individual pieces which are then crumbed and deep-fried. Nothing is wasted as the head and tail is given to you as well! The batter was very crunchy and extremely moreish as they definitely weren't shying away from the pepper :D It went very well with the green mango salad on top which was my preference over the papaya salad. I thought it was the perfect balance of sweet, sour and salty. I didn't get any hit of chilli, but that wasn't missed with any of my relatives! The family also enjoyed how refreshing this salad was. I think they just couldn't quite get used to the slight pungency of the crab paste used in the papaya salad!

I don't think any of us were particularly in the mood for any dessert so we passed on their house special deep-fried icecream. I should probably check out the rest of their dessert menu next time!

Holy Basil
Shark Hotel 127 Liverpool St
Sydney NSW 2000
http://www.holybasil.com.au

Opening Hours
Daily
Lunch Hours: 12:00-3:00pm
Dinner: 5:00pm-12:00midnight

Holy Basil, CBD

Sorry I've been neglecting my blog lately! Too many assessments all catching up to me. Good news is I only have one left and then I am free! Until summer school anyway. That still gives me a bit more than a month for a break (:

Today after handing in our museum guides for studio, a group of friends and I all decided to go out for lunch. They all had a fantastic experience at Holy Basil so they were up for another trip there to try this apparently awesome avocado shake - something of great curiosity to me and I really wanted to try!

Holy Basil is located in an unassuming location on top of the Shark Hotel, so hidden it was! And check out that awesome 3D nose. The interiors were actually quite nicely decorated with dim lighting. Something I didn't expect as this used to be the location of a club which closed down. We were seated immediately and the restaurant was relatively quiet despite being lunch hour.

Lychee shake and avocado shake, $6.50 each

My, my, my was that avocado shake good! For some reason after avocado has been blended with icecream and sugar, the resulting flavour was surprisingly reminiscent of pandan. I just knew it was amazingly creamy, decadent, and of course delicious. The lychee shake tasted like fresh lychees and was very refreshing on a hot day like this.

Chicken pad see ew, $12.90

I love flat noodles and this dish was definitely one of the better ones I've had in Sydney! The sauce wasn't too heavy and the noodles had been tossed in the wok just long enough so there's that distinct smoky flavour without going overboard into burnt tasting which is the worst!

Holy Basil Fried Ice Cream, $13.90

Let's be honest, this is what we were really looking forward to. A creamy vanilla icecream encased in phyllo pastry that has been deep-fried! There were so many layers of phyllo pastry that were layered on with evaporated milk in between to create a flaky exterior. So different from the typical floury batter on the outside. This one provided a beautiful crunch and went wonderfully with the caramel that had been drizzled onto the plate as well as the coconut, dried fruit and nut muesli.

Next time I go, I'm ordering the fish with mango salad! It looked awesome on the other end of the table and I definitely had some food envy after trying a small piece with the salad that originally looked like a mountain covering the huge fish!

My only complaint would be that the service wasn't too friendly. When we asked for the bill at the end of our meal, the waitress just stared at us before snapping that they didn't print receipts. She didn't even try to help or offer any other options! We were shocked that they didn't cater this simple request that is common everywhere else. So we proceeded to look through the menu to figure out what everyone ordered as we had a large group of 10. Halfway through sorting everything out, another waitress comes by and gives us the receipt. At least she was decent enough to consider how annoying it was to look up the costs of individual dishes. Pity the rude service dented what would have been a lovely lunch.

Holy Basil
Shark Hotel 127 Liverpool St
Sydney NSW 2000
http://www.holybasil.com.au

Opening Hours
Daily
Lunch Hours: 12:00-3:00pm
Dinner: 5:00pm-12:00midnight