Wow, this is the worst restaurant I've eaten at in a very long time. So many things wrong and so little right. I should have checked here because we only came to get pho, and I didn't realize they had it across the street.
First off, it's an "Asian Fusion" place, so you get that hodgepodge of a menu where you know not everything is going to be very good and you second guess yourself every step of the way. My companion got some sort of supposedly Thai dish that sounded fantastic on the menu, but was terribly disappointing when it came out. The rest is a lot of Thai, and there's only a couple of actual Vietnamese options. Mind you, this is the lunch menu. Pho seemed expensive. $7 for a "small" bowl? I don't think I've ever paid that much for it.
The place is nice itself though, for the most part. It was a fantastic day, so we sat out on the patio, and I think they've got one of the best patios on 4th. The interior seemed okay, but it was stuffy and smelled strongly of cologne.
The food took an excessively long time to come out. For that small lunch portion of supposedly Thai and a small bowl of pho, I think we waited about 20 minutes. The service was generally bad. There were long periods of no contact, but we were the only people there and I could see the server inside through the door just sort of standing around.
When my pho finally came out, it wasn't as hot as it should have been. It also wasn't nearly as good as it could have been. Wrong type of noodles, the broth sucked and the beef was skimpy, to say the least. Lots of bean sprouts though. It also wasn't nearly enough broth. After a while, because we were outside and the dish wasn't brought out hot enough to begin with, it got cold. Maybe I'm crazy, but I don't like cold soup, so I requested (I had to go inside, because the server just wasn't coming) a little more broth and that it be microwaved. Both requests were refused for a reason that I don't understand. If it would have cost more, I probably would have paid it, but it was simply and unequivocally refused. And, again, we're still the only ones there. Not like they're busy.
So I'm stuck with cold soup and a really bad restaurant experience, plus a final bill that is way too high for what I ended up getting.
Don't come here. Wait for it to close and patronize whatever opens up in its place because, like I said, they've got a nice patio.
This is NOT a place to satisfy your Pho craving. Â If you are from a big city and are used to certain features of your pho experience, such as large bowls, tender rare beef, little dishes to mix your sauces, and big, fresh plates of vegetables, you will not find any of it at Basil Leaf. Â My advice: Â walk across the street to Mandalay which is a huge step up in the pho category. Â Even though Mandalay's owners are Burmese, they seem to know more about Vietnam's national dish than the Vietnamese lady who runs Basil Leaf.
As a side note, I haven't been here for a few years, and thinks may have changed.
One of my favorite spots in Bloomington. Â I absolutelty love the Basil Fusion. The dish is delish, jasmine rice with stir fried vegetables with beef and chicken. The sauce is amazing. A fusion of flavor in my mouth:) Â Another of my favorite dishes is the Massaman Curry, I could eat this everyday. This is a coconut curry with peanuts and sweet potatoes, choice of meat( I get chicken) and I love to pour it over jasmine rice. My favorite appetizer is the gyoza. They are yummy pork dumplungs. Another awesome thing is that somedays the have 1$ and $2 sake. What a bargain!!! I absolutely love this place. Wonderful staff,great service and make me feel welcome everytime I walk through the door. Can't wait until patio season to hang with my dogs, drink sake and beer and eat good food.
Review Source:I really love this place. Â When we went both meals were amazing and filling and more than enough for a dinner. Â The prices seemed reasonable for what we got and the wait staff were amazingly sweet to us and our toddler. Â Our Waiter even played a few silly games with him to keep him giggling. Â This place was wonderful the soup was good the noodles and veggies were perfect I would eat here MANY more times.
Review Source:I'm surprised at the bad reviews, I ate at the Basil Leaf for lunch the other day and really enjoyed my meal. I had a small bowl of pho (which was actually huge and $6.) and the wasabi mashed potatoes. The pho was tasty and exactly what I wanted on a chilly day. I liked it better than Mandalay's version and I can't comment on authenticity, but it tasted good and hit the spot so I was content. The beef  they used was really tender and thin with a great flavor.
My waiter was attentive and brought out a line of sauces that I could use at will. The wasabi potatoes were enjoyable but unnecessary since the Pho was plenty filling.
Overall, this is a great place for lunch, but they only serve it on Thursday - Saturday
Adding another one-star review seems like beating a dead horse but Basil Leaf so blah I'm going for it just in case anyone reading makes the same "oh, how bad can it really be?" mistake I made: Expensive. Bland. And I'm by no means an expert, but this place did not strike me as noticeably Vietnamese in any way (most of the dishes were Thai, if anything). Don't waste your time or money.
Review Source:I live in Detroit and we actually have a really solid Little Vietnam. Which is surprising to outsiders, but it's just as good as Bay Area Vietnamese food. It's a real population! They have their own grocery stores! And they have Vietnamese SANDWICHES (makes me love the French for showing them how to use baguettes). I love me bun thit, and avocado milkshakes and fresh spring rolls with real mint in them, and pho (fuh) as the ultimate hangover cure.
As is the norm in this small town -- the ethnic food is a bastardization. A midwesternization. An abomination!
I live in f'ing Detroit. My bun costs $6.50 (cheaper if you ask me nicely). My "Vietnamese salad with nuoc cham sauce" cost nearly $10 at this place. Skimpy! Skimpy! Skimpy! The beef was flavorless. But get this... there was NO PORK on the menu. Excuse me? Vietnamese food... without... PORK? You have got to be kidding me. The Vietnamese KNOW their pig, and damn, they make some good piggeh. How could you serve me this tame flavorless lack the punch beef on skewers instead?
The menu was DEPRESSING. They had NOTHING authentic Vietnamese on there! NOTHING! And they were so clearly trying to be Midwestern friendly (awww that's so cute, they dumbed it down for all the white people from "the region"). It's FLIPPING FISH SAUCE PEOPLE! FISH SAUCE. YES. FROM FISH. AS A SAUCE. Stop being a wiener and dump it on.
They had Thai curry! And Thai iced tea! And all sorts of thick coconut heavy rich dishes that ... aren't Vietnamese. They have ONE EFFING version of pho on the menu. I was like, whoa. You can't be serious. You call yourself a Vietnamese place and you don't have... fresh spring rolls, more than 1 version of pho, OR pork bun thit on the menu? I feel cheated and insulted.
Dear Vietnamese n00bs -- please, PLEASE, be adventurous in life. Vietnamese food is some of the best food in the entire world. And please, don't think this is "real" Vietnamese food. Please save yourselves from this. You deserve better. Really. You do. Don't taint yourself with this Thai bastardization calling itself Vietnamese flavorless expensive crap.
I've been visiting 4th street restaurants for over 7 years. And I always secretly hope that "oh the new (insert exotic ethnic restaurant here) is open! let's try it! it might be good!" And it never is? And this particular house on 4th turns over restaurants faster than a Tri Delt can turn (insert any frat house here). Â
I hate this restaurant for existing. That's not fair. But they aren't being fair to Bloomington. They are destroying people's first experiences of Vietnamese food. I take this one personally. Vietnamese is the one ethnic food EVERYONE needs to try before they die. Anthony Bourdain would agree. And Gordan Ramsey would be cussing out the restauranteurs of this establishment.
In conclusion, be a good Christian and save yourselves for REAL Vietnamese food and keep walking when you see this place.
This is maybe the worst restaurant experience in Bloomington. I've had some others in B-Town that would give this place a run for its money, but for now, Basil Leaf takes the cake for the worst meal around.
They have little fucking signs on every table reminding you to clean up after yourself. Is this a joke? Are you fucking kidding me?
The food is awful.
The wait staff consisted of one ashamed college freshman girl who occasionally emerged from the kitchen with her head hung low. I think she was being caned by the owner for not knowing how to sweep the dirty floors. Well, that's my best guess based on what I saw.
Don't bother the folks at Basil Leaf with your patronage. I assure you the experience will frustrate both parties.
Horrible.
You have been warned.
I ordered the signature "Basil Leaf" dish and paid an extra $1.75 to get shrimp instead of chicken or pork as the meat selection. Â It came out looking like a very small portion of reheated leftovers. Repulsive.
When we were ordering they were out of my first two choice, the third thing I tried to get was steamed shrimp dumpling appetizer and they did not have that either. Â Then I ordered a sandwich and was told it was not longer available. Â So at the point, having gone 0 for 4, I ordered the disaster "Basil Leaf".
See my photos. Â Nice plate presentation but upon close inspection you can see it looks like it came out of a Tupperware and was microwaved, and maybe for the 4th time.
Stay Away.
I am told this is the only Vietnamese restaurant in all of Bloomington. Â What a pity. Â I will cross my fingers and hope another competitor comes to town. Â
The pho is awful. Â The noodles were stale. Â The broth was fatty. Â It tasted as if it had sat there for multiple days. Â I also paid the most I've ever had for a bowl of pho...nearly $10. Â Oh...and my favorite part...my soup came in a STYROFOAM bowl. Â They call this place a bistro? Â Ha! Â What part of this place makes it a bistro...the cash only sign or the watered down Hoison sauce?
I would be embarrassed to introduce anyone to Vietnamese food here.
Coming from San Diego where there is good Vietnamese food, I was hoping for a place in Bloomington that would feed my lack of Pho.
Basil Leaf was slightly disappointing. I got a bowl of Pho and it just wasn't what I was used to. The delicious spices that are in the broth of good Pho was missing rather I was stuck with a boring bowl of beef soup.
As there aren't any other Pho restaurants around here (at least that I've found yet) I suppose I would go back. The price there wasn't completely outrageous at $6 a bowl. I'll be hoping for some Pho with some more authentic flavor though.
The service was ok. The waitress forgot requests such as chopsticks and water a few times, but I think she was new.
Overall, I suppose I would go back, but my first experience there wasn't good enough that I have to go back.
I wonder how this restaurant survived in the first place. I ordered the dry Pho, the sauce came out is as cold as ice and my pho was inside a salad bowl, okay weird. Next one, the actual Pho order came out like Laksa (malaysian curry noodle), man... the dishes started getting worse. Thankfully, the pad thai and the pad see ew were still edible, also the thai fried rice, but pretty much the fried rice and pad thai tasted the same. How was that even possible? I'm so clueless, these 2 dishes are totally different. The thai ice tea was barely made it and the thai coffee was a total disappointment that the person who ordered it was showing a nasty look.
This resto is in a small collegetown where there were many good foods surrounding it. That's when I started wondering how it even survived with this kind of flavor. I still couldn't believe I stepped into this resto at all.
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