Sweet Basil - Brooklyn Park, MN

I tried once to go to Sweet Basil with the assistance of a mere map, and ended up instead at Great India. This time, armed with GPS and rebellion for my 30 min lunch, I headed to Sweet Basil since I won't be 'round these parts anymore after today.

Sweet Basil is just a basic little place located in a shopping center, much like Oishi. Shopping center clusters/ strip malls are to Brooklyn Center/Park are what bars and churches are to NE Minneapolis. So in I went, already having blown 15 minutes of my 30 minute lunch away from the drive alone.

They don't have a website, but their menu is a bit more original than your Chef Boyardee asian place. I can't tell if it's predominately Vietnamese or what, but they have a few stir frys, (basil, ginger) and a few curries. Appetizers are standard-satays, cream cheese wontons, and spring rolls. I decided upon the Spring Rolls ($5), and the Vietnamese Noodle Salad ($9).

Spring Rolls

The spring rolls tasted about how they look. Overall, they were quite bland. The peanut sauce was sweet and and not savory at all. The insides consisted literally of lettuce, vermicelli noodles, pork and shrimp. That's it. I'm not sure what's considered traditional, but how about some carrots? Cilantro? More meat? The pork itself defined bland. I literally ate it and thought - so this is what bland tastes like!

Vietnamese Noodle Salad (with chicken)

This had all the normal components of a vietnamese salad. I admit I have only had them at 3 different places, and this one looked similar. On one side, cold veggies (lettuce, shredded carrot, cucumbers, onions) and the other was warm chicken, peanuts, and sauce, over vermicelli noodles. I'm a mixer, so I mixed all the ingredients up. At first. I was really pleased with the cilantro taste I got. But after tasting other elements of the dish, it really just wasn't great. It did have a tiny hint of spice (it was not listed as a spicy dish) and the sauce in the salad was sweet and savory, but didn't have any depth of flavor past that. They serve a "dressing" on the side, and it's typically cold and on the sweet side. This one was really sugary. And I didn't even need it, because the thick sauce in the salad was already pretty abundant.

Greats:

-They have some nice looking curries I'd like to try

-Same thing with the stir fry's

That's all

Not so greats

-Spring Rolls

-Vietnamese Salad

-Location