"Wow, it's so easy to find parking in Canley Heights!" said no one ever. It's seriously abysmal. 8 o'clock on a Tuesday night, and we had to park a massive distance from the restaurant in a residential area. However, if you bring your walking shoes you can enjoy an amazing dinner at Holy Basil.
You really have to be lucky to turn up without a booking and not have to line up, and lucky we were; we got in with no fuss and sat inside to avoid the smoking area outside. We were furnished with menus and left to order.
Pineapple & Lychee Mocktails - $5.50 each
Ok, so these drinks are not so much mocktails as fruit-shakes - they're pretty one dimensional as far as drinks go. However, they're cool and refreshing, they're strong in flavour and come in pretty funky glasses.
I imagine this dish to be something similar to jerky - the beef was sliced super-thinly, marinated in a sweet sauce, then dried until crispy and slightly chewy. Apparently it's a traditional dish, which is why I ordered it; even if it's not though, it's pretty damned tasty.
We ordered a couple of classic Thai dishes - after all, what better way is there to ascertain how good a restaurant is than by seeing how they interpret the basics?
The Massaman Curry had a complexity of flavour that's pretty rare - clearly there's more at play here than the usual bland, stodgy offerings; the beef was melt-in-your-mouth tender.
Pad Thai with Chicken - $12.90
Yesssss, gimme them bean sprouts. There's no such thing as too many bean sprouts in my book. The rest of the dish was excellent as well - the noodles were pliable but still had a slight bite, and the chicken was simply saturated with the sweet, sticky combination of tamarind paste and palm sugar.
Holy Basil Fried Ice Cream - $13.90
This dish is so famous I almost asked for a photo with it! It's a unique take on the usual soggy ball of ice cream and batter; a triangular brick of vanilla ice cream wrapped in a flaky, buttery pastry and then deep fried and served with toasted coconut was served to us after a short wait. We only ordered the one, and trust me, one is enough for two people after the scrumptious meal we had.
Holy Basil
233A Canley Vale Rd
Canley Heights
NSW, 2166
Phone: 9727 7585
http://www.holybasil.com.au