Holy Basil Shark Hotel Sydney CBD

Deep fried ice cream that comes more like a wrapped parcel, accompanied by muesli, cashews and strawberries.

Sharing is always the best way to go with south-east Asian dishes, for not only does one get to sample each of the variety offered, but it also leads to a certain feeling of communion at the table.  When the restaurant occupies almost a third of the pub and bar floor, the camaraderie from the licensed bar area can easily translate to a better feeling of gathering at the dining section.

The Shark Hotel in downtown Sydney can be accessed from both Pitt Street and Liverpool Street.   This is ethnic Western Sydney transplanted for a rising population that reside in the city centre and so perhaps for a different demographic compared to its original base in Canley Heights.   Here in the city, your diners can be more discerning, may have more disposable income or can devote more time after working hours.  

I love this subtle but yummy dish - more of a Chinese styled roast duck, sitting in a concoction of soy, garlic and Thai sauces, garnished by aromatic herbs and Bok Choy.

The quality of cuisine continues to maintained at high standards after all these years at the Holy Basil upstairs at the Shark Hotel.   I recall this hotel used to be a hub of night life but these days I am not so sure.     



The Sydney scene for Thai food away from Bangkok has grown, with a more experienced and sophisticated audience looking for unusual dishes, perhaps with more roasts and grills, with less coconut milk and with a sense of adventure to try variations of Thai standards like spicy salads, curries and noodle creations.    Holy Basil was part of the interim movement away from what Aussies saw and understood as Thai food.  They now face challenges from street food offerings with more interplay of Thai sauces, herbs and other ingredients.

Mango strips are heaped as a kind of salad on top of a  deep fried whole Snapper.

I reckon that Holy Basil still commands a good niche role between the suburban Thai and the new fangled Thai which have arisen in response to competition and fusion trends.    If you just want a good feed with reliability, Holy Basil can still provide you that.   The crowd on a recent Sunday evening seemed to reverberate with regulars, tourists and families.     The spacious seating  at the Shark Hotel outlet allows you to scan the tables for any exciting or popular dishes.

    

Alas, there was no pork knuckle or roast shoulder pork like those found at The Green Peppercorn at the Civic Hotel behind World Square.    However, do try the marinated lamb cutlets and the roast pork belly cubes enhanced by garlic and chilli.   A highlight for our evening was dabbling into the Laotian styled pork sausages - they are not oily, are rather more tasty than they look and are served with their unique sauce.     Those who have eaten at the Green Peppercorn may recall the grilled ox tongue with a certain fondness  - and the question is which one is better done, there or at the Holy Basil?


There was a reduced availability of unique sauces when compared with what are found at the Tawandang.   There is no lack of dessert choices at the Holy Basil, although I was happy with the selections of fruit juices and smoothies.    



Music can be played loud at times, for there is really no wall or partition for the restaurant from the rest of Shark Hotel.   There is a lift for those who want to avoid the stairs but that evening when we were there, it was locked and we had to make a special request for usage, responded to professionally by the duty manager from the Shark Hotel.

Tom Yum Kung or with prawns  - this was well made, with enough kick in the thicker soup.

Head Chef Tony Inthavong runs a family run operation  at the Holy Basil here.


My other dish recommendations at the Holy Basil at the Shark Hotel are:


Pad Thai with jumbo prawns, bean sprouts,crushed peanuts, eggs, chives, Spanish onions and chives.

Crispy chicken wings served with two sauces and made with a special recipe batter.


Satay chicken skewers served with a different kind of peanuty sauce.


Salt and pepper soft shell crab.





Holy Basil at the Shark Hotel visited is located at 127 Liverpool Street, near the corner with Pitt Street in Sydney CBD.
Opening hours are from noon to 3pm every day and for dinner, from 5pm to 10pm from Sundays to Thursdays and from 5pm to 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays.
Contact + 61 2 9283 8284
There is also a takeaway menu.

Green Peppercorn Fairfield NSW - Revisited

I found this to be the best on my recent visit back to Fairfield's Green Peppercorn - the quality of the grill  was superb.  The satay sauce was different to what you find in Singapore, Malaysia or Indonesia - perhaps a and too creamy for me.

Rival Holy Basil restaurant has the similar mix of Laotian and Northern Thai cuisine - I found their version of chicken feet skin salad better in Canley Heights.

A perennial reliable  - the Tom Yum Kung.  This northern Thai version is less fiery to me than its southern styles.

Nearby nuts galore in an Iraqi styled grocery in Fairfield.

Green Peppercorn is located at 1 Hamilton Road, Fairfield not he ground floor of the Fairfield Hotel.
Telephone: 612 9724 7842
Opening hours are everyday for lunch from 12 noon to 3pm and for dinner from 530pm till late.


Green Peppercorn has another outlet on the first floor of the Civic Hotel, corner of Pitt and Goulburn Streets, Sydney CBD at 388 Pitt Street.
Telephone: 612 80807043
Opening hours are everyday for lunch from 12 noon to 3pm and for dinner form 5pm till late.

Holy Basil Canley Heights - Revisited

The corner site of the original Holy Basil Restaurant continues to thrive in the western Sydney suburb of Canley Heights.  Saturday evening and the buzz can be felt throughout the main strip of the small suburb adding Cabramatta and St. John's Park.  Property values have increased in tandem with the height of business and economic activity in a suburb that has people milling around from morning till late evening.  Visitors to either Canley Heights and the nearby Canley Vale (towards the rail station on the same named Canley Vale Road) love to shop and eat.   There are new cafes and restaurants all within a comfortable walking distance from Holy Basil.  Yet getting table at the HB on a Saturday night is an act of faith, patience and excitement.  Even booking by phone means they get back to you by phone before your seats are confirmed.  Even week nights are perhaps not different?

On this latest sojourn, I can confirm that the green curry gives a kick - peppery, full of flavour, of the most pleasant creamy thickness and with a pleasant feel on the  palate no matter what you accompany the gravy with.  My group of seven persons were also impressed with the delivery of the crackling pork - good texture, tender bites of meat beneath the fat and providing an appetising experience.  I have always liked the Laotian styled Som Tum - this version of the papaya salad with anchovies  is less sweet than that from their Bangkok neighbours down south.   one of my fellow diners so loved the chicken feet salad.  This dish did have a chili hot after taste although it looked all innocence and falsely plain from its benign presentation.

My new discovery is the braised duck marinaded in plum sauce, with a wet concoction  that exodus the best of the clever use of spices to blend in with the otherwise potential gamey aroma of duck.  It went so well with steamed rice  that my table had almost four bowl servings of the carbohydrate.  Oh yes, the rice went well too worth the green curry.   To top up the evening, I was fascinated with the quality of the steamed glutinous red rice served under the name of Black Harbour, neither hard, neither soft but just hitting the right sweet spot.

The staff provided a singing birthday rendition for a young man seated just behind us.  The seating at Holy Basil is really tight, maybe too packed.  Perhaps I have grown fat but it was a challenge to squeeze on to the seats especially on the left and side of the restaurant.   Next door is really an ice cream parlour but I had always mistakenly thought it was part of Holy Basil.  On this latest busy Saturday night visit, we had an 830pm start for our reservation but it was still as busy and crowded even at this late hour.   The dishes ordered are normally quick to be served but this time I could see the kitchen staff so hard pressed in space, time and delivery. Once our first dishes came out, it was very fast with the rest.

I suggest the deep fried chicken wings as a good accompaniment to any cocktails or beer that you care to choose.   The ox tail cuts , which can be found at its nearest rival, the Green Peppercorn, are preferred by some here.  One under performing dish is the Tom Yum Kung; although with large and fresh prawns, the soup lacked something.   We were captivated by a huge snapper being served at another table, but perhaps barramundi would be better.  Vehicle parking was so challenging that evening but in the end the food made it so worthwhile.

Despite the intensity of the evening for the staff, they are mostly pleasant and smiled under the continuing pressure. Occasionally we had to remind the same staff for some small request but it was a really busy place.  One of the friends noticed the presence of many young women coming to dine at Holy Basil, even with different shift seatings.  The sky threatened with passing rain but in the end it was not too wet.   This parent site of Holy Basil may not compare with the modern settings of their branch at Liverpool Street in Sydney CBD upstairs at the Shark Hotel.  However, the food is equally as good, if not better.


The Holy Basil Restaurant is located at 233a Canley Vale Road at the corner with Derby Street, in Canley Heights, Western Sydney between the major hubs of Penrith and Parramatta.
Telephone: 612 9727 7585
Opening hours for lunch every day is from 12 noon to 230pm.
Dinners begin at 5pm every day but finish up at 11pm for Friday and Saturday nights; for tother nights, 10pm.

Green Peppercorn Civic Hotel - Sydney CBD

The captivating Miang Kum bouquet as entree.

Caution  - the chilies are hotter here than in most other restaurants in Australia, but let us proceed.

The Miang Kum or betel nut leaf wraps, with finely prepared fresh ingredients, so easy and light on the appetite, came out like miniature flower bouquets.  Oh yes, there was much generosity in providing so much to wrap the dark green leaves in.  We could detect peanuts, crab meat, fried shrimps, crunchy rice, small tomato cubes, chilli, ginger and lime as we bit into the wraps.   Healthy, exotic and stimulating!

Petite, colourful and healthy, this dish was like eating from garden produce.   However, we were in down town Sydney, with the World Square sign clamouring for attention through our early 20th century bay window, looking down at a busy Goulburn Street leading to Chinatown and Darling Harbour.  We were fortunate to have been allocated a side round dining table, to me it was both at the same time grand and cosy.  After climbing two flights of stairs to the first level, from a side entrance to the Civic Hotel along Pitt Street, we entered another world, Indo-Chinese, with a Buddhist presence, where fresh aromatics and the art of marinating meats reign supreme.  Spicy food with alcohol on a Friday evening to de-stress and recover from the corporate world?  This is the place.

Pork knuckle braised in Asian flavours for around AUD30.

Pork knuckles to me have always brought fond memories of Oom Pah Pahs and German boutique beers.  The pig is a significant economic animal on the plains of northern Thailand and Laos, so in a way I am not surprised there was this attractive looking roast pork knuckle soaked in the most pleasant of gravy on our table.   Both John and I love our crackle and pork knuckle - and the meat underneath was moist tender, yet with the roast effect.  It was like Christmas lunches all come together in July! The knuckle was firm on the bone.  This variation of the Khao Kaa Moo was an eye opener to me, no more shall I associate knuckle with just Chinese and German recipes.  This Thai/Laotian knuckle has to be cooked smokey, five spice powder is rubbed in, coriander roots and palm sugar are important for taste and the skin has to be cleaned of any pig hairs - not necessarily in that order.


Duck red curry ( Kaeng Pad Pett Yang) laden with lychees and pineapple, bathed in a coconut milk, is now standard fare in many Thai restaurants across Australia, in small towns and large.  Some are over laden with creamy coconut milk; here the flavour is more subtle and the roast duck not oily at all, with firm lean portions.  This is a curry best eaten with steamed Jasmine rice - we had three enamel coated containers of the carbohydrate, truly reminiscent of what you have in south-east Asia.  The curry had aromas and flavours of fresh kaffir lime leaves, basil and fish sauce.  What caught my eye is the practice of placing long whole red chilies in the dish - and the presence of two variations of the eggplant - apple and pea.

Chip doing the honours for us, carving up the pork knuckle.  Edwin, Bob and John watch on, with Jacob stretching his white shirted arm.

Even if working in Sydney CBD, I had never stepped into the Green Peppercorn restaurant on level one of the Civic Hotel.  So we seized the occasion to have a lunch with Chip before he relocates to Adelaide, sister city to my hometown of George Town on Penang Island.  Farewells are never easy, breaking the stupor and pace of things we somehow can take for granted - it also brings to the fore, change management, the importance of enjoying the present and appreciating what each of us have, especially in non-monetary things like good amiable friendship and interaction.

I was cheeky enough to ask Chip what he missed about Sydney and what are his fond memories, at this juncture, of living in this Big Aussie Smoke.   Chip gave fair comment, he observed that Sydney can be a cold city and like all big metropolitan areas around the world, it can be every man for himself and his interests.  Chip did add that everyone he has got to know in the City Lunch Australia group has definitely made Sydney a much warmer and hospitable place for him in his experience.   That includes those who could not make it to the Green Peppercorn that day - Dee and Zoe were overseas,  Michael lives interstate (he phoned in during the meal), Sari was not feeling well, with Sally, Angie  and Raymond working outside Sydney CBD.

Chip related how he had to ship over to his Adelaide family what was then a rather hot item from Sydney in some of the years he was based here - Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  We can all relate to that - the hype, the rush, the excitement and the tastiness that was the American stuff.

Chip summarised by observing that it has been a fantastic ten years Sydney side.  So in turn, Chip,  each of us wishes you well in an Irish way - "May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back.   May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields.  And until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of his Hand."

Tony did drop by with his daughter to say hello, and that was when I first caught up with Tony after so many years!  The Green Peppercorn meet up was at once both to say a temporary farewell to one and reunite with another, a bitter sweet experience.  The Buddha is often quoted as saying "The only constant thing in life is change".

Marinated and charcoal grilled ox tongue offered with "Mum's special home made sauce" - memories of a different culture.

Ox tongue! Now my Latino mates would love this, although in Argentina and Mexico, these are served in large pieces. What we got from the Green Peppercorn were sliced in bite size, but the taste was unique, together with the serving sauce, the Jaew Som.  Hey, believe it or not, shredded papaya is utilised here to flavour and tenderise the ox tongue when preparing this dish.  The marinade for the ox tongue also has both black and white pepper, the must have south-east Asian fish sauce, Chinese inspired soy and oyster sauces, minced garlic cloves, diced onions and a sprinkling of sugar and salt for taste.   The Jaew Som is based primarily (again) on fish sauce, garlic cloves and lime juice, but includes the aromas from finely chopped bunch of coriander (roots and all), red bird eye chilies and shallots.  The Green Peppercorn version is rewarding, wholesome and addictive.

Som Tam, the papaya salad that travellers get to love on a Thai beach or fancy hotel, is a treat for the palate. Out of the five sensations, this iconic dish assures you spicy, sort and salty!  We opted for the Laotian version at the Green Peppercorn as you do not find this easily in Australia.  The cherry tomatoes, chili bits, sour lime and fish sauce were all there to accompany the thinly julienned papaya, so what was different?  Maybe the mortar pounded crab paste, more likely good mortar and pestle techniques to get the juices, texture and flavours of all the various ingredients going. I am told that if you do not have papaya, use cucumber instead and never mangoes for this particular salad, as the texture of cucumbers and papaya are more alike.  Never utilise the blender for such preparation as the outcome can be so different and too liquid.  Salads are to nurture the appetite for meats and seafood.  My Thai friends say the Laotian version of Som Tam does not taste sweet like in the Thai version.  I did find the Laotian version of papaya salad not so sharp.

Papaya salad ala Laos.

Would I return?  Admittedly yes.  I am eyeing Som Moo (cured pork),  the charcoal grilled satay skewers, chicken feet salad and the Yum Womsen, the heady mix of vermicelli salad with bits of meat or seafood and aromatic herbs.
What is the mood there? Casual, busy and adventurous.
How is the ambiance?  Office gatherings, families, Gen Y energy and pub hotel.
Seating:  Retro.

Business model:  Practical pricing, cocktails with food, city buzz.

Dress code:  Aussie informal.
Compulsory for males:  The pork knuckle cooked in northern Thai style.
Compulsory for females: Cocktails and the Som Tam salad.
Rush hour: Fridays, weekends.
What is the X factor here?   Back packing and family cooking memories.



The Green Peppercorn at the Civic Hotel is located upstairs at 388 Pitt Street, Sydney CBD, near the
corner with Goulburn Street, just behind World Square.
Telephone: 612 8080 7043.
Opening hours are from noon to 3pm for lunch every day and for dinner, from 530pm every evening, they have a fixed time for last dish orders.


Green Peppercorn is also at the Fairfield Hotel at No.1 Hamilton Road, Fairfield, south-west of
Sydney CBD.

Kindly Yours visited this Fairfield restaurant in November 2014.
http://kindlyyours.blogspot.com.au/2014/11/green-peppercorn-fairfield-hotel-sydney.html?view=timeslide

Green Peppercorn - Fairfield Hotel Sydney

The Tom Yum Kung, with a rich taste and good flavour.

Northern Thai and Laotian restaurants offer a cuisine which can be refreshingly different from Bangkok or southern Thai dishes.  There can be the conspicuous absence or less use of coconut milk and more emphasis on charcoal grilled meats.  What captivated me is also their rendition of deep fried battered ice cream, in this case at the Green Peppercorn, served with a garnish of coconut muesli, raisin and butterscotch sauce.  I reckon the batter they utilise is much better in texture and flavour than those from Singapore or Chinese restaurants. The Green Peppercorn in Fairfield opened in July 2012 - it is family run, can seat around 150 guests, has parking street side on  both sides of the hotel and avoids a capital city feel of congestion.

Chicken with dipping sauce and a rather outstanding bite below the skin

Green Peppercorn at the Fairfield Hotel is modern, brash and with a spacious outlook.  I love the bird cages hanging over one part of the dining room, albeit sans the singing birds.  Fairfield is a working class suburb with a huge IndoChinese and Arab demographic, but also thriving with dynamic small businesses that has a Council overlooking the nearby Cabramatta and Canley Heights areas.   The Fairfield Hotel is small and looks like they gave up the original Aussie pub space to this restaurant.  The Green Peppercorn does not accept reservation bookings unless you have larger number of diners in your group.  My group of four lunchers were served by a smiling Polynesian lady, although I could see the Thai boys and girls also working there.  At our neighbouring table, we had a most engaging infant of not more than 6 months old, Jerome, whose smiling manner and big eyes captivated everyone.  We had a causal chat with Jerome's parents and they had been to Georgetown Penang - they must be experienced travellers and the Mum mentioned char koay teow she sampled whilst they were in Penang!

Just before the crowds swarmed in for Saturday lunch!

The banana flower salad was unusual but I appreciated the cashew nuts mixed in the dish.  The deep fried snapper had a generous serving of yummy sliced mango salad accompanying the dish and this was good to eat.   My top choice for that that Saturday meal was the charcoal grilled belly pork cuts provided on a bed of wok stir fried kangkong - a wonderful  balance of both veg and meat on the same plate! The tom yam prawns stood out in flavourful intensity, although I found them a tad bit salty that day as well.  The charcoal grilled chicken was tender and moist under the skin, a most uneasy feat!   We noticed a table having glutinous rice steamed in traditional weave miniature baskets, exotic and eye catching.   We had steamed ordinary rice to accompany the dines of savoury and spicy tones.  We dropped out intentions over ordering the sausages - there are both different Northern Thai and Laotian ones - as we were already having a rather huge and diverse meal.

I loved the mango salad more than the fish.

The menu has many choices, ranging from standards like paw paw salads, marinated beef cuts, roast duck red curry, soft shell crab, stir fried noodles, Panang curries, fried rice variations and beef salads to rarer stuff like tom zap soup, cured pork, betel leaf (Miang Kum), charcoal barbecues ox tongue, raw salmon salads and marinated quails.  I already eyed the crab meat fried rice and the green chill and basil flavoured mussels for a future visit!  The Green Peppercorn is also keen on function gatherings and have banquet menus to cater for such occasions.  And for those who may wonder, yes there is connection between the Green Peppercorn and Holy Basil of Canley Heights - Tony!

What I highly recommend - charcoal grilled pork belly cuts sitting on a bed of kangkong veg.

The Green Peppercorn is located at the following places in greater Sydney:
Fairfield Hotel - south-west of Sydney CBD at No. 1 Hamilton Road, Fairfield

Civic Hotel - Sydney CBD at level One, 388 Pitt Street, Sydney City centre

Bookings are held for up to 20 minutes after stated reservation time.  Licensed and not BYO.


What impressed me - wide variety of menu, friendly service, dishes came out fast and ready change of plates.
What could be better - maybe too much salt in some dishes, or is it just me?
Tip - try to avoid popular rush hour, go for the exotic and anything charcoal grilled is a winner here.

Banana flower salad with deep fried chicken, cashew nuts and greens.

Miss Chu, Bondi Beach - Sydney

Traditional sausages from Laos, but which I found to be on the sweet side, though tasty and wholesome on the bite.

I must say it got pretty dark, eating inside the Miss Chu joint at Sydney's iconic Bondi Beach one Sunday twilight.  Bob and I were pretty happy that we had a table, as it was obvious the place was filling up pretty fast, spilling from inside to the passage areas and more. The semi-darkness became more obvious only when I saw diners literally eating not being able to see their food on the outer tables.
There was however a buzz about the place - perhaps I attribute this most to the demographic patronising Miss Chu there at the corner of Campbell Parade and Curlewis Street, next to the Hotel Bondi. In fact we had crossed over from schooners of Coopers at this pub before we crawled over to what seemed to be Vietnamese street food, but which in reality also offered Laotian delights.

I felt though I was transported back to a street lane in Vietnam.  The table we had was designed to have a holder for napkins below the  flat surface. I found the napkins were of very poor paper quality. There was no receptacle to hold sauces like in Thailand and the stools were very low rise. The diner had to cope with and settle for compact dimensions. We could not resist having the drip filter coffee ala Vietnam, but no tea spoon was made available for us to stir the condensed milk at the bottom of the small glass.  In a ridiculous moment, we had to use flimsy wooden chop sticks to stir this gluey milk to blend with the thick coffee.

Wait staff were few and very busy.  I also empathised with the kitchen crew, having to work in rather confined environs where it was easy to rub shoulder with shoulder.  The young lady who attended to our table, Caucasian, still kept her bright spirits about her despite it all. She even made sure to ask us if everything was okay with the food just when we approached a small counter to pay for our meal.  As the evening drew on, more and more guests came in but the food was served rather efficiently fast.  The profile of the typical Miss Chu customer that night fitted the perception of Bondi to a capital B. The males had hunky shaved jaws, surfer tans and gym bodes.  The females looked like they grew up elsewhere but adapted to the place fast, worked in jobs of their passion and seemed to be world wise travellers.

I did feel heavy pangs of thirstiness when I reached home two hours later. This may mean additives added to the food or maybe not.  I did reflect, on eating the banh mi, or baguette with fillings, that I could get this snack at much less cost in some other suburb.  Servings were generally on the smaller scale and as in such Asian joints, guests helped themselves to drinking water from kettle like pots.  It had been a magical and enjoyable Bondi evening for us earlier, so all these little things did not bother us much.  Miss Chu is found as well at the Regent Place near the George Street Cinemas in down town Sydney, a hub more attuned and adjusted to rough and ready, come and go settings.   The Bondi outlet had a good turn over of diners that evening.  What made us stand up from our low stools was the fact that the ticket for parking was soon running out of its paid time.

I was told to try the rice paper wraps and we chose the tiger prawn variety. I found them to be pretty ordinary that evening - or was it because I had higher expectations?

Holy Basil Restaurant, Canley Heights - Sydney

Holy Basil's reputation precedes my experience eating there, and so when Lin organised a lunch meet up for the six of us at a group meal, I was looking forward to try the place out. Holy Basil has two outlets, one in Sydney CBD at the Shark Hotel along the upper end of Liverpool Street (not the Spanish quarter nearer Darling Harbour), and the original place in Canley Heights, in the western suburbs of the greater Sydney region.  We arrived early at the Canley Heights restaurant, run by the Inthavong family, on a persistently rainy day, was prepared for the no bookings scenario and were generally delighted with the taste and quality of the dishes served.  Above, Thai inspired tom yum soup, spicy, aromatic and with a thicker soup than other versions. I loved the mushrooms and herbal essence.  Below, the stir fried mussels on the shell are provided  with a plethora of herbs like chili jams, basil and fresh chili cuts.

Deep fried starters, like marinated wings (Peak Kai Tod), are always a winner (image below), especially when accompanied by different sauces.  The fellow lunchers that day were a mixture of family, twenty somethings, regulars and repeat visitors.  There is a wholesome range at the bar, particularly with labels such as Singha, Peroni and Heineken beers; Peter Lehmann and Yalumba wines from South Australia; and Sauvignon Blanc from the Nautilus Estate Marlborough in New Zealand.

The Som Tam (papaya salad ala Thai) above contrasts with the entree of

the Yum Pla Muk (calamari salad) below, served with garnishings of Spanish onion slices and a twist of fresh lemon.  These two dishes make Holy Basil very much infused with Thai cuisine in its menu, but the trick is also to savour the Laotian offerings.

The range of desserts is limited but we enjoyed the sticky coconut black  rice pudding

(pictured above), that came with durians (below) and strawberries.

The motto of Holy Basil is "Eat. Drink. Laugh".  We certainly did that - and also chatted much. My impressions of the Holy Basil Restaurant in Canley Heights are:

Atmosphere:  Suburban but also yuppie..

Location:  Busy, buzzing and lively.

Taste:  Above expectations.

People Engagement:  Friendly.

Service:  Responsive, although the table was a tad small for a group of six.  Dishes came out rather fast but that is good.

Best Time to Visit: An hour before everybody expects to turn up for dinner or lunch.

Fav Dish Experienced:  Tom Yum.

Would I Return?:  Definitely yes.

John suggested the Pad Kee Mao ( with flat rice noodles and a spicy kick) and it was an eye opener. Dishes I have an eye for in the future at Holy Basil are the Thai fried rice with crab meat (Khao Pad Pu); the soft shell crab; the Pla Sam Rod (deep fried fish of your choice with three different sauces, a real test of any Thai restaurant); Lao grilled pork sausages; and the unusual chicken feet salad.  The brave can brace for the Lu Oi Bo, an ox tongue special.

The final picture above was not taken at Holy Basil. We decided to look for Vietnamese brew and took seats at the Canley Heights Corner Cafe, where we also has ice cream servings of vanilla, guava and durian flavours, with a milkshake based on another tropical fruit.