Holy Basil, Sydney

I’d heard about Holy Basil from Mr C for quite some time and for some reason I kept thinking of it as a Spanish or Italian restaurant, little did I know he was referring to a Lao restaurant all this time! It’s located inside a the Shark Hotel, pretty far in the back so it’s quite hard to notice if you were visiting the bar area only. Although all you need to do is keep an eye out for the Buddha statues and Asian decor 🙂

Mr C has also visited the restaurant in Canley Heights and says that it’s always super busy and packed full of people which makes sense considering how great the food is. This was actually the first time I’d tried Lao cuisine but to put it simply, it was very similar to Thai cuisine and most people probably won’t be able to tell the difference.

The picture above was of our first main and it was a delicious barbecue chicken which was a bit char-grilled and had a smoky flavour to it. Having them dipped into the chilli sauce was perfect because of the mix of spicy and sour flavours. It’s very light but the chilli leaves a strong aftertaste after you have your bite. Moreover, the chicken was quite tender and moist which I was happy with because I usually find chicken that are cooked in Asian restaurants are overcooked and very dry.

Ever since we came back from our Thailand holiday, I have been overly obsessed with coconut juice! I love that refreshing sweetness accompanied with ice and some coconut pieces. I really loved this drink and the coconut pieces were thick, huge and tasted amazing as well, probably one of the best coconut juices I’ve had in Sydney. It was half finished before our mains even arrived because we were thirsty.

I’d have to say the fish cake was my favourite main (or entree?) of the night. Surprisingly I didn’t have any fish cakes in Thailand which I regret so much, but I would imagine it’ll taste even better than this one because it was so deliciously juicy, even better with the chilli sauce that accompanied it! The top layer of the fish cake was thin and filled with herbs and spices. I also have to admit the chilli was quite hot for me, good old Thailand spiciness.

This had to be the highlight of the night by far, the Fried ice-cream. Mr C mentioned its one of their popular desserts and I wondered why because fried ice-cream… what could be so special about it? Until this huge, triangular fried ice-cream appeared in front of me and my jaws literally dropped because of how scrumptious it looked.  The pastry was amazingly thin, crunchy and suited the ice cream dish well. Mixed with all the syrup on the side, the taste was just perfect! This is a serious must order dish, next time I’m getting one all by myself. I hate sharing desserts with Mr C, I just want all the sweets to myself :(.