Basil Box located at 441 Queen St W in Toronto

Thanks to winning a contest on Instagram that Basil Box hosted for winning a pair of tickets to the Taste of Toronto food festival this year (blogged about here) and two customized boxes of food, I got to try this chain of Southeast Asian food boxes for the first time! 😀

“The street markets of Thailand and Vietnam were the inspiration for Basil Box: a new restaurant where you can mix and match ingredients to build one of thousands of possible boxes.  Start with a base of rice, noodles, or greens, and then add veggies, proteins, sauces and toppings in unique combinations that will have you both coming back for your favourites and experimenting with something new.”

I met Coreen here on a Tuesday evening at 5:30 p.m.  There are currently three locations of Basil Box at the time of writing (with three more coming this fall and next year).  It was stipulated that we were to redeem our prize package at the Queen and Spadina location of Basil Box.  The interior is a very clean and simple design of a fast casual eatery where you pick out your box ingredients at the counter, pay for your food, and then you can dine in or take out.

Basil Box on Queen & Spadina intersection

The order counter

On a hot and sunny summer day, there weren’t too many people here at 5:30 p.m. dining with us.  Karen, the store manager, was the one who served us since I was there to redeem the prize package.

A very simple menu

Info about their boxes and their drinks

In my box, I picked a base of 1) Spring Mix salad, 2) Sautéed Peppers and Roasted Edamame, 3) Lemongrass Chicken, and 4) Sweet Chili Lime sauce.  I topped it off with Pickled Veggies, Crispy Shallots, Sriracha Spiced Pumpkin Seeds, and Fresh Herbs. It was a beautiful box of a customized Southeast Asian salad!

The base: Salad, rice noodles, or two types of rice

Choose your veggies and proteins

Choose your sauces

Ta-da! Customized boxes to go!

Spring Mix Salad with Lemongrass Chicken and Sweet Chili Lime sauce and an assortment of veggies and toppings

I liked it.  It was a very hearty bowl of salad, chicken, vegetables, and toppings.  The lemongrass chicken was tender, albeit a little dry, and very seasoned.  I was actually debating that day to get the Chilled Rice Noodles to try them out (salads are kind of the same all across the board), but since it was so hot that day (and I had had just finished a large lunch only a few hours earlier), I stuck with the salad choice.  If I were to return again to Basil Box, I would be curious about the Chilled Rice Noodles as I think they would have been a great mix with the ingredients.  Overall, I liked my box of customized chicken salad and vegetables; the Sweet Chili Lime sauce really made everything tie together — there was a sweet and spicy kick to it!

Coreen redeemed the second box by picking rice, Coconut Curry Tofu, Roasted Edamame, and various other selections — I didn’t look at what she picked lol.  I tried a bite and the Coconut Curry Tofu was really good along with the rice! :9

Coconut Curry Tofu with Roasted Edamame and various vegetables and toppings on rice

Their boxes are made with Sugarcane Fibre (bagasse), a fully renewable source. 🙂

We also ordered two drinks, the Hand-crafted Refreshers: the Mango Ginger Ale Soda and the Passion Fruit Lychee Soda.  They were made with pure and natural cane sugar.  Both of these were really refreshing but the flavours weren’t actually very strong; you could tell since the colours of the added syrups weren’t even detectable in the drink.

Passion Fruit Lychee Soda. $3.75
Mango Ginger Ale Soda. $3.75
(or $2.75 with the purchase of a box) — we didn’t “purchase” a box per se even though we had them and yet the cashier charged us the $3.75

Thank you again Basil Box for hosting this contest which enabled me to win two complimentary boxes of food.  I give Basil Box a thumbs up. 🙂

Our boxes and drinks

The ceiling that had a Southeast Asian theme

FTC Disclaimer:  Although Basil Box provided the meal free of charge via winning an online contest, the opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of the company.