I was really disappointed with my most recent visit to Sweet Basil. To start, our server was incredibly unpleasant. From the moment we sat down, he was short, impolite, and condescending, and it felt like serving us was a burden rather than his job. If this is how he typically interacts with guests, he should seriously consider a role outside of the service industry. Had I known this would be the tone for the entire meal, I would have left before even ordering a drink.
As for the food, while the quality was good, it’s clear that portion sizes have shrunk considerably over the years. The roasted lamb loin was the most disappointing, consisting of just two tiny slivers. The sticky toffee pudding was another letdown. I’m not sure who thought it was a good idea to overload such a classic dessert with peanut brittle, but it completely overpowered the delicate toffee flavor. It felt like an unnecessary and unfortunate twist on a beloved dish.
Overall, this visit was lackluster and fell well short of expectations. Given the experience, I don’t plan on returning anytime soon.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 1
Genevieve Hardwick
Sweet Basil is a must-visit in Vail. The calamari & shrimp is outstanding, perfectly cooked, crispy, and full of flavor. The whipped feta is equally memorable: creamy, rich, and impossible to stop eating. Also, please get the Cesar Salad. Great atmosphere, attentive service, and consistently excellent food. I’d come back just for the Calamari, Whipped Feta, Cesar salad, and wine.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Jonathan Davis
One of the best restaurants I’ve been to in Vail! Excellent quality, even better customer service and a phenomenal offering of fine foods and wines!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Tampa Mike
We had a disappointing experience. As a Michelin recommended restaurant, we expected better.
At check-in, there was a couple in front of us. They were wearing their jackets and the hostess offered to take their jackets. Nice, right? As we approached the stand we took off our jackets and provided our name. They never offered to take ours.
We were a little early and opted to sit at the bar for a drink. It was a pretty dry experience - no small talk. It was just a simple 'what would you like' and 'here you go...enjoy'.
We were later taken to our table and enjoyed a nice 20-minute wait before the server came over. Maybe he saw we already had some wine at first, but our wine was long gone before he ever arrived - he apologized for the long wait.
We selected the restaurant because we looked at the menu online and saw some great options on the menu. As we looked at the menu, we noticed none of the items we wanted were available. We then overheard the server tell the next table they had changed the menu that day. No worries, we just rolled with it. We selected a tuna appetizer that was 4 small chips with a small amount of tuna piled on top of each of them. I think the math on that was something like $10 per chip. It tasted like....tuna.
My wife ordered the salmon and I ordered the pork. They were both delicious. Yes, we waited a long time....but the entrees tasted great. Unfortunately, the portions were small. We went back to our condo and had a slice of leftover pizza after.
The service was not great. The food was great, but portions were small. I'd recommend a large lunch before having dinner...or just order several appetizers. The couple next to us ordered 3 appetizers, but they also spent their meal debating on whether to move forward with a $25k toilet for their remodel. They are clearly working with a different budget. I don't think I'll go back.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 3
Arizo
Great food, a nice and warm atmosphere, excellent service, and friendly staff. Totally recommend this place!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Maximilien Simon
The restaurant is amazing great wine list. They accommodated us being late. The manager is sweet and understanding do my remember her name. The server knows the menu which I apreciate in this kind of dining.
The food is 10/10. I owed restaurants for the past 10 years. Good job
The name of our server was Dustin. A pro and Og
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
E. M.
Dined here recently. The server (Corinne) MADE UP THE TIP AMOUNT more than 3x what was left. Insane. Beware and check your credit card statement. I bet this is not the singular incident. Called them to start investigating this, let's see where this leads.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Adrian Horwitz
We had a nice Lunch at Sweet Basil. Service was warm and efficient. The food pretty nice, Hamashi crudo excellent, nice burguer, just the Thai sauce in the fried shrimp and calamari was quite salty.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Tianyi Zhou
amazing food, service and environment. Please order the pork dish. Best pork ever I have had in US
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
dani ortiz Eternod
this place is very overrated, the food wasn’t even good and the service was terrible cause of the rude waiters (some of them not all) and long wait for the food. Does not deserve the hype it gets. If you’re dining here I suggest you skip it and it at the other restaurants at vail village cause their food and service are way better and the price is much lower. NOT WORTH IT
Our recent visit to Sweet Basil was a bit frustrating and did not meet the expectations set by our previous experiences.
Starting with the food. We ordered the foie gras, which was the highlight of the evening. The flavor was well balanced, and the addition of granola added an interesting crunch that worked nicely with the dish. The texture was thoughtfully done, with warm, glazed foie gras creating a pleasant contrast.
Unfortunately, the rest of the dishes were not satisfying. The crab pasta was overly salty, with too much fat in the sauce, and the flavors felt unbalanced and heavy rather than refined. The beef dish had the opposite issue. There were too many competing flavors that did not complement each other. The paprika was overpowering, making it difficult to distinguish the actual taste of the dish. While the meat itself was cooked perfectly, the overall execution fell short and was again too salty.
Overall, this visit was disappointing compared to what we have come to expect from Sweet Basil. The kitchen clearly has strong technical skills, but the flavor balance and restraint that once stood out were missing this time.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 5
Landon Buckingham
Had an awesome dessert experience! Everything was delicious and the vibe was great. Tyler behind the bar was fantastic, super friendly and made the night even better. Highly recommend!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Calvin Tran
Sweet Basil comes highly recommended and for all good reasons. Their service was very nice, very fast, and very polite. The ambiance of the whole place made it feel luxurious and private.
Complimentary bread service was delicious, fluffy, and light.
Lobster Donut was small, but a good share between two people, the caviar is a nice touch but not entirely necessary taking away some of the focus of sweetness of the lobster.
Whipped Feta was our tables favorite. Perfect creaminess and texture combo with the crunchy bread. We got the seasonal special with apple butter and it was delicious.
Foie Gras was a good fresh and decadent bite, bursting with flavors. Share between 3-4 people due to the richness, unless you love that!
Filet was underwhelming. Not well salted but well cooked to temp. Without the mole sauce, the filet was disappointing. The tamale may have been the best part of it with crunchy sesame on top, and made with sweet corn.
Black miso cod was perfectly cooked, and super flaky and buttery. We assumed it was similar to miso cod being marinated, but it was only sauce on top leaving the rest of the fish slightly lacking flavor. Decent portion of Cod though! The mushroom sides were a good combo of crunchiness and savoriness.
Dungeness Crab Bucatini was bursting with flavors, huge chunks of crab, perfect al dente pasta. Crunchy onions on top gave it a good combination of textures. Great portion size.
Lamb Loin was the table favorite. The lamb was PERFECTLY cooked, insanely tender, no gaminess, and well seasoned. The additions on the plate gave it a fresh and seasonal taste, with pieces of lamb sausage, well cooked fingering potatoes. Small portion of meat, but excellent.
Sticky. Toffee. Pudding. 10/10, just get it.
Chocolate pine one was a good mouse option, and we liked the crunchy nutty flakes to eat with it. Hazelnut ice cream was okay at best.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Signe Froisland
The best I can say is that everything was cooked correctly…
Katie
Hostess was unnecessarily rude, manager didn’t care that she ruined my husbands birthday dinner. Ended the night with food poisoning from this place.
I was really disappointed with my most recent visit to Sweet Basil. To start, our server was incredibly unpleasant. From the moment we sat down, he was short, impolite, and condescending, and it felt like serving us was a burden rather than his job. If this is how he typically interacts with guests, he should seriously consider a role outside of the service industry. Had I known this would be the tone for the entire meal, I would have left before even ordering a drink.
As for the food, while the quality was good, it’s clear that portion sizes have shrunk considerably over the years. The roasted lamb loin was the most disappointing, consisting of just two tiny slivers. The sticky toffee pudding was another letdown. I’m not sure who thought it was a good idea to overload such a classic dessert with peanut brittle, but it completely overpowered the delicate toffee flavor. It felt like an unnecessary and unfortunate twist on a beloved dish.
Overall, this visit was lackluster and fell well short of expectations. Given the experience, I don’t plan on returning anytime soon.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 1
Sweet Basil is a must-visit in Vail. The calamari & shrimp is outstanding, perfectly cooked, crispy, and full of flavor. The whipped feta is equally memorable: creamy, rich, and impossible to stop eating. Also, please get the Cesar Salad. Great atmosphere, attentive service, and consistently excellent food. I’d come back just for the Calamari, Whipped Feta, Cesar salad, and wine.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
One of the best restaurants I’ve been to in Vail! Excellent quality, even better customer service and a phenomenal offering of fine foods and wines!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
We had a disappointing experience. As a Michelin recommended restaurant, we expected better.
At check-in, there was a couple in front of us. They were wearing their jackets and the hostess offered to take their jackets. Nice, right? As we approached the stand we took off our jackets and provided our name. They never offered to take ours.
We were a little early and opted to sit at the bar for a drink. It was a pretty dry experience - no small talk. It was just a simple 'what would you like' and 'here you go...enjoy'.
We were later taken to our table and enjoyed a nice 20-minute wait before the server came over. Maybe he saw we already had some wine at first, but our wine was long gone before he ever arrived - he apologized for the long wait.
We selected the restaurant because we looked at the menu online and saw some great options on the menu. As we looked at the menu, we noticed none of the items we wanted were available. We then overheard the server tell the next table they had changed the menu that day. No worries, we just rolled with it. We selected a tuna appetizer that was 4 small chips with a small amount of tuna piled on top of each of them. I think the math on that was something like $10 per chip. It tasted like....tuna.
My wife ordered the salmon and I ordered the pork. They were both delicious. Yes, we waited a long time....but the entrees tasted great. Unfortunately, the portions were small. We went back to our condo and had a slice of leftover pizza after.
The service was not great. The food was great, but portions were small. I'd recommend a large lunch before having dinner...or just order several appetizers. The couple next to us ordered 3 appetizers, but they also spent their meal debating on whether to move forward with a $25k toilet for their remodel. They are clearly working with a different budget. I don't think I'll go back.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 3
Great food, a nice and warm atmosphere, excellent service, and friendly staff. Totally recommend this place!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
The restaurant is amazing great wine list. They accommodated us being late. The manager is sweet and understanding do my remember her name. The server knows the menu which I apreciate in this kind of dining.
The food is 10/10. I owed restaurants for the past 10 years. Good job
The name of our server was Dustin. A pro and Og
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Dined here recently. The server (Corinne) MADE UP THE TIP AMOUNT more than 3x what was left. Insane. Beware and check your credit card statement. I bet this is not the singular incident. Called them to start investigating this, let's see where this leads.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
We had a nice Lunch at Sweet Basil. Service was warm and efficient. The food pretty nice, Hamashi crudo excellent, nice burguer, just the Thai sauce in the fried shrimp and calamari was quite salty.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
amazing food, service and environment. Please order the pork dish. Best pork ever I have had in US
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
this place is very overrated, the food wasn’t even good and the service was terrible cause of the rude waiters (some of them not all) and long wait for the food. Does not deserve the hype it gets.
If you’re dining here I suggest you skip it and it at the other restaurants at vail village cause their food and service are way better and the price is much lower. NOT WORTH IT
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 1
Restaurantji Recommends
Our recent visit to Sweet Basil was a bit frustrating and did not meet the expectations set by our previous experiences.
Starting with the food. We ordered the foie gras, which was the highlight of the evening. The flavor was well balanced, and the addition of granola added an interesting crunch that worked nicely with the dish. The texture was thoughtfully done, with warm, glazed foie gras creating a pleasant contrast.
Unfortunately, the rest of the dishes were not satisfying. The crab pasta was overly salty, with too much fat in the sauce, and the flavors felt unbalanced and heavy rather than refined. The beef dish had the opposite issue. There were too many competing flavors that did not complement each other. The paprika was overpowering, making it difficult to distinguish the actual taste of the dish. While the meat itself was cooked perfectly, the overall execution fell short and was again too salty.
Overall, this visit was disappointing compared to what we have come to expect from Sweet Basil. The kitchen clearly has strong technical skills, but the flavor balance and restraint that once stood out were missing this time.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 5
Had an awesome dessert experience! Everything was delicious and the vibe was great. Tyler behind the bar was fantastic, super friendly and made the night even better. Highly recommend!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Sweet Basil comes highly recommended and for all good reasons. Their service was very nice, very fast, and very polite. The ambiance of the whole place made it feel luxurious and private.
Complimentary bread service was delicious, fluffy, and light.
Lobster Donut was small, but a good share between two people, the caviar is a nice touch but not entirely necessary taking away some of the focus of sweetness of the lobster.
Whipped Feta was our tables favorite. Perfect creaminess and texture combo with the crunchy bread. We got the seasonal special with apple butter and it was delicious.
Foie Gras was a good fresh and decadent bite, bursting with flavors. Share between 3-4 people due to the richness, unless you love that!
Filet was underwhelming. Not well salted but well cooked to temp. Without the mole sauce, the filet was disappointing. The tamale may have been the best part of it with crunchy sesame on top, and made with sweet corn.
Black miso cod was perfectly cooked, and super flaky and buttery. We assumed it was similar to miso cod being marinated, but it was only sauce on top leaving the rest of the fish slightly lacking flavor. Decent portion of Cod though! The mushroom sides were a good combo of crunchiness and savoriness.
Dungeness Crab Bucatini was bursting with flavors, huge chunks of crab, perfect al dente pasta. Crunchy onions on top gave it a good combination of textures. Great portion size.
Lamb Loin was the table favorite. The lamb was PERFECTLY cooked, insanely tender, no gaminess, and well seasoned. The additions on the plate gave it a fresh and seasonal taste, with pieces of lamb sausage, well cooked fingering potatoes. Small portion of meat, but excellent.
Sticky. Toffee. Pudding. 10/10, just get it.
Chocolate pine one was a good mouse option, and we liked the crunchy nutty flakes to eat with it. Hazelnut ice cream was okay at best.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
The best I can say is that everything was cooked correctly…
Hostess was unnecessarily rude, manager didn’t care that she ruined my husbands birthday dinner. Ended the night with food poisoning from this place.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Loading...