Basil Cha Cha Cha - Foster City

We craved vegetarian food one weekend and tried Basil Cha Cha in Foster City.
 

This is the fanciest vegetarian place I've ever seen. The restaurant was in a small and rather low traffic area. I was surprised anything in that plaza was still in business. But Basil Cha Cha proved to be a diamond in the rough.

($6.95) Vegetarian papaya salad means no fish sauce in the dressing. I think they replaced it with a mixture of lime and seasoning. Very refreshing but I still love my fish sauce.

This is his signature pose.

($7.95) Along with splitting the papaya salad, we also split the fake shrimp pad thai. While everything about this dish was nearly a perfect replica of an omnivore's pad thai, I discovered that I'm more carnivorous than I thought. The fake shrimp made of tofu was seasoned, molded, and colored to look like cooked shrimp with the orange stripes and all but I still miss real shrimp. Phil didn't mind the lack of meat in his "meat" though. He thought it was a good rendition of the classic shrimp pad thai.

Right across the street from the restaurant was a small strip of beach with coarse shell sand. The view was great and we went for a short stroll to digest our light lunch. What a great way to spend a Sunday.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

Pricing: I would say these dishes were about $1 cheaper than their meaty counterparts. The portions were decent.

Basil Cha Cha is one of the best in terms of flavor and seasoning for vegetarian food I've had so far. My rating for all three vegetarian places I've reviewed goes like this:

1) Happy Bamboo because their fish tasted like actual fish

2) Basil Cha Cha for fantastic flavor

3) Tofoo Com Chay, almost but not quite there...

Basil Cha Cha on Yelp