twitter handle: @BasilThymeDC
website: http://basilthyme.com/
(The menu section is a little too small to read, the "about us" section can be fleshed out a little more and the blog is non-existent. I've seen many other places review this truck like the Washington City Paper and Washingtonian's Best Bites Blog, so they should link those stories. For a former IT guy, I have to say the website is a little bit of a disappointment, but he's probably too busy making pasta, so maybe I should give him a pass.)
see: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/youngandhungry/2011/06/14/pasta-su-ruote-d-c-s-latest-food-truck-gets-noodling/
http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/restaurants/bestbites/19865.html
cost: (cash only)
menu items:
From Scratch Pastas of the day - $8 (i.e. tomato fettuccine, pesto ravioli, spaghetti)
[served w/ your choice of marinara, meat (beef, no pork), vodka or pesto sauces]
Lasagna - $8
(meat, vegetarian, or daily special)
Combo special - $10
[any pasta/entree w/ side salad, dessert & drink]
chocolate dipped cannoli w/ house-made ricotta - $3
tiramisu - $3
wait time: Farragut Friday skews the time since lines get a little crazy, so I'll reserve judgment for now
[I recognize that it is a bit unfair to judge Basil Thyme with only two weeks under its feet, but the allure of fresh pasta made it hard to resist even in a crazy sea of food trucks that is Farragut Friday. I had seen the articles written about the truck, so I thought I would put in my two cents. Sadly, today I will only put in one cent and reserve one for a later date because I feel that this review will be incomplete. That's my disclaimer, so take everything below with a grain of salt.]
"meat lasagna combo"
The lunch combo of entree, salad and dessert is a "no brainer" and I chose the meat lasagna (see above picture). As you can see, the packaging as a whole was very nice and visually appealing. The side salad is not one of those throw away salads that comes with your kabob platter, which turn out to be nothing more than a few iceberg lettuce leaves with a tomato, maybe some onion. Instead, you get a nice mixture of spring greens with roasted red peppers, kalamata olives, and shaved parmenan with the usual tomatoes and cucumber all dressed with a subtle balsamic vinaigrette. A nice little bruschetta like cheese crisp accompanies it. The meat lasagna, sadly, doesn't live up to its side dish. The meat sauce is made with beef and what I think is salami. What is there not to love, right? Well, it suffered from a saltiness that could have been from the salami, but permeated everything and distracted from the noodles that should have been the star. The delicate noodles were completely lost, not even the house-made ricotta or the freshly chopped basil (which is always a nice touch) could save it.
Then there was the problem of the "tiramisu" (see picture below). The traditional tiramisu consists of ladyfingers dipped in coffee, layed with a whipped mixture of mascarpone and egg yolks, and flavored with liquor and cocoa. At first glance, it seems like all the ingredients are present, but after the first taste, this dessert fails to live up to expectations. It's too sweet, there's no coffee taste, and the mixture is more a pudding or custard. If this dessert was called a "tiramisu" inspired trifle, then I wouldn't have as many problems with it.
"tiramisu"
Final Verdict: I haven't tried the fresh pasta with sauce or the cannoli yet, so I feel like I can't give a complete review yet, hence the "Part 1" in the title. Many of the problems I ran into could be expected for a food truck still working out the kinks. Maybe the meat sauce got over salted or the use of salami, though inspired, was possibly misguided. Maybe the whipped mixture in the "tiramisu" wasn't completely whipped to make it more airy. Still, the flavors are there and I have high hopes for this truck in the future. I hope that Basil Thyme will gets its legs underneath it, but until then maybe you should stick with the vegetarian lasagna instead.
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